KAFFNY INFINITE CINEMA 2024 PROGRAM
18th Annual
SHORTS PANORAMA
“I was inspired by my hardworking mother to create this film. She works two jobs; one as a producer and the other as a mother of two. I see on a daily basis how hard she tries for me and I wanted to create a character who could represent her determination, as well as my own. One of my hardest challenges in the production of this film was animating all 80 shots on Procreate. Working with the voice actors for this film was especially magical as they helped me execute my vision of the film perfectly and this film will always be special to me because it’s my first fully animated film with voice acting.”
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
USA 2024, 6 min
A family of cats struggling with their finances is disappointed when their Christmas lights burn out, but then get some unexpected help. WINNER: Best Film (Hawai’i International Film Festival ‘Ōpio Fest) , WINNER: Spirit of Eleanor $200 Award (OK2BX Film Festival of Texas), SEMI-FINALIST (New York Shorts Awards), FINALIST (Directed by Women / Turkey)
DIRECTOR BIO
Cameryn Koike is a junior at Mid-Pacific Institute and prolific animator. Her passion is writing and animating adorable and engaging characters.
“I was inspired by my hardworking mother to create this film. She works two jobs; one as a producer and the other as a mother of two. I see on a daily basis how hard she tries for me and I wanted to create a character who could represent her determination, as well as my own. One of my hardest challenges in the production of this film was animating all 80 shots on Procreate. Working with the voice actors for this film was especially magical as they helped me execute my vision of the film perfectly and this film will always be special to me because it’s my first fully animated film with voice acting.”
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
USA 2024, 6 min
A family of cats struggling with their finances is disappointed when their Christmas lights burn out, but then get some unexpected help. WINNER: Best Film (Hawai’i International Film Festival ‘Ōpio Fest) , WINNER: Spirit of Eleanor $200 Award (OK2BX Film Festival of Texas), SEMI-FINALIST (New York Shorts Awards), FINALIST (Directed by Women / Turkey)
DIRECTOR BIO
Cameryn Koike is a junior at Mid-Pacific Institute and prolific animator. Her passion is writing and animating adorable and engaging characters.
“I was inspired by my hardworking mother to create this film. She works two jobs; one as a producer and the other as a mother of two. I see on a daily basis how hard she tries for me and I wanted to create a character who could represent her determination, as well as my own. One of my hardest challenges in the production of this film was animating all 80 shots on Procreate. Working with the voice actors for this film was especially magical as they helped me execute my vision of the film perfectly and this film will always be special to me because it’s my first fully animated film with voice acting.”
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
When I left my home country, Bulgaria, in 2019, I sought to escape my past and start over in New York. But the more I struggled to erase Bulgaria, the more I clutched to my predecessors’ stories and memories. Finally, I decided to confront the severance I felt by making my latest short film, Zavet.
I initially wanted to tell a story about a man who abandons his past. Yet, as I stared at my family’s eyes with my lens and shot the town I grew up in, I realized that the maturity I longed for was in understanding and preserving my past–not destroying it. Suddenly, I found how my family, the Balkan mountains, arts, history, and culture invigorated my film with the charge I needed to achieve my vision.
In the process, I also understood my passion for film. I shot the Bulgarian flashback sequences on 16mm film, which allowed me to highlight movement, montage, and the faces of my closest people. As a drummer, I felt the kinetic energy of making music, but I played with images instead of sounds. I foregrounded the formal expressions of cinema and mimicked my character’s transformation as the movie transitioned from a story to a visual poem.
Today, I gaze at the New York skyline, and I cannot help but hum the traditional and irregular Bulgarian Rachenitsa tune. My Zavet–the Bulgarian word for ‘heritage’–gives me the courage to reach beyond the national and express the beauty of understanding and preserving my past.
ZAVET
USA 2024, 6 min, World Premiere
A young man lost in the wilderness struggles to escape the memories of his Bulgarian past.
DIRECTOR BIO
Slav Velkov is a Bulgarian filmmaker and painter who seeks the human capacity to change and the excitement of exploring the emotions that encapsulate the human condition. His work has reached 1M+ people online and has screened at dozens of festivals, including the Soho International Film Festival and the Big Apple Film Festival in New York.
Most recently, Slav premiered his latest narrative short, Strangers, at The Soho IFF (2023). The film explores the themes of ambivalence and love in big-city life and focuses on a marriage proposal gone wrong in Chinatown.
One of Slav’s most significant projects is his short social video about the 2020 protest in Bulgaria. The film showcased the young people eager to change their country and became a hit on Facebook, garnering 4.5K+ shares and 1M+ views in less than 48 hours. As part of the short movie and a handful of other projects, Slav has appeared on Bulgarian National Television, Bulgaria on Air TV, and other news stations, where he advocated for critical thinking on social media, a transparent judicial system, and sustainability in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.
In addition, Slav worked as an AD Trainee for Lionsgate and as a Video Production Intern at The Wall Street Journal. He understands the organizational, technical, and editorial processes behind media production, and he utilizes the skills he acquired on big sets to communicate his ideas and vision.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
When I left my home country, Bulgaria, in 2019, I sought to escape my past and start over in New York. But the more I struggled to erase Bulgaria, the more I clutched to my predecessors’ stories and memories. Finally, I decided to confront the severance I felt by making my latest short film, Zavet.
I initially wanted to tell a story about a man who abandons his past. Yet, as I stared at my family’s eyes with my lens and shot the town I grew up in, I realized that the maturity I longed for was in understanding and preserving my past–not destroying it. Suddenly, I found how my family, the Balkan mountains, arts, history, and culture invigorated my film with the charge I needed to achieve my vision.
In the process, I also understood my passion for film. I shot the Bulgarian flashback sequences on 16mm film, which allowed me to highlight movement, montage, and the faces of my closest people. As a drummer, I felt the kinetic energy of making music, but I played with images instead of sounds. I foregrounded the formal expressions of cinema and mimicked my character’s transformation as the movie transitioned from a story to a visual poem.
Today, I gaze at the New York skyline, and I cannot help but hum the traditional and irregular Bulgarian Rachenitsa tune. My Zavet–the Bulgarian word for ‘heritage’–gives me the courage to reach beyond the national and express the beauty of understanding and preserving my past.
ZAVET
USA 2024, 6 min, World Premiere
A young man lost in the wilderness struggles to escape the memories of his Bulgarian past.
DIRECTOR BIO
Slav Velkov is a Bulgarian filmmaker and painter who seeks the human capacity to change and the excitement of exploring the emotions that encapsulate the human condition. His work has reached 1M+ people online and has screened at dozens of festivals, including the Soho International Film Festival and the Big Apple Film Festival in New York.
Most recently, Slav premiered his latest narrative short, Strangers, at The Soho IFF (2023). The film explores the themes of ambivalence and love in big-city life and focuses on a marriage proposal gone wrong in Chinatown.
One of Slav’s most significant projects is his short social video about the 2020 protest in Bulgaria. The film showcased the young people eager to change their country and became a hit on Facebook, garnering 4.5K+ shares and 1M+ views in less than 48 hours. As part of the short movie and a handful of other projects, Slav has appeared on Bulgarian National Television, Bulgaria on Air TV, and other news stations, where he advocated for critical thinking on social media, a transparent judicial system, and sustainability in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.
In addition, Slav worked as an AD Trainee for Lionsgate and as a Video Production Intern at The Wall Street Journal. He understands the organizational, technical, and editorial processes behind media production, and he utilizes the skills he acquired on big sets to communicate his ideas and vision.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
When I left my home country, Bulgaria, in 2019, I sought to escape my past and start over in New York. But the more I struggled to erase Bulgaria, the more I clutched to my predecessors’ stories and memories. Finally, I decided to confront the severance I felt by making my latest short film, Zavet.
I initially wanted to tell a story about a man who abandons his past. Yet, as I stared at my family’s eyes with my lens and shot the town I grew up in, I realized that the maturity I longed for was in understanding and preserving my past–not destroying it. Suddenly, I found how my family, the Balkan mountains, arts, history, and culture invigorated my film with the charge I needed to achieve my vision.
In the process, I also understood my passion for film. I shot the Bulgarian flashback sequences on 16mm film, which allowed me to highlight movement, montage, and the faces of my closest people. As a drummer, I felt the kinetic energy of making music, but I played with images instead of sounds. I foregrounded the formal expressions of cinema and mimicked my character’s transformation as the movie transitioned from a story to a visual poem.
Today, I gaze at the New York skyline, and I cannot help but hum the traditional and irregular Bulgarian Rachenitsa tune. My Zavet–the Bulgarian word for ‘heritage’–gives me the courage to reach beyond the national and express the beauty of understanding and preserving my past.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Coming from a working class, immigrant family, I struggled as a child to process
the necessary absence of my parents at times; an absence fueled (on their end) by a desire to provide for me a life beyond their own. Now as an adult, the early hours of the morning always remind me of their unending sacrifice and love.
Blue Hour is an exploration of the resilience of familial love. It depicts Hyunjin, a young Korean American boy and the child of immigrant parents, desperately yearning for the attention of his father, who is overburdened with having to support his family as a blue-collar immigrant. At the same time, it is a deconstruction of the “American dream” and the “nuclear family unit.” Are these dreams attainable at all for those on the margins of our society? Are these dreams attainable for our wide eyed, ten year old protagonist?
