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Bonnie Kim

@bkimhawaii

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freelance artist, puppeteer and teaching artist based on Hawaii Island, striving for a sustainable living and arts.

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I am so excited that my short film, "Another Ordinary Day" is selected for the Richwood Film Festival in West Virginia, and the festival is scheduled for November 5-7, 2026.

My very first film festival selection!! I created this short film during the "Making a Mini ARTHOUSE Movie" workshop by Gavin Glover (@potatoroom ) at the Festival Internazionale del Teatro di Figura Contemporaneo-Immagini dell'Interno 2026 this summer in Pinerolo, Italy. I learned a lot and most of all, explored and experimented with different materials, objects and phone camera during the 5 day intensive workshop. This was my 2nd workshop with Gavin. The first one was his Microcinema workshop 7 years ago at a puppet festival in Poland. The first workshop focused on exploring objects and materials for live-stream performances whereas this workshop was using the microcinema techniques for filmmaking. I feel so thrilled that my work will be screened at the film festival. I look forward to working on more short film experiments with puppets and objects! by @bkimhawaii

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Some shots from a short overnight layover in Singapore from Yogyakarta, Indonesia to Hanoi, Vietnam. Puppet friends in Singapore organized a puppet workshop with children at a community outreach center, and Hyang from Vietnam presented a short puppet making workshop and a performance for them. I helped her with the workshop and her performance. Our puppet friends took us to a hot pot place afterwards. The restaurant also had some entertainment. Even the noodle making was like a mini performance. haha. Loved the food and the whole experience with puppet friends. Even though it was the shortest puppet adventure stay I've had, I absolutely loved sharing stories and moments with like-minded puppet friends. Hope to be back in Singapore for a longer stay and more puppetry in the near future. by @bkimhawaii

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2 days ago

Some shots from day 4 & 5 of the Pesta Boneka Puppet Festival (@pesta_boneka ) presented by Papermoon Puppet Theatre (@papermoonpuppet ) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This is my 4th time being at this festival in person and first time enjoying it fully as an audience. As always the best part of being at this festival is seeing many puppet friends and making new connections with artists from all over and audiences from all over the places as well. More surprise and delightful reunions with a bunch of artists from different places on day 4 & 5. Always grateful for these moments. As we said farewell after the festival, I dream of more delightful encounters and meetings. by @bkimhawaii

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4 days ago

More puppet friends reunions at Pesta Boneka Puppet Festival! I was lucky to see some of these folks in different places earlier this year at different puppet festivals. More shows and artists talk on Day 2 & 3 of the festival. Usually I go on more of a full puppet show marathon when I am checking out puppet festivals. Because I didn't get tickets for all shows early enough, I am going on a slower pace than usual. hahaha. But still I get to watch many shows by artists and groups from all over the world! by @bkimhawaii

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6 days ago

Day 1 of the 10th Pesta Boneka Festival (@pesta_boneka ) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This is my fourth time in person to see this festival. Every time I come back, this amazing international puppet festival has grown bigger and bigger as they gain more fame. This time I am here to check out the festival and see many puppet friends. I recognize a bunch of regular audiences and kids growing bigger too. Such a wonderful feeling of family and being part of this amazing puppet community.

The first show I saw was Hutan, a multisensory and inclusive performance for children with access needs. It is a collaboration project among artists from Indonesia, Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia. It was fun watching children's interactions in the show and how they incorporated multisensory experiences.

The festival opening show was Shank's Mare by Tom Lee from Chicago/Hawaii and Koryu Nishikawa V from Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo from Japan. This time it was a special edition of the show for this festival. Tom did a masterclass puppet camp with artists from 11 different countries from all over the globe for this show which Koryu sensei and Tom created more than a decade ago and toured all over. I had seen it in Hawaii when they toured more than 9 years ago. It was great to see this special edition with some puppet friends from Southeast Asia performing in the show. They only had 10 days of the puppet camp to learn some basics of Bunraku and Kuruma Ningyo techniques and rehearse to perform this opening show last night. I got to check out a bit of their rehearsal before the show. Most photos of this show here are from the rehearsal. It was also very fascinating to see Tom's directing process a bit. I have known Tom for many years and have seen a bunch of his shows at different places over a decade, but it was the first time seeing a glimpse of his creative process as a director. With lighting and video projections at the show, it became more magical! We also got blessed by Koryu sensei's sanbaso performance which is a traditional Japanese puppetry blessing and purification ritual before the show. It reminded me of other cultural rituals like this. by @bkimhawaii

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8 days ago

First day of the 10th Pesta Boneka International Puppet Festival (@pesta_boneka ) organized and presented by the Papermoon Puppet Theatre (@papermoonpuppet ) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. One of my favorite puppet festivals and so excited to be here to see many shows and puppet friends from all over the world. Some random shots with some puppet friends whom I saw today and the familiar festival venue, Kampoeng Media. by @bkimhawaii

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Some random shots from my last two days in Japan this time. I love visiting and sharing food with others when I travel, especially with friends and their families. It was great to see Chie's family and her folks again. They always make me feel like I am part of their family. Even though we do not speak the same language, I always feel like we can communicate and share.

