Having graduated from the ITASIA doctoral course and currently working as a visiting researcher at GSII, Dipesh Kharel recently received the President’s Award of the University of Tokyo for his research activities incorporating film production. The editorial team interviewed him about his reasons for the adoption of filming as a research method and his experiences at GSII.

Identifying himself as a “visual anthropologist”, Dipesh said that visual materials including films and photographs function as both records of his field studies and powerful media that attract attention from the general public in addition to the academic world. Screened at sixty international film festivals and several education institutions, his documentary film featuring Nepali migration to Japan has been viewed by millions. Although the filming process is painstaking, involving tremendous time invested in tracing the migrations at multiple sites and building trust, Dipesh said he was willing to travel all over the world with his camera in order to present his research results to a wider audience.

In regards to his study and research experience at GSII, he expressed his appreciation for the professors’ supervision and found the diverse background of the students appealing. He also said he owed a great deal to the facilities available at the Media Studio, of which he was a frequent user. Currently he is finishing the final editorial part of a project in India and starting a new one featuring Vietnamese students in Japan.

Text: Mengfei Pan (PhD student)
Proofreading: David Buist (Project senior specialist)
Photos provided by Dipesh Kharel