Most of all, this film is a love letter to working class, immigrant families of color, like my very own. I hope we can continue to see more of ourselves on screen, as we are undeniably integral to the communities we reside in.
BLUE HOUR
USA 2024, 6 min
A young Korean American boy encounters difficulty as he attempts to draw a portrait of his busy blue-collar immigrant father for a school assignment, leading the boy to confront his father in a dream-scape like world of his own imagination.
DIRECTOR BIO
Esther (or Es to their friends), was born in South Korea. They immigrated to the US with their family at 8 years old. They graduated from NYU Tisch’s School of Drama in 2021, and soon began working as an actor, writer, and director in New York City. As a non-binary, queer, Asian American immigrant artist, their work often explores the human experience through the lens of these identities.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Coming from a working class, immigrant family, I struggled as a child to process
the necessary absence of my parents at times; an absence fueled (on their end) by a desire to provide for me a life beyond their own. Now as an adult, the early hours of the morning always remind me of their unending sacrifice and love.
Blue Hour is an exploration of the resilience of familial love. It depicts Hyunjin, a young Korean American boy and the child of immigrant parents, desperately yearning for the attention of his father, who is overburdened with having to support his family as a blue-collar immigrant. At the same time, it is a deconstruction of the “American dream” and the “nuclear family unit.” Are these dreams attainable at all for those on the margins of our society? Are these dreams attainable for our wide eyed, ten year old protagonist?
Most of all, this film is a love letter to working class, immigrant families of color, like my very own. I hope we can continue to see more of ourselves on screen, as we are undeniably integral to the communities we reside in.
BLUE HOUR
USA 2024, 6 min
A young Korean American boy encounters difficulty as he attempts to draw a portrait of his busy blue-collar immigrant father for a school assignment, leading the boy to confront his father in a dream-scape like world of his own imagination.
DIRECTOR BIO
Esther (or Es to their friends), was born in South Korea. They immigrated to the US with their family at 8 years old. They graduated from NYU Tisch’s School of Drama in 2021, and soon began working as an actor, writer, and director in New York City. As a non-binary, queer, Asian American immigrant artist, their work often explores the human experience through the lens of these identities.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Coming from a working class, immigrant family, I struggled as a child to process
the necessary absence of my parents at times; an absence fueled (on their end) by a desire to provide for me a life beyond their own. Now as an adult, the early hours of the morning always remind me of their unending sacrifice and love.
Blue Hour is an exploration of the resilience of familial love. It depicts Hyunjin, a young Korean American boy and the child of immigrant parents, desperately yearning for the attention of his father, who is overburdened with having to support his family as a blue-collar immigrant. At the same time, it is a deconstruction of the “American dream” and the “nuclear family unit.” Are these dreams attainable at all for those on the margins of our society? Are these dreams attainable for our wide eyed, ten year old protagonist?
Most of all, this film is a love letter to working class, immigrant families of color, like my very own. I hope we can continue to see more of ourselves on screen, as we are undeniably integral to the communities we reside in.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This film is a personal story of mine when I was practicing as a registered nurse. The hospital I used to work in would ring a charm bell through the overhead announcement system when there was a newborn. On a particular night shift, I was taking care of an actively dying patient. As I witnessed my patient taking the last breath, simultaneously, there was that bell ring. And I imagined an unknown god opening his door beckoning my patient and sending the newborn to this secular world. I’ve always wanted to share this moment and to explore visual motif rather than auditory through this graduate thesis film conveying the cycle of life and death.
REVOLVING DOOR
USA 2024, 10 min, World Premiere
Through the eyes of a young nurse, we navigate the thin line between life and death, finding solace and connection in the delicate moments of birth and passing.
DIRECTOR BIO
Hailing from Seoul, South Korea, and shaped by her upbringing in a rural town in Glennville, GA, Jiyeon Kim follows in her father’s footsteps as a TV documentary producer. Her passion for creative expression through film blossomed over the years, fueled by a decade of experience as a nurse and former Navy nursing officer. Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, Jiyeon is crafting her thesis film “Revolving Door,” seamlessly juggling academic pursuits and freelancing in videography and production coordination for diverse media platforms. She recently completed an MFA in Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema Brooklyn College.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This film is a personal story of mine when I was practicing as a registered nurse. The hospital I used to work in would ring a charm bell through the overhead announcement system when there was a newborn. On a particular night shift, I was taking care of an actively dying patient. As I witnessed my patient taking the last breath, simultaneously, there was that bell ring. And I imagined an unknown god opening his door beckoning my patient and sending the newborn to this secular world. I’ve always wanted to share this moment and to explore visual motif rather than auditory through this graduate thesis film conveying the cycle of life and death.
REVOLVING DOOR
USA 2024, 10 min, World Premiere
Through the eyes of a young nurse, we navigate the thin line between life and death, finding solace and connection in the delicate moments of birth and passing.
DIRECTOR BIO
Hailing from Seoul, South Korea, and shaped by her upbringing in a rural town in Glennville, GA, Jiyeon Kim follows in her father’s footsteps as a TV documentary producer. Her passion for creative expression through film blossomed over the years, fueled by a decade of experience as a nurse and former Navy nursing officer. Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, Jiyeon is crafting her thesis film “Revolving Door,” seamlessly juggling academic pursuits and freelancing in videography and production coordination for diverse media platforms. She recently completed an MFA in Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema Brooklyn College.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This film is a personal story of mine when I was practicing as a registered nurse. The hospital I used to work in would ring a charm bell through the overhead announcement system when there was a newborn. On a particular night shift, I was taking care of an actively dying patient. As I witnessed my patient taking the last breath, simultaneously, there was that bell ring. And I imagined an unknown god opening his door beckoning my patient and sending the newborn to this secular world. I’ve always wanted to share this moment and to explore visual motif rather than auditory through this graduate thesis film conveying the cycle of life and death.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
“Fair” is a film that anybody who returns to their hometown can relate to. Elizabeth’s script is clever, funny, and heartfelt. It beautifully captures how easy it is to fall into the comparison trap and question where you are in life. But the truth is, life’s a journey. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. It was an honor to work with such an incredible cast and crew to tell this story.
FAIR
USA 2023, 10 min
Based on the TRUE STORY of one woman’s fateful day as a hired party princess at the mansion of her high school nemesis:
Sarah has returned home to Hawai’i and finds herself confronted with an imperative question: What if life hasn’t turned out so “happily ever after” after all? FAIR is a 10-minute film that questions societal expectations internalized by women and asserts that a real-life “Fairy Tale Ending” might not be what you expect.
Starring Elizabeth Rian, Noelle Yoza, and Kaipo Dudoit (David, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch 2025)
DIRECTOR BIO
Taylor Gruver is a freelance filmmaker with experience in multiple areas of filmmaking including sound design, editing, writing, directing, and producing. After serving in the United States Coast Guard from 2009 to 2016, Taylor attended film school at City College of San Francisco. She received an Associates in Cinema Production and began working as a sound effects editor and assistant editor in the Bay Area. Her directorial debut short film Highway 1 won multiple awards in festivals across the country. Taylor currently lives on Oahu and works across all aspects of production and post-production for commercials, television and feature films.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
“Fair” is a film that anybody who returns to their hometown can relate to. Elizabeth’s script is clever, funny, and heartfelt. It beautifully captures how easy it is to fall into the comparison trap and question where you are in life. But the truth is, life’s a journey. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. It was an honor to work with such an incredible cast and crew to tell this story.
FAIR
USA 2023, 10 min
Based on the TRUE STORY of one woman’s fateful day as a hired party princess at the mansion of her high school nemesis:
Sarah has returned home to Hawai’i and finds herself confronted with an imperative question: What if life hasn’t turned out so “happily ever after” after all? FAIR is a 10-minute film that questions societal expectations internalized by women and asserts that a real-life “Fairy Tale Ending” might not be what you expect.
Starring Elizabeth Rian, Noelle Yoza, and Kaipo Dudoit (David, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch 2025)
DIRECTOR BIO
Taylor Gruver is a freelance filmmaker with experience in multiple areas of filmmaking including sound design, editing, writing, directing, and producing. After serving in the United States Coast Guard from 2009 to 2016, Taylor attended film school at City College of San Francisco. She received an Associates in Cinema Production and began working as a sound effects editor and assistant editor in the Bay Area. Her directorial debut short film Highway 1 won multiple awards in festivals across the country. Taylor currently lives on Oahu and works across all aspects of production and post-production for commercials, television and feature films.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
“Fair” is a film that anybody who returns to their hometown can relate to. Elizabeth’s script is clever, funny, and heartfelt. It beautifully captures how easy it is to fall into the comparison trap and question where you are in life. But the truth is, life’s a journey. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. It was an honor to work with such an incredible cast and crew to tell this story.
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
Lisa, Michelle and Irene founded paper tongue, a collective of storytellers who seek to raise visibility for womxn, especially womxn of color, and champion underrepresented perspectives in film and media.
Proudly, all of our films were 100% female made (from the shoot down to our post team) with a majority BIWOC crew.