Got to see the Kabuki theater in Tokyo for the first time. Next time when I am back, I would love to go see a show.

Back at the airport with a heart full of gratitude. Hopefully today's journey will go without unexpected problems. 🤞🤞 Can't wait to see what will unfold in my puppet adventures in Asia this time. by @bkimhawaii

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10 days ago

More random shots from our day trip to Kamakura and Enoshima. We enjoyed our slow wandering through different places around Kamakura and Enoshima island. The day pass of the local train, Enoden gave us to be even more spontaneous with what to do and see. Just going with the flow and enjoying the beauty of the places. taken in Enoshima, Japan by @bkimhawaii

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11 days ago

Random shots from the day trip to Kamakura and Enoshima with Chie. The weather was perfect for our day trip, no rain and slightly overcast. Since it is not too far from Tokyo, it was full of tourists from all over the world on their day trip. We had fun exploring different parts of the area more on a whim, meandering among old temples, small shops and small alleys. taken in Kamakura, Japan by @bkimhawaii

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Random shots from this week in Tokyo. I found out about the "What is object theatre?" lecture presentation by Yoko Yamaguchi at Waseda University from a flyer in the Shadow theater festival program last weekend. I suspected it would be only in Japanese but decided to go and check it out and try to use the live translate feature on Google Translate. I was quite surprised with the translation app and I was able to follow along the lecture in real time more or less. Yoko talked about her puppet festival, Shimokitazawa International Puppet Festival, and showed some videos from the festival too.

Lunch get together with Sam Hale from LA whom I ran into by random chance at the shadow theater festival was fun. I got to check out Shin-Okubo, Korea Town in Tokyo. There were tons of Korean restaurants and shops. I also got some Korean ingredients at a Korean market to cook dinner for my hosting friend and her family.

Another fun lunch get together was with a theater classmate from graduate school in Hawaii. It was a great reunion with Andy in more than 26 years. It was interesting to explore and see a few different parts of Tokyo from these meetings. by @bkimhawaii

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14 days ago

More shots from the World Shadow Art Festival Vol. 3 presented by Mochinosa (@mochinoshapuppet ) at Puk Pupa Teatro in Tokyo. Besides the five different styles of shadow shows, they had other events for the festival. The interactive shadow exhibition was fun. It had different shadow puppetry techniques featured in the festival program that the audience could try out and play with.

On the first day of the festival, Chloe from Mind of a Snail company from Canada guided the participating artists and audiences for a super cool shadow jam session. Before the shadow jam session, I was hanging out and checking out how they were setting up for the shadow jam on stage. And I got to see the "backstage" of this cute cozy theater! It was below the stage as there was no side wing space and backstage. Super cool to see the hidden space of the theater.

It was my first time experiencing a shadow jam and it was so fun to see and be part of it. Inspired to explore it for my projects and for creative gatherings.

After the shadow jam session, I got to join the networking shadow artist gathering. Always great to connect with more artists and like-minded folks in my travels.

At the last show of the festival, the lady sitting next to me was talking to folks behind me in Japanese and showing them a dvd of Yamasong. I recognized the work from the first year of the pandemic when I took an online workshop by Sam Hale where he talked about his project and showed how he created the puppets for that project at the online workshop. After the last show, I turned around and saw him behind. How serendipitous! It was great to meet him in person for the first time by random chance in Tokyo years later. Even though it was very brief, it was great to reconnect with him and learn about his new life adventure. Can't wait to see more folks I will serendipitously run into on this puppet adventure in Asia. by @bkimhawaii

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18 days ago

After my unexpected epic journey to Japan from Korea, I made it just in time to check out the World Shadow Art Festival vol. 3 organized by Seri and Daniel of Mochinosa (@mochinoshapuppet ). I met them at the Pesta Boneka Festival 8 years ago in Indonesia. It was great to see them in Tokyo and see their show as well at their festival. They were so busy with the festival that I didn't get to spend much time but it was great to reconnect.

Some shots from five shows from the two day festival at Puk Pupa Teatro in Shinjuku, Tokyo. I have been to this puppet theater a few times but really spent a lot of time during this shadow festival.

Four shows by Japanese companies and one show by Mind of a Snail from Canada. The program included a variety of shadow theater performances: sand shadow, overhead projector shows, Chinese style shadow puppets, wayang kulit, and objects shadow theater. Since I have been thinking of creating a new shadow performance, seeing all these shows got me more inspired and excited about shadow theater.

#shadowpuppets #WSAF2026 #puppetfestival #shadowtheater taken in 人形劇団プーク　 Puppet Theatre PUK by @bkimhawaii

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