Vida Dekassegui
Director:
Monica Ogaya
Producer:
Fran Moro
Production company:
Kannon Filmes
Production country:
Brazil
Duration in minutes:
90
Contact:
Sinopsys:
Guided by photographs and silences, Monica returns to Japan alongside her father to revisit the paths of his migration and confront a fragmented memory. As they retrace the routes of the past, between what is remembered and what remains hidden, a family story unfolds across four generations—marked by displacement, absence, and an ongoing search for belonging.
Long Sinopsys
Vida Dekassegui is a documentary in which I return to Japan alongside my father, who worked for over twenty years in factories, to revisit a story that runs through our family. Guided by his photographs, we retrace the paths he once followed, placing him back in the spaces where he lived and worked, in a process that evokes memories, silences, and what remained unspoken.
My father was among the first in our family to migrate to Japan in the 1990s, part of a broader movement of Brazilian descendants of Japanese entering factory labor. In 2007, I traveled to Japan with my mother and sister with the aim of working and bringing him back to Brazil. By occupying the same position on the production line, what had once been an absence became a lived experience, shaped by the 2008 economic crisis, when the promise of stability collapsed.
Today, this movement continues in the life of my cousin and his children, who grow up in Japan still embedded in this same system. Across these trajectories, the film reveals how migration ceases to be temporary and becomes a condition that unfolds across generations.
Between East and West, the dekassegui experience emerges, marked by leaving one’s place of origin in search of work while remaining in a space where belonging is never fully achieved. Inserted into production lines, these workers inhabit a tension between economic inclusion and social exclusion. Beneath the image of Japan as a land of opportunity, another reality unfolds, defined by the “3 Ks”: kitsui (hard), kitanai (dirty), and kiken (dangerous).
By articulating archives, reenactments, and encounters, the film constructs a narrative in which memory appears as an unstable field, shaped by gaps and disputes. More than a family story, Vida Dekassegui examines how economic and political structures inscribe themselves onto bodies, affects, and time, producing lives marked by continuous displacement and an ongoing search for belonging.
Creative Process
The creative process of Vida Dekassegui is structured around a central gesture: returning to Japan alongside my father and placing him once again in relation to the spaces that shaped his experience as a migrant worker. The film unfolds as a journey, built through physical and temporal displacements, where the encounter with these places activates memory as a present experience.
The photographs he produced during his years in Japan function as performative devices. From them, I construct situations in which the past can be reactivated within the body and space, not as reconstruction, but as re-enactment. The film is therefore organized through a logic of minimal staging, where gesture, presence, and duration replace explanatory narration.
The camera adopts a position of close observation, working with static shots and extended durations, allowing actions to unfold in real time. I am interested in filming intervals, moments of suspension, and silences, where memory manifests in less controlled ways. The framing establishes a direct relationship between bodies and spaces, avoiding hierarchy and privileging their coexistence.
The factory interiors are treated as a central element of the mise-en-scène. The repetition of movements, the rhythm of machines, and the choreography of working bodies are captured in compositions that emphasize the physical dimension of labor. In contrast, urban and natural landscapes are filmed in movement, creating a tension between the idealized image of Japan and the lived reality of factory life.
Editing articulates different temporalities, bringing together archival images, present-day footage, and re-enactments. Rather than seeking linearity, the film constructs meaning through fragmentation, where gaps and overlaps become part of its structure.
Sound design plays a fundamental narrative role. Industrial noises, ambient sounds, and silences create a sonic landscape that runs throughout the film, while the voice-over functions as a space of reflection, not to explain, but to tension the images.
The film thus emerges as a dispositif of observation and listening, where experience is generated through the encounter between body, memory, and space. Rather than representing a story, Vida Dekassegui seeks to create a cinematic experience that allows the viewer to traverse these territories and perceive the invisible traces left by labor and migration.
Director's note
Vida Dekassegui emerges from an experience that, for a long time, I could not name. I grew up in the absence of my father, who left for Japan to work in a factory. It was only years later, when I found myself occupying the same position on the production line, that I began to understand the full weight of this story.