ROOTS & WINGS Ep. 2: IRENE YOO
USA 2024, 7 min, East Coast Premiere
Roots & Wings is a three-part food doc series that profiles WOC chefs who use food as a conduit for cultural awareness and as a means of perpetuating their cultural traditions.
Roots + Wings Ep 2 features chef, recipe developer, writer, culinary historian and founder of Yooeating Irene Yoo, whose pop-ups in New York offered a decidedly new take on Korean home cooking and street food.
DIRECTOR BIOS
Lisa Yadao is a Hawaiian-Filipina producer and screenwriter raised in SoCal and based in San Francisco. She earned a BA in English from San Diego State University, studied screenwriting at UC San Diego and video production at Bay Area Video Coalition. Her credits include short films, TV and web series, and videos for HBOMax, Bobbie Baby, FWD Stance, Square and Caviar.
Michelle Sampior is a Bay Area native of Filipino and Basque heritage. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Film & Digital Media, she studied Film Production & Editing in Spain and wrote her first short film. Michelle has credits in TV, film, and game cinematics.
Irene Yadao is a writer and video production freelancer based in Maine. She studied journalism at San Diego State University and earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University. She has written and edited for The Village Voice, San Diego Union Tribune, Maine Magazine and DownEast Magazine, and she has worked behind the scenes on documentaries and indie films.
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
Lisa, Michelle and Irene founded paper tongue, a collective of storytellers who seek to raise visibility for womxn, especially womxn of color, and champion underrepresented perspectives in film and media.
Proudly, all of our films were 100% female made (from the shoot down to our post team) with a majority BIWOC crew.
ROOTS & WINGS Ep. 2: IRENE YOO
USA 2024, 7 min, East Coast Premiere
Roots & Wings is a three-part food doc series that profiles WOC chefs who use food as a conduit for cultural awareness and as a means of perpetuating their cultural traditions.
Roots + Wings Ep 2 features chef, recipe developer, writer, culinary historian and founder of Yooeating Irene Yoo, whose pop-ups in New York offered a decidedly new take on Korean home cooking and street food.
DIRECTOR BIOS
Lisa Yadao is a Hawaiian-Filipina producer and screenwriter raised in SoCal and based in San Francisco. She earned a BA in English from San Diego State University, studied screenwriting at UC San Diego and video production at Bay Area Video Coalition. Her credits include short films, TV and web series, and videos for HBOMax, Bobbie Baby, FWD Stance, Square and Caviar.
Michelle Sampior is a Bay Area native of Filipino and Basque heritage. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Film & Digital Media, she studied Film Production & Editing in Spain and wrote her first short film. Michelle has credits in TV, film, and game cinematics.
Irene Yadao is a writer and video production freelancer based in Maine. She studied journalism at San Diego State University and earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University. She has written and edited for The Village Voice, San Diego Union Tribune, Maine Magazine and DownEast Magazine, and she has worked behind the scenes on documentaries and indie films.
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
Lisa, Michelle and Irene founded paper tongue, a collective of storytellers who seek to raise visibility for womxn, especially womxn of color, and champion underrepresented perspectives in film and media.
Proudly, all of our films were 100% female made (from the shoot down to our post team) with a majority BIWOC crew.
SCREENINGS
TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival Seattle
United States
June 8, 2024
World Premiere
Best Sensory Experience Film
THESE KIDS DON’T GET IT, MA
USA 2024, 7 min
A trans woman attempts to translate a poem to her mother over the phone. Subtitles escape containment. Diegesis explodes.
SCREENINGS
TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival Seattle
United States
June 8, 2024
World Premiere
Best Sensory Experience Film
THESE KIDS DON’T GET IT, MA
USA 2024, 7 min
A trans woman attempts to translate a poem to her mother over the phone. Subtitles escape containment. Diegesis explodes.
SCREENINGS
TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival Seattle
United States
June 8, 2024
World Premiere
Best Sensory Experience Film
SHORT FILMS
WRITER/PRODUCER’S STATEMENT (JENNIFER KIM)
I was inspired to write KOREAN AMERICAN WITCHES SOCIETY because of my desire to have a true friend. I loved the show PEN15 and the tight friendship between the two girls. I wondered how my life could have been different had I had those bonds as a child. Instead, emotions, truth, and tears were hidden in my immigrant household. When my father was dying, I confided in my diary. Words were my best friend, helping me with my anxiety.
But my world was funny, too, growing up as the only Asian (with my sister) in an all-white hillbilly school. I have fond memories of my childhood friends – Lee jeans, cowboy boots, and innocent smiles. We played in the woods with finds from the dumpsters behind Hill’s. My friends were good people, salt of the earth, yet I was considered different from them because of my race.
In college at UCLA, I made my first true Korean American friend. She was from Los Angeles, spoke fluent Korean, and was amazing at karaoke. We formed a two-person feminist club, Korean American Witches Association, and jokingly posted flyers with a poor drawing of a Korean flag and a witch face inviting people to meetings we never had.
I combined all these parts of my life and wrote KAWS, which became a finalist for the ViacomCBS Writers Mentoring Program and led to my signing by Industry Entertainment. Making the KAWS short film brings me closer to my dream of creating a Korean American THE WONDER YEARS. I hope KAWS can bring comfort, humor, and magic to all.
KOREAN AMERICAN WITCHES SOCIETY
Canada 2024, 13 min, East Coast Premiere
A lonely, anxious girl wishes to save her cancer-stricken father and befriends the granddaughter of a Korean shaman. Together, they create a secret witchcraft ritual which leads to unexpected consequences.
DIRECTOR BIO
Michael K.Y. Yip is a writer/director based in Los Angeles. He was born in Hong Kong, and raised solely by three women (mother, aunt, and grandma), Michael was caught between cultures when he moved to Canada. Unable to find comfort in the myriad of identities that he grew up around in, Michael finds himself stuck in the intersectionality of being a queer immigrant living in Canada. In a previous life, he studied fashion design but eventually ventured into the world of filmmaking after his mother’s passing.
Her death ripped away his identity and will continue to spend years trying to reconnect with his past to get closer to her. Having to repress his sexuality in his teens forced him to conceal a part of himself from those closest around him, and lead to a curious interest in characters and stories that dissect the lies we tell each other, and the sacrifices made to appear “good.”
His works have screened in film festivals all around the world, and he is currently developing multiple projects. Repped by Time Train and PARADIGM, Michael is a multi-faceted artist, also known as a professional dreamer.
WRITER/PRODUCER’S STATEMENT (JENNIFER KIM)
I was inspired to write KOREAN AMERICAN WITCHES SOCIETY because of my desire to have a true friend. I loved the show PEN15 and the tight friendship between the two girls. I wondered how my life could have been different had I had those bonds as a child. Instead, emotions, truth, and tears were hidden in my immigrant household. When my father was dying, I confided in my diary. Words were my best friend, helping me with my anxiety.
But my world was funny, too, growing up as the only Asian (with my sister) in an all-white hillbilly school. I have fond memories of my childhood friends – Lee jeans, cowboy boots, and innocent smiles. We played in the woods with finds from the dumpsters behind Hill’s. My friends were good people, salt of the earth, yet I was considered different from them because of my race.
In college at UCLA, I made my first true Korean American friend. She was from Los Angeles, spoke fluent Korean, and was amazing at karaoke. We formed a two-person feminist club, Korean American Witches Association, and jokingly posted flyers with a poor drawing of a Korean flag and a witch face inviting people to meetings we never had.
I combined all these parts of my life and wrote KAWS, which became a finalist for the ViacomCBS Writers Mentoring Program and led to my signing by Industry Entertainment. Making the KAWS short film brings me closer to my dream of creating a Korean American THE WONDER YEARS. I hope KAWS can bring comfort, humor, and magic to all.
KOREAN AMERICAN WITCHES SOCIETY
Canada 2024, 13 min, East Coast Premiere
A lonely, anxious girl wishes to save her cancer-stricken father and befriends the granddaughter of a Korean shaman. Together, they create a secret witchcraft ritual which leads to unexpected consequences.
DIRECTOR BIO
Michael K.Y. Yip is a writer/director based in Los Angeles. He was born in Hong Kong, and raised solely by three women (mother, aunt, and grandma), Michael was caught between cultures when he moved to Canada. Unable to find comfort in the myriad of identities that he grew up around in, Michael finds himself stuck in the intersectionality of being a queer immigrant living in Canada. In a previous life, he studied fashion design but eventually ventured into the world of filmmaking after his mother’s passing.
Her death ripped away his identity and will continue to spend years trying to reconnect with his past to get closer to her. Having to repress his sexuality in his teens forced him to conceal a part of himself from those closest around him, and lead to a curious interest in characters and stories that dissect the lies we tell each other, and the sacrifices made to appear “good.”
His works have screened in film festivals all around the world, and he is currently developing multiple projects. Repped by Time Train and PARADIGM, Michael is a multi-faceted artist, also known as a professional dreamer.
WRITER/PRODUCER’S STATEMENT (JENNIFER KIM)
I was inspired to write KOREAN AMERICAN WITCHES SOCIETY because of my desire to have a true friend. I loved the show PEN15 and the tight friendship between the two girls. I wondered how my life could have been different had I had those bonds as a child. Instead, emotions, truth, and tears were hidden in my immigrant household. When my father was dying, I confided in my diary. Words were my best friend, helping me with my anxiety.
