Where Are You Taking Me? 2010

A high society wedding, bustling city streets, a center for former child soldiers, a nightclub full of music and laughter: these are the many faces of today's Uganda, as wonderfully captured by filmmaker Kimi Takesue. Whether exploring the pulsating energy of the city or contemplating quiet moments in the country, her artful camera compositions and the lyrical pacing of the film allow us to truly engage and process the foreign land on our own terms. Documenting Uganda while it deals with day-to-day realities and the aftermath of its civil wars, Takesue, well aware of her perspective as an outsider, strives for simple, unadorned honesty. Employing a largely observational style, Takesue allows the sight and sounds-and the people-of Uganda to speak for themselves. Usually the people she records simply ignore the camera, but when someone does engage-whether it's a group of school children clamoring for their moment in front of the lens or a young man asking the title question-the barriers between filmmaker, subject, and audience give way for breathtaking cinematic epiphanies.—Los Angeles Film Festival