Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyung Sok Kim.
Kyung Sok, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I was eighteen years old, I was in the hospital for a couple of months due to a recurring lung illness. And as you may know, staying in the hospital for a while can make one feel emotional. On the hospital bed, I started to think about life and death more seriously for the first time. I knew that life could be short, and I wanted to leave something valuable before I am gone. After I got out of the hospital, I started watching a lot of films created by master filmmakers. I found myself feeling jealous because they managed to communicate with me as well as various audiences despite them having passed away. This caused me to feel attracted to films, sparking my interest in pursuing filmmaking.
During my undergraduate years at Hanyang University in Seoul, I learned various aspects of filmmaking such as writing, directing, producing, cinematography, editing, and even sound recording by crewing on countless sets. As time went by, I started to direct my own films and meet a variety of people through film festivals and events. Due to this, I developed more and more passion for directing and writing films.
After completing my undergraduate studies, I moved to Los Angeles and attended the MFA in Directing program from the American Film Institute to polish my directing skills and give myself a chance to try out in a bigger industry. By working with highly experienced crews and professional SAG actors, I furthered my skills on how to collaborate with a team and communicate with actors effectively. Since then, I’ve shot seven projects and had opportunities to screen my work in numerous prestigious film festivals worldwide. Currently, I am based in Los Angeles and am working on directing various international projects as the young aspiring filmmaker that I am.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It was definitely not easy. Each project that I shot had its unique challenges, and as soon as I overcame those challenges, I always tried to give myself a bigger one. I believe that artists shouldn’t settle down until they retire, and I also believe that having challenges helps you become more creative and make you more precise on what you really want to say or achieve.
Another struggle that I had was to find a team who could potentially be my lifelong collaborator. Even when I moved to Los Angeles, which is full of passionate artists, it took some time to find the right people who share a similar vision and philosophy as I. Now, I believe I have a solid team with members who can guide and help each other’s paths as well as collaborate with me in future projects.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a writer-director who always tries to explore the deeper part of my character’s emotions by showing their daily lives. I’ve always been more interested in character-driven stories where one or two character’s segments of lives are portrayed throughout the movie rather than genre or plot-driven movies. In fact, I do in-depth research for the system, environment, and era that have shaped or impacted the characters. However, I prefer to reveal them slowly and subtly in the movie.
My latest work Furthest From was selected in more than 40 film festivals including numerous Oscar-qualifying ones such as LA shorts, HollyShorts, and the Nashville Film Festival. Thanks to this film, I also had the honor of being the first Korean live-action director to win an award at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, which is one of the oldest and the most prestigious film festivals in the world. It was very challenging to bring the 1990s back in its entirety, but my team and I managed to do it successfully through great collaboration.
Recently, I am working on post-production for my upcoming film Thursday’s Child which I wrote and directed. I hope I can reach more audiences with this project as well since it’s a story that I’ve been wanting to tell for a long time.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
As long as I don’t compromise my philosophy and vision, I would always love to have as many audiences as possible for my films. Moreover, I hope audiences can relate to my characters and their feelings. If my films could remind viewers of certain memories, emotions, or make them ponder about something after watching them, that would be even better. If my work can still create an impact on people even after I have passed through this lifetime, that is something that I would consider a success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kyungsokkimfilm.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kim_kyungsok
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