Keiko COURDY Biography

My parents lived in Japan in the 1960s. They gave me a Japanese name after a great Japanese actress Keiko Kishi. I was 6 years old at the time. My father, Jean-Claude COURDY, had been appointed director of FR3 national TV, at La Brague. He was also a city councilor in the late 1970s. I went to school in Biot, and at the CIV in Sophia-Antipolis until I was 15. I then continued my studies in Paris, and I left for Tokyo at the age of 21 with a scholarship from the Monbusho, the Japanese Ministry of Education. I received a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo writing about theater and technology in Japan. I created my first performance company "Onomatopia » in Tokyo. I involved dancers, actors, architects, fashion designers in an interdisciplinary spirit. I was already using live video on stage at the time. Later in the 2000s in Paris, I founded "KI, transdisciplinary performance structure", to create performances and multimedia installations using technology in an immersive and interactive way, in order to reveal new sensations and open up to parallel universes, other possible worlds. I was a Professor at the Kyoto University of Art and Design of “New Media Performance” for three years, working on the body and technology. Then I returned to Biot at the end of the 2000s. Since then, I have been going back and forth. I was very affected by the Fukushima disaster in March 2011. I went immediately to north-eastern Japan to help, film and do whatever i could. With my production company Pika Pika Films, I made two feature-documentaries on the subject, BEYOND THE CLOUD, and THE INVISIBLE ISLAND, as well as short films visible on the internet. The last film was released in 2021 for the 10th anniversary of the catastrophe. It received the award for Best Feature Documentary at the Uranium Rio International Film Festival in Brazil. Apart from this activity as a filmmaker, I like to reconnect with nature, and take daily walks around Biot. We are lucky to have magical places near the village. This is why I gladly bring my friends and all those who wish, for walks and meditations at the Terme Blanc. I also co-founded the "Rencontres du Fil d’OR" NPO in Biot with the psychotherapist Michelle Pélisse. We organize events on the theme of Art-Science and Spirituality, with always amazing guests in a spirit of co-creation, in order to encourage the emergence of new ways of thinking our world. www.pikapikafilms.com www.lesrencontresdufildor.com