Sarasa Kikuchi is a Japanese director, cinematographer, and multimedia artist based in Boston. Working across narrative, documentary, experimental film, and installation, her practice explores quiet emotional landscapes shaped by culture, family, and migration. Rooted in cultural anthropology, she approaches storytelling as an act of careful observation, combining observational realism with a poetic visual language attentive to silence, gesture, and space.
Her work is drawn to moments where love, obligation, guilt, and longing coexist beneath the surface of everyday life. Often centered on immigrant and intergenerational female experiences, her films and installations examine how intimacy is shaped by cultural expectations and the tension between personal desire and responsibility. She develops installation-based works that expand cinematic language into physical space, inviting audiences to engage with narrative through movement, duration, and embodied perception.
As a cinematographer, Kikuchi has served as director of photography on more than twenty independent films spanning narrative, documentary, and music video forms. Her work has screened at international film festivals in North America and Asia, including Tasveer Film Festival, GRRL HAUS Cinema, Roxbury International Film Festival.
Sarasa holds an MFA in Film and Media Art from Emerson College and is co-founder of Extended Family Productions, a collaborative production company focused on socially engaged storytelling across film and new media. She is a recipient of support from Un/Fund and will be an artist-in-residence at Numeroventi, where she will exhibit her spatial cinema installation 13 Hours Ahead.
Director
13 Hours Ahead (2025) Multi Channel Spatial Cinema Installation | Extend Family Productions
Pendulum (2025) Experimental Virtual Production Animation
Maigo (2024) Narrative Short
Hal (2023) Documentary
Chelsea (2023) Documentary
もうやめようと思う (2021) Narrative Short
Director of Photography
Terrestrial Paradise (2026) Narrative Short | Dir. Jing Lun Xu
Join The Table (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Vaishnavi Bhimani
Taste of Home (2025) Documentary | Dir.Fadime Icin
House of Fun (2025) Music Video | Artist TalkChalk | Extend Family Productions | Dir.Emma Angen Rose
The Absence of Joy (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Karen McKeen
No Service (2025) Narrative Short | Keen Production | Dir.Karen McKeen
Ours (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Vanessa Bazile| Official Selection: The Roxbury International Festival, LightReel Film Festival
Nothing But The Rain (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Yiwei Xie
Warm Blooded (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Emma Angen Rose
Manic Pixie Dreams (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Trinity Hodges
Search Party (2024) Narrative Short | Dir. Omer Yilmaz
Afterwords (2024) Narrative Short | Keen Production | Dir.Karen McKeen | Official Selection: Montreal Women Film Festival, Miami Women Film Festival, Colors of Love Queer Film Festival 2026
Scorcher (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Emma Angen Rose
Divergent Dreams (2024) Hybrid Documentary | Dir.Barbara Wheeler
Beep Test (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Nina Zehri | Official Selection Tasveer Film Festival, Alaska Airlines in-flight program
Parrot (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Emma Angen Rose
GOLD (2023) Narrative Short | Dir.Meenakshi Garodia
Moving On (2023) Narrative Short | Dir.Tyron Pierce
Benny Goes Method (2023) Narrative Short | Dir. Sam Permar, Nina Zehri | Audience Award Another Hole in the Head, Honorable Mention (Best Dark Comedy Short), IndieX Film Fest & Indie Short Fest
Clown (2023) Music Video
Chemistry of Coffee (2023) Documentary | Dir.Stella Wilkins
Camera Operator
Daughter Unfolding (2025) Documentary | Dir.Maja Giguere
The Unknown (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Noelle Leslie-Morgan
Darvesh (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Nina Zehri
Taste of Meat (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Minyu Chen
Swimmer (2025) Documentary | Dir.Sara Jordeno
Third (2025) Narrative Short | Extend Family Productions | Dir. Sam Permar
The Magician (2025) Narrative Short | Pronoia Entertainment | Dir. Juan Gracia
100 Foot Waves (Season 3, 2024) Documentary Series | HBO
Self Cocooned/Andhkaar (2024) Music Video | Dir.Tushar Gidwani
Tittar Bittar (2024) Music Video | Dir.Muhammad Zayan Agha
Assistant Camera
8 minutes (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.David Lehr
Circle of The Moon (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Annie Acker
Hellogreen (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Muhammad Zayan Agha
Jam Boy (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Sriram Emani
I See You (2025) Narrative Short | Dir. Lucian Wood
Fight Back (2023) Narrative Short Street View Pictures| Dir.Jay Street
Gaffer
Best Interest of a child (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Ian Hawkins
Metah (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Meenakshi Garodia
Poshun (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Meenakshi Garodia
Tick (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Sam Permar | Award Winner: Atlanta ShortsFest, IFFBoston
Awakening (2024) Experimental Films | Dir.Katherine Landry
A Globstar (2023) Narrative Short | Dir.Charles Bruin
Free Car (2023) Narrative Short | Dir.Alex Rubinic
Sister, Deliverer (2023) Narrative short | Dir.Emma Angen Rose
L0770 Money (2023) Narrative short | Pronoia Entertainment | Dir. Juan Gracia
Producer
See What I Mean (2025) Narrative Short | Dir.Brian Chander
Hayim (2024) Narrative Short | Dir.Joel Familier
Animator
Lola (2024) Hybrid Documentary | Dir.Carlo Ang