But my world was funny, too, growing up as the only Asian (with my sister) in an all-white hillbilly school. I have fond memories of my childhood friends – Lee jeans, cowboy boots, and innocent smiles. We played in the woods with finds from the dumpsters behind Hill’s. My friends were good people, salt of the earth, yet I was considered different from them because of my race.
In college at UCLA, I made my first true Korean American friend. She was from Los Angeles, spoke fluent Korean, and was amazing at karaoke. We formed a two-person feminist club, Korean American Witches Association, and jokingly posted flyers with a poor drawing of a Korean flag and a witch face inviting people to meetings we never had.
I combined all these parts of my life and wrote KAWS, which became a finalist for the ViacomCBS Writers Mentoring Program and led to my signing by Industry Entertainment. Making the KAWS short film brings me closer to my dream of creating a Korean American THE WONDER YEARS. I hope KAWS can bring comfort, humor, and magic to all.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
n/a
INTO THE EMERALD SEA
Japan 2023, 20 min, NY Premiere
From the ocean, Suzu returns to their quiet seaside town in Japan, where their grandmother has reincarnated into a sea turtle. Both must undergo their own process of reconnection to each other and with themselves.
A loose retelling of the Japanese fisherman folktale Urashima Taro — but really, it’s about missing your grandma after you left for America.
DIRECTOR BIO
Asuka Lin is a Japanese-Taiwanese director and DP, born in Nishinomiya, Japan. Their directorial work spans across various genres, but mainly focused within magical realism, encircling stories of diaspora, yearning, and the construct of memory. Their directed films have screened in a number of film festivals, such as London Short Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Queer East Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Thomas Edison Film Festival.
They have DP’d various documentary shorts, narrative shorts, and music videos; including the Netflix backed doc Injustice System (2021), directed by Frederick Thornton. This fall, they are slated to DP Charlotte Hong Bee Her’s debut feature, Tropical Rain, Death Scented Kiss – a Singaporean gay love story, at the time of the rapture.
Asuka currently resides in Los Angeles, where they wander around, pet stray cats, and dream.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
n/a
INTO THE EMERALD SEA
Japan 2023, 20 min, NY Premiere
From the ocean, Suzu returns to their quiet seaside town in Japan, where their grandmother has reincarnated into a sea turtle. Both must undergo their own process of reconnection to each other and with themselves.
A loose retelling of the Japanese fisherman folktale Urashima Taro — but really, it’s about missing your grandma after you left for America.
DIRECTOR BIO
Asuka Lin is a Japanese-Taiwanese director and DP, born in Nishinomiya, Japan. Their directorial work spans across various genres, but mainly focused within magical realism, encircling stories of diaspora, yearning, and the construct of memory. Their directed films have screened in a number of film festivals, such as London Short Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Queer East Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Thomas Edison Film Festival.
They have DP’d various documentary shorts, narrative shorts, and music videos; including the Netflix backed doc Injustice System (2021), directed by Frederick Thornton. This fall, they are slated to DP Charlotte Hong Bee Her’s debut feature, Tropical Rain, Death Scented Kiss – a Singaporean gay love story, at the time of the rapture.
Asuka currently resides in Los Angeles, where they wander around, pet stray cats, and dream.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
n/a
PRODUCER BIO (RED TRUSS)
Red Truss is a filmmaker from Anniston, Alabama. In 2017, Truss moved to Atlanta where he attended Morehouse College and began his filmmaking career working as a music video producer. He currently attends Columbia University’s MFA Film Program where he studies Creative Producing. In 2022, he directed his first short film “Down’s Paradox” that screened at film festivals both domestically and internationally. He’s currently working as a writer and producer on a web series called “Everyday People” this summer that will be released in 2025.
WATCHES
USA 2024, 17 min, World Premiere
A Korean American boy asks his older, troublesome friends to rob his home where he lives with his abusive father.
DIRECTOR BIO
Byungseon Kong is an award-winning Korean writer/director based in New York, holding an MFA Degree from Columbia University. With an undergraduate degree in Film with a specialization in Directing from Korea, Byungseon has directed several short films that have gained recognition and acclaim.
His short film “Thrust to Throat,” a queer sports drama, was screened at numerous film festivals, including the 18th Korea Queer Film Festival, while his other short films “I Don’t Live There” and “In the Wings” received awards at international film festivals.
PRODUCER BIO (RED TRUSS)
Red Truss is a filmmaker from Anniston, Alabama. In 2017, Truss moved to Atlanta where he attended Morehouse College and began his filmmaking career working as a music video producer. He currently attends Columbia University’s MFA Film Program where he studies Creative Producing. In 2022, he directed his first short film “Down’s Paradox” that screened at film festivals both domestically and internationally. He’s currently working as a writer and producer on a web series called “Everyday People” this summer that will be released in 2025.
WATCHES
USA 2024, 17 min, World Premiere
A Korean American boy asks his older, troublesome friends to rob his home where he lives with his abusive father.
DIRECTOR BIO
Byungseon Kong is an award-winning Korean writer/director based in New York, holding an MFA Degree from Columbia University. With an undergraduate degree in Film with a specialization in Directing from Korea, Byungseon has directed several short films that have gained recognition and acclaim.
His short film “Thrust to Throat,” a queer sports drama, was screened at numerous film festivals, including the 18th Korea Queer Film Festival, while his other short films “I Don’t Live There” and “In the Wings” received awards at international film festivals.
PRODUCER BIO (RED TRUSS)
Red Truss is a filmmaker from Anniston, Alabama. In 2017, Truss moved to Atlanta where he attended Morehouse College and began his filmmaking career working as a music video producer. He currently attends Columbia University’s MFA Film Program where he studies Creative Producing. In 2022, he directed his first short film “Down’s Paradox” that screened at film festivals both domestically and internationally. He’s currently working as a writer and producer on a web series called “Everyday People” this summer that will be released in 2025.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
As an Asian international director with a passion for cinema, I aim to bridge cultural divides and promote understanding and empathy through the art of storytelling, while also bringing the beauty and wonder of scientific discovery to the big screen.
This project is a perfect opportunity for me to do that. The inspiration has come from my own interest in environmental science and the immigration experiences of my extended family here. From one of my undergrad environmental science classes, I have acknowledged the issue of invasive species in North America, especially the Asian Carp.
While being adored and constantly used as food dishes in China, the fish here is overpopulating and locals refuse to commercialize it. People here have a stigma towards the fish and view them as “dirty” and “unappealing”. Ironically, the treatment towards the fish has somewhat reflected the immigrant experiences from its origin country.
People are less inclined to accept and change their perspective on new things. The different perceptions of the fish make me wonder if there’s a possibility to change people’s minds on this because it will provide an immediate solution to the issue.
This project is my own attempt at doing that as I look forward to continuing my journey as a filmmaker and collaborating with talented individuals from all over the world to tell stories that will inspire, entertain, and educate.
KOI
USA 2024, 18 min, East Coast Premiere
A newly-divorced Chinese immigrant and his son move to the Great Lakes area. The father, Lee Huan, starts a fishing business that catches only Asian Carp in the local river. However, the son, Lee Long, can’t fit into the new environment and doesn’t understand his dad’s motives. With help from Uncle Kuan, a family friend and biologist, the father and son must confront their differences once and for all.
DIRECTOR BIO
Taige Shi is an LA-based director who graduated from the UCLA School of Television Film and Theater with an MFA in directing.As an international student artist, Taige is interested in pursuing arts that can connect people from different cultural and sociological backgrounds.
He has received the UCLA Mary Pickford Award the George & Sakaye Aratani Fellowship and the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Fellowship for his works and contributions.
His short film ‘Reconnect,’ was selected for several international film festivals, including the semifinals of the Oscar-qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival, as well as the Newfilmmakers NY, Silicon Valley Asian Pacific FilmFest, and Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival. His thesis film ‘Koi’ has earned an honorable mention in Grand Jury – Narrative Shorts of Dances with Films.
In addition, Taige actively collaborates with various non-profit organizations, producing public service shorts for Human Rights Watch and showcasing his work at events organized by Creative Visions.
Due to his outstanding filmmaking talent, Taige has also served as a screener for the 38th and 39th IDA Documentary Awards. He is also part of the documentary prescreening committee for the 84th 2024 Peabody Awards.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
As an Asian international director with a passion for cinema, I aim to bridge cultural divides and promote understanding and empathy through the art of storytelling, while also bringing the beauty and wonder of scientific discovery to the big screen.
This project is a perfect opportunity for me to do that. The inspiration has come from my own interest in environmental science and the immigration experiences of my extended family here. From one of my undergrad environmental science classes, I have acknowledged the issue of invasive species in North America, especially the Asian Carp.
While being adored and constantly used as food dishes in China, the fish here is overpopulating and locals refuse to commercialize it. People here have a stigma towards the fish and view them as “dirty” and “unappealing”. Ironically, the treatment towards the fish has somewhat reflected the immigrant experiences from its origin country.
People are less inclined to accept and change their perspective on new things. The different perceptions of the fish make me wonder if there’s a possibility to change people’s minds on this because it will provide an immediate solution to the issue.
