Miss Nikkei
Miss Nikkei
Kaori Flores Yonekura
Filmmaker | Explorer of Identities | Cultural Manager
I am a Venezuelan filmmaker of Japanese descent (Nikkei), trained at the International Film and Television School (EICTV) in Cuba. My work sits at the intersection of the poetic and the documentary, using cinema as a tool to unravel memory, migration, and the construction of identity in Latin America.
Throughout my career, I have directed and produced works that seek to give a voice to collective stories through a personal lens. My debut feature, Nikkei (2011), screened at over 30 international festivals and has become an academic reference on human mobility. Recently, my feature film The Extraordinary Journey of the Dragon (2025) was honored as Venezuela’s official selection for the 40th Goya Awards.
What drives me:
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Identity Narratives: Investigating roots and cultural hybridity (mestizaje).
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Human Rights: Utilizing audiovisual media for social advocacy and to bring visibility to complex realities.
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Global Collaboration: My experience as a fellow with institutions such as the Ibermedia Program, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Business of Japan, and the Carolina Foundation (Spain) has allowed me to build bridges between cultures and strengthen Ibero-American film production.
I believe in cinema not only as an aesthetic expression but as a space for resistance and a motor for social change. Currently, I continue to explore new narrative frontiers while actively participating in governance processes and global committees dedicated to social justice.
Films
Nikkei
The extraordinary journey of Dragon
Labels
Documentary. Feature film, 85 min. 2011.
Contries: Venezuela - Peru - Japan.
In Nikkei, director Kaori tells the story of her grandparents’ journey from Japan to Peru to Venezuela. Along the way, their personal search for a new home is set against the larger backdrop of the history of Japanese immigration.
Documentary. Feature film, 84 min. 2025.
Contries: Venezuela - Peru - Japan.
A filmmaker discovers a family treasure: the photographs of her great-uncle Yoshitomi, who documented her life from 1933 to 1945. From his youth as a soldier in Japan, his migration to Peru, to his time as a prisoner in Venezuela during World War II. Through these images, the figure of the Dragon emerges, a chimera that, like migrants, adapts and transforms according to the territories it conquers, fusing memory, myth and reality.
Documentary. Short film, 2 min. 2025.
Contries: Venezuela - Peru - Japan.
IIn 1942, a Japanese American girl wondered why her mother had placed a tag on her while they waited for the train to take them to an unknown location.
Store
Books
Tetsuo's Quartz
During the 1930s, when they left their parents' home, Emi and her brother Makoto each received half of a crystal that their father Tetsuo had obtained on Mount Kinpu.Makoto joins the army that travels to Manchuria and Emi gets on a boat to go marry a stranger in Peru and then moves to Venezuela. That crystal becomes his connection to his home and family amid his experiences in unknown lands of Asia and America before, during and after World War II.
25 pags.
English/Spanish
Physical and Digital Book
Perfect your Pitch
The art of effectively presenting a cinematic idea, known as "film pitch", plays a crucial role in the film industry. In this process, creators are challenged to distill the essence of their project into a concise and compelling presentation. The importance of this skill cannot be underestimated, as a strong tone can make the difference between a project being enthusiastically accepted and being forgotten in the crowd of ideas.
43 pags.
English/Spanish
Physical and Digital Book