Yujiro Seki
Born and raised in Japan, Yujiro Seki discovered his passion for film-making when he was in high school. Through making his first feature film, Sokonashi Deka (The Enigmatic Detective), he became enamored with the imaginative possibilities of cinema and vowed to master the art through study in the United States. Despite the fact that starting a new life in a new country was a challenge in itself, Seki earned a BA in Film from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a short film, Sashimi Taco, for his senior, honors thesis. Following his graduation, Seki moved to Los Angeles to work as a director of the video department for Intermarket Design, and as a film instructor at Montecito Fine Arts College of Design. After attaining permanent U.S. residency, Seki began studying full time in the Cinematography program at UCLA Extension. Upon graduating from that program, he embarked on the journey of making his feature documentary project, Carving the Divine: Buddhist Sculptors of Japan.
Updated March 2018
Stories from This Author
The Way of the Busshi Bridging Past and Present, East and West
March 7, 2018 • Yujiro Seki
Making my first feature film when I was 18 drastically changed the course of my life. For better or worse, it made me dare to think I could come to the United States, become a filmmaker, and make movies that would inspire people. As naïve as that sounds, I believed in my dream, no matter how many times I felt I was failing. Not being able to speak English well was a massive challenge in itself. But for a long …