This project is my own attempt at doing that as I look forward to continuing my journey as a filmmaker and collaborating with talented individuals from all over the world to tell stories that will inspire, entertain, and educate.
KOI
USA 2024, 18 min, East Coast Premiere
A newly-divorced Chinese immigrant and his son move to the Great Lakes area. The father, Lee Huan, starts a fishing business that catches only Asian Carp in the local river. However, the son, Lee Long, can’t fit into the new environment and doesn’t understand his dad’s motives. With help from Uncle Kuan, a family friend and biologist, the father and son must confront their differences once and for all.
DIRECTOR BIO
Taige Shi is an LA-based director who graduated from the UCLA School of Television Film and Theater with an MFA in directing.As an international student artist, Taige is interested in pursuing arts that can connect people from different cultural and sociological backgrounds.
He has received the UCLA Mary Pickford Award the George & Sakaye Aratani Fellowship and the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Fellowship for his works and contributions.
His short film ‘Reconnect,’ was selected for several international film festivals, including the semifinals of the Oscar-qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival, as well as the Newfilmmakers NY, Silicon Valley Asian Pacific FilmFest, and Houston Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival. His thesis film ‘Koi’ has earned an honorable mention in Grand Jury – Narrative Shorts of Dances with Films.
In addition, Taige actively collaborates with various non-profit organizations, producing public service shorts for Human Rights Watch and showcasing his work at events organized by Creative Visions.
Due to his outstanding filmmaking talent, Taige has also served as a screener for the 38th and 39th IDA Documentary Awards. He is also part of the documentary prescreening committee for the 84th 2024 Peabody Awards.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
As an Asian international director with a passion for cinema, I aim to bridge cultural divides and promote understanding and empathy through the art of storytelling, while also bringing the beauty and wonder of scientific discovery to the big screen.
This project is a perfect opportunity for me to do that. The inspiration has come from my own interest in environmental science and the immigration experiences of my extended family here. From one of my undergrad environmental science classes, I have acknowledged the issue of invasive species in North America, especially the Asian Carp.
While being adored and constantly used as food dishes in China, the fish here is overpopulating and locals refuse to commercialize it. People here have a stigma towards the fish and view them as “dirty” and “unappealing”. Ironically, the treatment towards the fish has somewhat reflected the immigrant experiences from its origin country.
People are less inclined to accept and change their perspective on new things. The different perceptions of the fish make me wonder if there’s a possibility to change people’s minds on this because it will provide an immediate solution to the issue.
This project is my own attempt at doing that as I look forward to continuing my journey as a filmmaker and collaborating with talented individuals from all over the world to tell stories that will inspire, entertain, and educate.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
How far will parents go to protect their kids? That’s the burning question that inspired “A Family Guide to Hunting.”
Growing up as a first-generation Chinese immigrant in Mississippi, I watched my own parents sideline their dreams and endure backbreaking jobs and all forms of prejudice to provide for me. Now, as a father to an 8-year-old daughter, I feel that same readiness to sacrifice. Crisis is the catalyst for a parent’s most primal instinct. I wanted to see what would happen to this Asian family in crisis while isolated in the woods, where their rawest emotions can finally be unleashed.
My artistic intentions with A Family Guide to Hunting was to craft a blend of drama and dark comedy to create a microscope for exploring those darker sides of parenthood. To create dramatic tension so high that you can’t help but to laugh at human nature laid bare. The first third of the film is designed to be lighter and comedic, allowing the audience to laugh before the tone shifts into darker territory.
I strive to tell stories that explore the chaotic absurdity of daily modern life plus our deeper, quieter, darker undercurrents — the truths we are afraid to confront. But no matter how uncomfortable or gruesome, humor is an essential ingredient in all of my work. That’s how I relate to and make sense of life — you have to laugh.
I chose the forest and the act of hunting itself as the setting for this uniquely Asian-American story and as a counterpoint to the invisible, Model Minority stereotype. In fact, I wrote the film with Margaret Cho in mind — only she could bring this particular Asian mother to life. As an immigrant teenager in the Deep South in the 90’s, I learned English in part from Margaret’s stand-up on TV. The way she spoke about her mother with such openness, irreverence, and love was a shock to my Asian immigrant sensibilities. I didn’t know you could poke fun at your mother and love her at the same time! That gave me permission to write about my own family in an honest and humorous way.
This film isn’t about passing judgment on this family’s morality. Instead, by witnessing their intimate drama at this crucial crossroad, I want the audience to ponder this unique brand of Asian- American sacrifice, love, and filial piety. As the family gets on the same page at the end, it becomes morbidly hopeful. Perhaps tragedy can reunite a fractured family. After all, a family that hides a body together stays together.
A FAMILY GUIDE TO HUNTING
USA 2024, 14 min
A Family Guide to Hunting is a dark comedy about an Asian-American family on a bonding hunting trip gone wrong. When Eva (the daughter) accidentally shoots her doomsday prepping boyfriend dead, her parents insist on getting rid of the body in order to protect her. The wilderness turns the temperature up on their dysfunctional family dynamics, as well as their unique brand of Asian-American sacrifice, love, and filial piety. Ultimately, it is a morbidly hopeful story of togetherness. After all, a family that hides a body together stays together.
DIRECTOR BIO
Born into a family of filmmakers in Beijing, China, Zao Wang’s journey took a turn when his family emigrated to Mississippi at the age of 14. There, he immersed himself in American TV to master the English language. Armed with degrees in physics and philosophy, Zao’s original passion for visual storytelling eventually led him to NYU-Tisch, where he earned his MFA in Film Directing. Informed by his own immigrant experience, Zao’s work in the genre space is elevated with his unique multicultural perspective, and often with a dash of dark humor. His films have premiered at Tribeca, Busan, Fantasporto, Fantasia, Yubari, and Palm Springs, among others. He won The Best Director Award at NBCUniversal Shorts Fest and received the Panavision New Filmmakers Grant. Zao was chosen by J.J. Abrams as his only Directing Fellow at Bad Robot. He is a part of the Sony Diverse Directors and NBCUniversal Emerging Directors Programs, Directing Fellow at HBO Access, and most recently, the WB Access Directing Workshop.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
How far will parents go to protect their kids? That’s the burning question that inspired “A Family Guide to Hunting.”
Growing up as a first-generation Chinese immigrant in Mississippi, I watched my own parents sideline their dreams and endure backbreaking jobs and all forms of prejudice to provide for me. Now, as a father to an 8-year-old daughter, I feel that same readiness to sacrifice. Crisis is the catalyst for a parent’s most primal instinct. I wanted to see what would happen to this Asian family in crisis while isolated in the woods, where their rawest emotions can finally be unleashed.
My artistic intentions with A Family Guide to Hunting was to craft a blend of drama and dark comedy to create a microscope for exploring those darker sides of parenthood. To create dramatic tension so high that you can’t help but to laugh at human nature laid bare. The first third of the film is designed to be lighter and comedic, allowing the audience to laugh before the tone shifts into darker territory.
I strive to tell stories that explore the chaotic absurdity of daily modern life plus our deeper, quieter, darker undercurrents — the truths we are afraid to confront. But no matter how uncomfortable or gruesome, humor is an essential ingredient in all of my work. That’s how I relate to and make sense of life — you have to laugh.
I chose the forest and the act of hunting itself as the setting for this uniquely Asian-American story and as a counterpoint to the invisible, Model Minority stereotype. In fact, I wrote the film with Margaret Cho in mind — only she could bring this particular Asian mother to life. As an immigrant teenager in the Deep South in the 90’s, I learned English in part from Margaret’s stand-up on TV. The way she spoke about her mother with such openness, irreverence, and love was a shock to my Asian immigrant sensibilities. I didn’t know you could poke fun at your mother and love her at the same time! That gave me permission to write about my own family in an honest and humorous way.
This film isn’t about passing judgment on this family’s morality. Instead, by witnessing their intimate drama at this crucial crossroad, I want the audience to ponder this unique brand of Asian- American sacrifice, love, and filial piety. As the family gets on the same page at the end, it becomes morbidly hopeful. Perhaps tragedy can reunite a fractured family. After all, a family that hides a body together stays together.
A FAMILY GUIDE TO HUNTING
USA 2024, 14 min
A Family Guide to Hunting is a dark comedy about an Asian-American family on a bonding hunting trip gone wrong. When Eva (the daughter) accidentally shoots her doomsday prepping boyfriend dead, her parents insist on getting rid of the body in order to protect her. The wilderness turns the temperature up on their dysfunctional family dynamics, as well as their unique brand of Asian-American sacrifice, love, and filial piety. Ultimately, it is a morbidly hopeful story of togetherness. After all, a family that hides a body together stays together.
