Kohei Ando

Born in 1944, Kohei Ando received bachelor’s degree from Waseda University then went on to study at L'Ecole Centrale in Paris. Ando acted in Shuji Terayama's theatrical production "Les Enfants du Paradis" and traveled with Terayama in Europe. Using a 16mm camera he purchased with Terayama, Ando produced first film, Oh! My Mother (1968). Ando is the recipient of awards at numerous international film festivals, including Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (Oh My Mother, 1969) and Thonon-les-Bains International Independent Film Festival (The Sons, 1975). His works are included in collections at major art museums and film libraries in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. His high-definition video On the Far Side of Twilight, which he wrote and directed, was transferred to film and received the Silver Maile Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival and the Astrolabium Award of the International Electronic Cinema Festival in 1994. Thematic subjects of space, time, memory, and reincarnation appear repeatedly in his works. Ando is also a leader of HDTV production at Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS, a broadcasting company). Retrospectives of his works have recently been presented at Oberhausen (1994), Paris (1995) and Tampere International Film Festival (1996). After Twilight received the Astrolabium Award (1996), and Ando himself received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Electronic Cinema Festival (Montreux) in 1997 and the Hivision Award in 1998. Wispers of Vermeer also received the Astrolabium Award of the International Electronic Cinema Festival and the Hivision Award in 1998, and was invited from festivals in the U.S. including the Margaret Mead Film Festival in NY in 1999.

He was invited from numerous international film festivals as a jury or a lecturer including International Wildlife Film Festival in the U.S. (1999), Festival International de Audio Visual in France (2000), and Guanajuato International Film Festival in Mexico (2016). Ando was selected as a Special Exchange Artist from the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan in 2001. In both 2001 and 2006, his retrospective exhibition was held in Paris.