First and foremost, a huge congrats to director Hyunmi Park and her documentary,
Sick World! We just got back from the
Canada International Film Festival in Vancouver, B.C., where
Sick World won a Royal Reel Award for Best Documentary Feature. Yay!
Next, I would like to congratulate all of the cast, crew, and supporters of
Ripe, which will screen this June at the
Women's International Film & Arts Festival in Miami, FL. This was the first narrative feature film that I was hired to shoot, and I'm excited that this fun, little movie will finally get its chance on the big screen!
* * *
The summer of 2012 was an interesting time in my life. My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the year before, and his health began declining rapidly soon after. Not long after the diagnosis, I decided to take time off from work so that I could assist my family at home.
Around March 2012, my friend Hyunmi called to tell me about a documentary she was developing and invited me to shoot for her that entire summer. I was hesitant to go due to the circumstances at home, but after much consideration and deliberation with my family, I decided to make the trek to South Korea. About a month in, my dad passed, and I had to make the trip back home. My family thought it would be best for me to finish out the shoot, so a couple of weeks after the funeral services, I was on a plane back to South Korea.
With about a month left of production on
Sick World, I received an email from Lauren and Karin, two gals I had met a couple of years before on a short film they hired me to shoot. They had just finished writing a feature-length screenplay and were excited to produce it. They wanted to shoot it at the end of August and were wondering if I would be available to shoot it for them. I told them that I was out of the country and didn't think it would work out, since I would be getting back stateside the day they wanted to start production. They pushed the dates back for me, and the day after I got home, I was in a car heading to California's Central Valley to start principal photography on
Ripe.
I am extremely proud of these two projects and are excited to see them finally getting their spotlight on the festival circuit. I will continue posting more updates about these movies, so please check them out if they are ever playing near you!