DIRECTOR BIO
Born into a family of filmmakers in Beijing, China, Zao Wang’s journey took a turn when his family emigrated to Mississippi at the age of 14. There, he immersed himself in American TV to master the English language. Armed with degrees in physics and philosophy, Zao’s original passion for visual storytelling eventually led him to NYU-Tisch, where he earned his MFA in Film Directing. Informed by his own immigrant experience, Zao’s work in the genre space is elevated with his unique multicultural perspective, and often with a dash of dark humor. His films have premiered at Tribeca, Busan, Fantasporto, Fantasia, Yubari, and Palm Springs, among others. He won The Best Director Award at NBCUniversal Shorts Fest and received the Panavision New Filmmakers Grant. Zao was chosen by J.J. Abrams as his only Directing Fellow at Bad Robot. He is a part of the Sony Diverse Directors and NBCUniversal Emerging Directors Programs, Directing Fellow at HBO Access, and most recently, the WB Access Directing Workshop.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
How far will parents go to protect their kids? That’s the burning question that inspired “A Family Guide to Hunting.”
Growing up as a first-generation Chinese immigrant in Mississippi, I watched my own parents sideline their dreams and endure backbreaking jobs and all forms of prejudice to provide for me. Now, as a father to an 8-year-old daughter, I feel that same readiness to sacrifice. Crisis is the catalyst for a parent’s most primal instinct. I wanted to see what would happen to this Asian family in crisis while isolated in the woods, where their rawest emotions can finally be unleashed.
My artistic intentions with A Family Guide to Hunting was to craft a blend of drama and dark comedy to create a microscope for exploring those darker sides of parenthood. To create dramatic tension so high that you can’t help but to laugh at human nature laid bare. The first third of the film is designed to be lighter and comedic, allowing the audience to laugh before the tone shifts into darker territory.
I strive to tell stories that explore the chaotic absurdity of daily modern life plus our deeper, quieter, darker undercurrents — the truths we are afraid to confront. But no matter how uncomfortable or gruesome, humor is an essential ingredient in all of my work. That’s how I relate to and make sense of life — you have to laugh.
I chose the forest and the act of hunting itself as the setting for this uniquely Asian-American story and as a counterpoint to the invisible, Model Minority stereotype. In fact, I wrote the film with Margaret Cho in mind — only she could bring this particular Asian mother to life. As an immigrant teenager in the Deep South in the 90’s, I learned English in part from Margaret’s stand-up on TV. The way she spoke about her mother with such openness, irreverence, and love was a shock to my Asian immigrant sensibilities. I didn’t know you could poke fun at your mother and love her at the same time! That gave me permission to write about my own family in an honest and humorous way.
This film isn’t about passing judgment on this family’s morality. Instead, by witnessing their intimate drama at this crucial crossroad, I want the audience to ponder this unique brand of Asian- American sacrifice, love, and filial piety. As the family gets on the same page at the end, it becomes morbidly hopeful. Perhaps tragedy can reunite a fractured family. After all, a family that hides a body together stays together.
ELECTRIC DREAMS
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
I have been making dance films with my thoughts on what it would be like to approach dance in a cinematic way. Because I am not a dancer myself, nor did I learn it, but body, movement and dance have always been my subjects.
The abstract things in contemporary dance are expressed through new characters and camera gazes, movements, and montages.
CIRCLE
USA 2024, 15 min, USA Premiere
A dream that leads to a dream again even after waking up.
Someone speaks to me in a new way, in a new place.
We go around like the circle and meet again.
This is a film that lets you feel the situations and emotions in a dream through a first-person view camera.
Using a recurring dream as a motif, I filmed the spaces around different place and the movements of body in them from the point of view of an observer.
DIRECTOR BIO
Minkyou Yoo
Born in Seoul, live in Cologne.
Make movies with the themes of body, movement and dance.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
I have been making dance films with my thoughts on what it would be like to approach dance in a cinematic way. Because I am not a dancer myself, nor did I learn it, but body, movement and dance have always been my subjects.
The abstract things in contemporary dance are expressed through new characters and camera gazes, movements, and montages.
CIRCLE
USA 2024, 15 min, USA Premiere
A dream that leads to a dream again even after waking up.
Someone speaks to me in a new way, in a new place.
We go around like the circle and meet again.
This is a film that lets you feel the situations and emotions in a dream through a first-person view camera.
Using a recurring dream as a motif, I filmed the spaces around different place and the movements of body in them from the point of view of an observer.
DIRECTOR BIO
Minkyou Yoo
Born in Seoul, live in Cologne.
Make movies with the themes of body, movement and dance.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
I have been making dance films with my thoughts on what it would be like to approach dance in a cinematic way. Because I am not a dancer myself, nor did I learn it, but body, movement and dance have always been my subjects.
The abstract things in contemporary dance are expressed through new characters and camera gazes, movements, and montages.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
MISERICORDE
USA 2024, 10 min
DIRECTOR BIO
Slovenian born visual artist and filmmaker Nataša Prosenc Stearns earned her BA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. She moved to Los Angeles on a Fulbright Grant for her MFA at California Institute of the Arts. Her body of work ranges from single and multi-channel videos, video installations, short and feature films, video objects and print media. She is known for creative use of non-gallery spaces and large multi-channel installations. Her films Souvenir, (released by Cinema Epoch), The Trial of Socrates, (collaboration of 23 filmmakers), Hotel Diary, Živa and others explore innovative strategies in storytelling and visual expression.
Nataša’s films and artworks have been shown internationally. Her work was also featured in the contemporary opera CodeL.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
MISERICORDE
USA 2024, 10 min
DIRECTOR BIO
Slovenian born visual artist and filmmaker Nataša Prosenc Stearns earned her BA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. She moved to Los Angeles on a Fulbright Grant for her MFA at California Institute of the Arts. Her body of work ranges from single and multi-channel videos, video installations, short and feature films, video objects and print media. She is known for creative use of non-gallery spaces and large multi-channel installations. Her films Souvenir, (released by Cinema Epoch), The Trial of Socrates, (collaboration of 23 filmmakers), Hotel Diary, Živa and others explore innovative strategies in storytelling and visual expression.
Nataša’s films and artworks have been shown internationally. Her work was also featured in the contemporary opera CodeL.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Bombarded by the constant flux of information injected into our lives by technology, we are losing our ability to contemplate. But can technology be turned upon itself and help us feel in a deep, spiritual way? To investigate this, I turned to mixed media. In my work, I master a composite moving image to allow for the grandeur and magic of The Everyday to unfold. I see my video work as an extension of the still image. This combination of moving and still images expresses our shifting internal gestures – where the Eternal is reconciled with the Quotidian.
NEW YORK MINUTE
USA 2024, 5 min
This work continues Lynn Bianchi’s relationship with New York City and its inhabitants – her home and inspiration since 1968. New York Minute was developed and created during lockdown – the year of loneliness and isolation – yet Lynn never felt lonely because the city was right outside her window – still alive and forever hopeful. A love letter to New York, this work is an abstraction of one day in the city – from dawn till dusk – moments that last a minute, or maybe a lifetime.
DIRECTOR BIO
Lynn Bianchi is a fine art photographer and multimedia artist who has shown her work in over thirty solo exhibitions and in museums worldwide.
Bianchi’s photographic work has been shown at Brooklyn Museum, Yale Art Gallery, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland; Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto among others. Servitude I from the Heavy In White series was added to the collection of Walker Art Center in 2019. The work is also reproduced in the Walker’s catalogue The Expressionist Figure among such artists as Edgar Degas, Willem de Kooning, David Hockney, Pablo Picasso, etc.
Bianchi’s art has been featured in over forty publications, including The Huffington Post, Juxtapoz Magazine, Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, Vogue Italia, AnOther Magazine, Phot’Art International, and GEO. Lynn’s work resides in numerous private collections across the globe, including Manfred Heiting’s and Edward Norton’s, as well as in museum collections including Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, Biblioteque Nationale de France in Paris, Musée Ken Damy in Brescia, Italy and 21c Museum in Louisville, Kentucky among others. She has recently exhibited in New York City at The Untitled Space, The Armory Show and BitBazel Miami NFT salon at Salomon Arts Gallery among others.
In 2011 Lynn began working in the video field and has to date produced about 30 multimedia works. Her most recent projects are frequent winners of Best Experimental Awards and have been shown at various festivals all over the world, including New York Shorts International Film Festival, Odense International Film Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival, Berlin Shorts Award, Moscow Shorts, Lund Architecture Film Festival, Budapest International Foto Awards, Tokyo International Foto Awards, New Earth International Film Festival in Poland, Toronto Film Magazine Festival among others. Most recently, Bianchi’s video work New York Minute participated in over 20 different film festivals around the world and was shown to the public at Cinema Village and Alamo Drafthouse in New York City among others.
Lynn’s latest works are suspended between Henri Cartier-Bresson’s idea that to photograph is to hold one’s breath with all faculties converged in an effort to capture fleeting reality, and the belief that flowing processes that transcend reality cannot be entirely captured by static images. By capturing the natural world Bianchi illustrates our human emotions and motivations. The perpetual movements of the ocean or the endless variations of a skyscape reflect our own shifting internal gestures. The artist looks for the precise moment when mastering a static or moving image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Bombarded by the constant flux of information injected into our lives by technology, we are losing our ability to contemplate. But can technology be turned upon itself and help us feel in a deep, spiritual way? To investigate this, I turned to mixed media. In my work, I master a composite moving image to allow for the grandeur and magic of The Everyday to unfold. I see my video work as an extension of the still image. This combination of moving and still images expresses our shifting internal gestures – where the Eternal is reconciled with the Quotidian.
