The horror thriller “Unseen,” directed by Yoko Okumura, was released digitally on March 7 by MGM+ and Paramount Home Entertainment and will stream on MGM+ on May 19.
Gas station clerk Sam (Jolene Purdy) receives a call from Emily (Midori Francis), a nearly blind woman who is running from her murderous ex in the woods. Emily must survive the ordeal with Sam being her eyes from afar using a video call.
Written by Salvatore Cardoni and Brian Rawlins, the film also stars Missi Pyle, Michael Patrick Lane, Brett Baker, Nichols X. Parsons and Ren Hanami.
Okumura is a genre-fluid writer, director, and performer. Born in a Buddhist temple in Japan and raised in Minneapolis, she now lives and works in Los Angeles. She is obsessed with telling rebellious stories through underrepresented perspectives and thrives in the intersection of grit and glamour.
Okumura sold a story pitch to Sam Raimi’s Quibi horror anthology “50 States of Fright” and is directing the episode titled “America’s Largest Ball of Twine,” starring Ming-Na Wen and Karen Allen. Her directing clients have included Lifetime/A&E’s scripted digital series “Fall Into Me,” Super Deluxe’s “Turnt Beauty” series and “Uproxxx Uncharted” series. Branded clients have included Cover Girl, Honda, and Instagram.
Her feature film project “The Religion of Girlfriends” was accepted into the WIF/Sundance Institute Financing Intensive. Her short “Kimi Kabuki” received a DGA Student Film Award, the Panavision New Filmmakers Award and an Austin Film Festival Jury Award.
Okumura is also co-creator of the digital series “Facets,” a documentary episodic about trailblazing women who have carved unique life paths for themselves. Her various doc work has been selected for the Vimeo Staff Pick three times.
She has a BFA in film/video from Calarts and an MFA in film directing from the American Film Institute. When not working in media arts, she dabbles in fire dancing and aerial arts and would love to learn how to do a back flip.