This experience shifted my perception of what it means to be dekassegui. What initially appeared as an opportunity revealed itself as a system sustained by exhausting labor, isolation, and a persistent condition of not fully belonging. While I acknowledge the material achievements made possible by this path, I now recognize how much this narrative has been idealized, often obscuring its human cost.
It is within this tension that the film takes shape. I am interested not only in my family’s trajectory, but in the structures that produce and sustain this migratory movement. The film seeks to understand how these dynamics inscribe themselves onto bodies, relationships, and subjectivities, unfolding across generations.
My practice as a filmmaker has been shaped by these questions. In my previous works, I explore memory, absence, and displacement, seeking ways to make visible experiences that often remain silenced. With Vida Dekassegui, this process becomes more direct, as I place myself in relation to this history.
This is a film driven by a personal necessity, yet it opens toward a collective dimension. More than revisiting a family memory, it seeks to question notions of belonging and to challenge the narratives that shape the imagination around migration. It is a gesture of revisiting, confronting, and making visible what has long been normalized.
Director
Monica Ogaya
Monica Ogaya is a Brazilian filmmaker and co-founder of Kannon Filmes, an independent production company dedicated to developing works that explore memory, ancestry, and migration through intimate narratives shaped by social and historical contexts. Her films focus on the Nikkei experience and the displacements between Brazil and Japan, examining how migration shapes family relationships, identity, and belonging. Kannon Filmes — www.kannonfilmes.com Her filmography forms a consistent authorial trajectory around these themes, moving between fiction and documentary while deepening an ongoing investigation into memory and displacement. Filmography 2026 — Amarelo Limbo (short documentary) - 20 min. Investigates the historical memory of the confinement of Japanese immigrants in the Amazon during World War II, combining archival materials, territory, and testimony. 2025 — Gambatte! (short documentary) - 20min. Portrays the experience of dekassegui workers in Japan, exploring factory life and the impacts of migrant labor on identity and everyday life. 2025 — Bon-Odori (short documentary) - 15 min. Follows a traditional Japanese festival in Brazil, addressing memory, ancestry, and cultural preservation within the Nikkei community. 2021 — Pai, volta logo! (short documentary) - 15 min Explores paternal absence within the context of dekassegui migration, from the perspective of those who remained in Brazil. 2017 — Sem Memória (short fiction film) - 15 min. A fiction narrative that reflects on memory and identity, exploring the marks of forgetting and subjective construction.
Producer
Fran Moro
Fran Moro is an executive producer and audiovisual controller, and co-founder of Kannon Filmes. Her work focuses on the strategic development and management of independent projects, with experience in financial planning, budget structuring, fundraising, and accountability within publicly funded initiatives and institutional partnerships. Throughout her career, she has developed and overseen projects that connect cinema, education, and social impact, working at the intersection of creative processes and project management. Through Kannon Filmes, she contributes to productions that explore memory, identity, and migration, supporting the development of author-driven narratives within the Brazilian audiovisual landscape. Filmography 2027 — Pega a Laço (feature documentary, in development, 90 min.) Documentary currently in development. 2026 — Amarelo Limbo (short documentary, 20 min.) Investigates the historical memory of the confinement of Japanese immigrants in the Amazon during World War II, combining archival materials, territory, and testimony. 2025 — Gambatte! (short documentary, 20 min.) Portrays the experience of dekassegui workers in Japan, exploring factory life and the impacts of migrant labor on identity and everyday life. 2025 — Bon-Odori (short documentary, 15 min.) Follows a traditional Japanese festival in Brazil, addressing memory, ancestry, and cultural preservation within the Nikkei community. 2024 — Ogiva (fiction feature film, 80 min.) A fiction feature film addressing contemporary social issues through an independent production approach. 2023 — Pai, volta logo! (short documentary, 15 min.) Explores paternal absence within the context of dekassegui migration, from the perspective of those who remained in Brazil. 2017 — Sem Memória (short fiction film, 15 min.) A fiction narrative that reflects on memory and identity, exploring the marks of forgetting and subjective construction.