NEW YORK MINUTE
USA 2024, 5 min
This work continues Lynn Bianchi’s relationship with New York City and its inhabitants – her home and inspiration since 1968. New York Minute was developed and created during lockdown – the year of loneliness and isolation – yet Lynn never felt lonely because the city was right outside her window – still alive and forever hopeful. A love letter to New York, this work is an abstraction of one day in the city – from dawn till dusk – moments that last a minute, or maybe a lifetime.
DIRECTOR BIO
Lynn Bianchi is a fine art photographer and multimedia artist who has shown her work in over thirty solo exhibitions and in museums worldwide.
Bianchi’s photographic work has been shown at Brooklyn Museum, Yale Art Gallery, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland; Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto among others. Servitude I from the Heavy In White series was added to the collection of Walker Art Center in 2019. The work is also reproduced in the Walker’s catalogue The Expressionist Figure among such artists as Edgar Degas, Willem de Kooning, David Hockney, Pablo Picasso, etc.
Bianchi’s art has been featured in over forty publications, including The Huffington Post, Juxtapoz Magazine, Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, Vogue Italia, AnOther Magazine, Phot’Art International, and GEO. Lynn’s work resides in numerous private collections across the globe, including Manfred Heiting’s and Edward Norton’s, as well as in museum collections including Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, Biblioteque Nationale de France in Paris, Musée Ken Damy in Brescia, Italy and 21c Museum in Louisville, Kentucky among others. She has recently exhibited in New York City at The Untitled Space, The Armory Show and BitBazel Miami NFT salon at Salomon Arts Gallery among others.
In 2011 Lynn began working in the video field and has to date produced about 30 multimedia works. Her most recent projects are frequent winners of Best Experimental Awards and have been shown at various festivals all over the world, including New York Shorts International Film Festival, Odense International Film Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival, Berlin Shorts Award, Moscow Shorts, Lund Architecture Film Festival, Budapest International Foto Awards, Tokyo International Foto Awards, New Earth International Film Festival in Poland, Toronto Film Magazine Festival among others. Most recently, Bianchi’s video work New York Minute participated in over 20 different film festivals around the world and was shown to the public at Cinema Village and Alamo Drafthouse in New York City among others.
Lynn’s latest works are suspended between Henri Cartier-Bresson’s idea that to photograph is to hold one’s breath with all faculties converged in an effort to capture fleeting reality, and the belief that flowing processes that transcend reality cannot be entirely captured by static images. By capturing the natural world Bianchi illustrates our human emotions and motivations. The perpetual movements of the ocean or the endless variations of a skyscape reflect our own shifting internal gestures. The artist looks for the precise moment when mastering a static or moving image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Bombarded by the constant flux of information injected into our lives by technology, we are losing our ability to contemplate. But can technology be turned upon itself and help us feel in a deep, spiritual way? To investigate this, I turned to mixed media. In my work, I master a composite moving image to allow for the grandeur and magic of The Everyday to unfold. I see my video work as an extension of the still image. This combination of moving and still images expresses our shifting internal gestures – where the Eternal is reconciled with the Quotidian.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Cascade was an organic process. The music recording sessions (that became the soundtrack for the film) were entirely improvised, recorded live in Joshua Tree, CA. Jean, Aram, and Minyoung had traveled to CA from Korea as part of an artists’ residency. There was no score, no overdubs, the music just happened. I was lucky enough to join the session on trumpet and keyboards, music being our primary means of communication. That very human, organic creative process was my inspiration to make the film. The magical desert environs influenced all of us.
I had meanwhile been collecting footage of flowers and water and landscapes the last year without really knowing why. When I listened to the music I immediately realized it would all work together. The final ingredient was Minyoung’s amazing performance (on camera and her vocals in the track).
Aside from the natural elements I had collected, I wanted to create the film as organically as possible – there was no CGI or AI tools or keyframes employed!
CASCADE
USA 2024, 5 min, NY Premiere
Cascade is visceral document of the surrender of Self to Nature. Through a freefall of meticulously collaged, mirrored, and refracted natural images, filmmaker Jonathon Stearns
offers a visual counterpart for an improvised track by esteemed South Korean musicians – guitarist Jean Oh, vocalist Minyoung Kim, and flutist Aram Lee, and American Stearns (on trumpet and piano) . Recorded at Coyote Run Studio in Joshua Tree, CA in January 2024. Recorded live without overdubs, the music is an offering to the natural majesty of the desert environs and the Quadrantids meteor shower occurring at the time. Constructed from original video footage without the use of animation or AI, Cascade floods and redistributes the concept of identity through a non-linear narrative in which the spectator’s imagination is invited to flow in and out of symmetry as the barriers between sound-image and human-environment give way and ultimately erode.
DIRECTOR BIO
Los Angeles Based Filmmaker and Musician
www.channelb4.com
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1086627/
https://soundcloud.com/channelb4
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Cascade was an organic process. The music recording sessions (that became the soundtrack for the film) were entirely improvised, recorded live in Joshua Tree, CA. Jean, Aram, and Minyoung had traveled to CA from Korea as part of an artists’ residency. There was no score, no overdubs, the music just happened. I was lucky enough to join the session on trumpet and keyboards, music being our primary means of communication. That very human, organic creative process was my inspiration to make the film. The magical desert environs influenced all of us.
I had meanwhile been collecting footage of flowers and water and landscapes the last year without really knowing why. When I listened to the music I immediately realized it would all work together. The final ingredient was Minyoung’s amazing performance (on camera and her vocals in the track).
Aside from the natural elements I had collected, I wanted to create the film as organically as possible – there was no CGI or AI tools or keyframes employed!
CASCADE
USA 2024, 5 min, NY Premiere
Cascade is visceral document of the surrender of Self to Nature. Through a freefall of meticulously collaged, mirrored, and refracted natural images, filmmaker Jonathon Stearns
offers a visual counterpart for an improvised track by esteemed South Korean musicians – guitarist Jean Oh, vocalist Minyoung Kim, and flutist Aram Lee, and American Stearns (on trumpet and piano) . Recorded at Coyote Run Studio in Joshua Tree, CA in January 2024. Recorded live without overdubs, the music is an offering to the natural majesty of the desert environs and the Quadrantids meteor shower occurring at the time. Constructed from original video footage without the use of animation or AI, Cascade floods and redistributes the concept of identity through a non-linear narrative in which the spectator’s imagination is invited to flow in and out of symmetry as the barriers between sound-image and human-environment give way and ultimately erode.
DIRECTOR BIO
Los Angeles Based Filmmaker and Musician
www.channelb4.com
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1086627/
https://soundcloud.com/channelb4
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Cascade was an organic process. The music recording sessions (that became the soundtrack for the film) were entirely improvised, recorded live in Joshua Tree, CA. Jean, Aram, and Minyoung had traveled to CA from Korea as part of an artists’ residency. There was no score, no overdubs, the music just happened. I was lucky enough to join the session on trumpet and keyboards, music being our primary means of communication. That very human, organic creative process was my inspiration to make the film. The magical desert environs influenced all of us.
I had meanwhile been collecting footage of flowers and water and landscapes the last year without really knowing why. When I listened to the music I immediately realized it would all work together. The final ingredient was Minyoung’s amazing performance (on camera and her vocals in the track).
Aside from the natural elements I had collected, I wanted to create the film as organically as possible – there was no CGI or AI tools or keyframes employed!
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
Beginning with landscapes of perception, a quartet of dancers metamorphose, fluidly flowing from surface, to density, to a higher state of being; surrounded by synapses firing, and concentric shapes, suggesting the unceasing nature of forces greater us. Viewers are left with the impression that chaos and order coexist, they are not opposites but two views of the energy of the universe.
“In C, Too” is the sequel to “ACT III,” which Winkler and Sanborn created with the music of Philip Glass in 1983. In that seminal piece the artists reimagined the world as composed of contours, symbols and analog video-inspired transformations to visualize Glass’ score. Defiantly abstract, yet filled with human touches and multiple artistic references, the work functioned as a cry of liberation and operated as an original work of media art (named one of the 100 Masterworks of Media Art by Dr. Peter Weibel and the ZKM), and a music/video for the avant-garde. And, yes, it played on MTV.
Separated by 40 years, both pieces use the language of virtuosic video-making to celebrate the power and freedom of transformation, leaning into apophenia, the human tendency to seek patterns for sense-making.
Elena Ruehr wrote “In C, Too” in honor of the 80th birthday of the legendary composer Terry Riley. She describes the work as “a playful romp that explores the pitch C in various tonal guises, and some ragtime.”
Created by Dean Winkler and John Sanborn
Music composed by Elena Ruehr
Performed by Sarah Cahill
From the album “Eighty Trips Around the Sun”
IN C, TOO
USA 2024, 5 min
“In C, Too” illuminates how close our dreams are to a common reality. Through structured visual improvisational techniques, the work explores how humanity survives because of our imagination and desire to transcend. “In C, Too” is also an origin story, operating in renunciation to mortality, focused on life’s essentials – existence, exploration and how entropy ignites evolution.
DIRECTOR BIOS
Dean Winkler is a NYC-based film/television engineer and video artist.
Career highlights include: Senior Engineer Production and Post Production, Doha Film Institute, supervising the production, post production and display of nine boundary-pushing immersive films for the new National Museum of Qatar; Executive Producer / CTO of Crossroads Films and Co-Founder/ President of Post Perfect.
Winkler has collaborated / co-directed numerous video art projects including: Act III (1983) with John Sanborn and Philip Glass (named one of the 100 Masterworks of Media Art by ZKM), Good Morning Mr. Orwell (1984) with Nam June Paik, This Is The Picture with Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel (1984), Perfect Lives (1984) with Robert Ashley, Luminaire (1986) with John Sanborn, Continuum (1990) with Maureen Nappi, 140 Characters (2017) with Maureen Nappi and Don Butler and Our America (2021) with Don Butler.
Winkler holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He holds a US patent on a unique dual reference digital-to-analog converter. His work has been recognized with over 45 Emmy, BDA/Promax, Monitor, ACM Siggraph, Telley, film festival and other awards. He is also an accomplished with aviator who has earned Skydiving, Rotorcraft-Helicopter and Glider licenses.
More info: www.wci.nyc
John Sanborn has been called “a key member of the second wave of American video artists that included Bill Viola, Gary Hill, and Dara Birnbaum” by Dr. Peter Weibel, director of the ZKM. Sanborn’s career spans the early days of experimental video art in the 1970s through the heyday of 80’s MTV music/videos and 90’s interactive art to digital media art of today. His work has been exhibited, screened and broadcast hundreds of times since 1978.
Recent projects include live video/theater performances of God in 3 Persons, a collaboration with The Residents, at MoMA NY; commissions from the National Museum of Qatar, the City of Berkeley, and Jeu de Paume, Paris; solo exhibitions at Galerie Tokomona, Paris; Telematic Media Arts and 836M, San Francisco; and the premiere of The Friend, starring John Cameron Mitchell, at Festival Videoformes. In 2022 the ZKM presented a retrospective exhibition of Sanborn’s work which includes a monograph, to be published in October 2023.
John Sanborn holds an honorary Master of Cinema degree from ESEC, Paris; and named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of Culture of France. Sanborn’s YouTube channel has over 22 million views and over 101,000 subscribers.
More info: www.johnsanborn-video.com
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
Beginning with landscapes of perception, a quartet of dancers metamorphose, fluidly flowing from surface, to density, to a higher state of being; surrounded by synapses firing, and concentric shapes, suggesting the unceasing nature of forces greater us. Viewers are left with the impression that chaos and order coexist, they are not opposites but two views of the energy of the universe.
“In C, Too” is the sequel to “ACT III,” which Winkler and Sanborn created with the music of Philip Glass in 1983. In that seminal piece the artists reimagined the world as composed of contours, symbols and analog video-inspired transformations to visualize Glass’ score. Defiantly abstract, yet filled with human touches and multiple artistic references, the work functioned as a cry of liberation and operated as an original work of media art (named one of the 100 Masterworks of Media Art by Dr. Peter Weibel and the ZKM), and a music/video for the avant-garde. And, yes, it played on MTV.
Separated by 40 years, both pieces use the language of virtuosic video-making to celebrate the power and freedom of transformation, leaning into apophenia, the human tendency to seek patterns for sense-making.
Elena Ruehr wrote “In C, Too” in honor of the 80th birthday of the legendary composer Terry Riley. She describes the work as “a playful romp that explores the pitch C in various tonal guises, and some ragtime.”
Created by Dean Winkler and John Sanborn
Music composed by Elena Ruehr
Performed by Sarah Cahill
From the album “Eighty Trips Around the Sun”
IN C, TOO
USA 2024, 5 min
“In C, Too” illuminates how close our dreams are to a common reality. Through structured visual improvisational techniques, the work explores how humanity survives because of our imagination and desire to transcend. “In C, Too” is also an origin story, operating in renunciation to mortality, focused on life’s essentials – existence, exploration and how entropy ignites evolution.
DIRECTOR BIOS
Dean Winkler is a NYC-based film/television engineer and video artist.
Career highlights include: Senior Engineer Production and Post Production, Doha Film Institute, supervising the production, post production and display of nine boundary-pushing immersive films for the new National Museum of Qatar; Executive Producer / CTO of Crossroads Films and Co-Founder/ President of Post Perfect.
Winkler has collaborated / co-directed numerous video art projects including: Act III (1983) with John Sanborn and Philip Glass (named one of the 100 Masterworks of Media Art by ZKM), Good Morning Mr. Orwell (1984) with Nam June Paik, This Is The Picture with Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel (1984), Perfect Lives (1984) with Robert Ashley, Luminaire (1986) with John Sanborn, Continuum (1990) with Maureen Nappi, 140 Characters (2017) with Maureen Nappi and Don Butler and Our America (2021) with Don Butler.
Winkler holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He holds a US patent on a unique dual reference digital-to-analog converter. His work has been recognized with over 45 Emmy, BDA/Promax, Monitor, ACM Siggraph, Telley, film festival and other awards. He is also an accomplished with aviator who has earned Skydiving, Rotorcraft-Helicopter and Glider licenses.
More info: www.wci.nyc
John Sanborn has been called “a key member of the second wave of American video artists that included Bill Viola, Gary Hill, and Dara Birnbaum” by Dr. Peter Weibel, director of the ZKM. Sanborn’s career spans the early days of experimental video art in the 1970s through the heyday of 80’s MTV music/videos and 90’s interactive art to digital media art of today. His work has been exhibited, screened and broadcast hundreds of times since 1978.
Recent projects include live video/theater performances of God in 3 Persons, a collaboration with The Residents, at MoMA NY; commissions from the National Museum of Qatar, the City of Berkeley, and Jeu de Paume, Paris; solo exhibitions at Galerie Tokomona, Paris; Telematic Media Arts and 836M, San Francisco; and the premiere of The Friend, starring John Cameron Mitchell, at Festival Videoformes. In 2022 the ZKM presented a retrospective exhibition of Sanborn’s work which includes a monograph, to be published in October 2023.
John Sanborn holds an honorary Master of Cinema degree from ESEC, Paris; and named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of Culture of France. Sanborn’s YouTube channel has over 22 million views and over 101,000 subscribers.
More info: www.johnsanborn-video.com
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
Beginning with landscapes of perception, a quartet of dancers metamorphose, fluidly flowing from surface, to density, to a higher state of being; surrounded by synapses firing, and concentric shapes, suggesting the unceasing nature of forces greater us. Viewers are left with the impression that chaos and order coexist, they are not opposites but two views of the energy of the universe.
“In C, Too” is the sequel to “ACT III,” which Winkler and Sanborn created with the music of Philip Glass in 1983. In that seminal piece the artists reimagined the world as composed of contours, symbols and analog video-inspired transformations to visualize Glass’ score. Defiantly abstract, yet filled with human touches and multiple artistic references, the work functioned as a cry of liberation and operated as an original work of media art (named one of the 100 Masterworks of Media Art by Dr. Peter Weibel and the ZKM), and a music/video for the avant-garde. And, yes, it played on MTV.
Separated by 40 years, both pieces use the language of virtuosic video-making to celebrate the power and freedom of transformation, leaning into apophenia, the human tendency to seek patterns for sense-making.
Elena Ruehr wrote “In C, Too” in honor of the 80th birthday of the legendary composer Terry Riley. She describes the work as “a playful romp that explores the pitch C in various tonal guises, and some ragtime.”
Created by Dean Winkler and John Sanborn
Music composed by Elena Ruehr
Performed by Sarah Cahill
From the album “Eighty Trips Around the Sun”
ONLINE
DO YOU REMEMBER DAD?
USA 2024, 16 min
Bryan was kidnapped from Washington state, USA to South Korea by his mother in 2019. There were multiple court orders from both countries, but the child was not returned. A psychotherapist tries to help the return of the child based on the court orders made by the Korean government, but the reality that she faces is more complex and difficult than how it is supposed to be.
DIRECTOR BIOS
The director and the producer Jay Sung is the dad of a child named Bryan Sung. Bryan was kidnapped from the United States to South Korea by his mother in 2019. His son not being returned by the Korean government despite all the court orders, he dedicated his life to raise awareness and tell the world the story of Bryan Sung which was highlighted by the media.
He has won the 3rd place in Fly Fishers International Film Festival for “Until We Fish Together (2021)” the central theme of which was also about his efforts, struggles and redemption related to his son’s abduction.
DO YOU REMEMBER DAD?
USA 2024, 16 min
Bryan was kidnapped from Washington state, USA to South Korea by his mother in 2019. There were multiple court orders from both countries, but the child was not returned. A psychotherapist tries to help the return of the child based on the court orders made by the Korean government, but the reality that she faces is more complex and difficult than how it is supposed to be.
DIRECTOR BIOS
The director and the producer Jay Sung is the dad of a child named Bryan Sung. Bryan was kidnapped from the United States to South Korea by his mother in 2019. His son not being returned by the Korean government despite all the court orders, he dedicated his life to raise awareness and tell the world the story of Bryan Sung which was highlighted by the media.
He has won the 3rd place in Fly Fishers International Film Festival for “Until We Fish Together (2021)” the central theme of which was also about his efforts, struggles and redemption related to his son’s abduction.