# Gina Kim (filmmaker)

Gina Kim (born 1973, South Korea) is a filmmaker and academic. Kim's five feature-length films and short films have garnered acclaim through screenings at most major film festivals and at venues such as the MOMA, Centre Pompidou and the Smithsonian. According to Film Comment, Kim has "a terrific eye, a gift for near-wordless storytelling, a knack for generating a tense gliding rhythm between images and sounds, shots and scenes, and for yielding a quality of radiance in her actors". Between 2004–2007 and 2013–2014, Kim taught film production and theory classes at Harvard University, being the first Asian woman teaching in her department (Visual and Environmental Studies). Kim was also a member of the Jury for the 66th Venice Film Festival and the Asian Pacific Screen Awards in 2009. Currently, Kim is a professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.

## Film career
### Gina Kim's Video Diary (1995–2002)

In 1995, upon moving to the United States for her MFA, Kim began shooting Gina Kim's Video Diary. In it, Kim realizes a vision of the modern female nomad—one who travels fluidly not only between Asia and America, but between multiple languages, film genres, and personal, local and cinematic histories. Screened at the Berlin Film Festival, Gina Kim's Video Diary was described in the catalogue as "an extremely personal account of one' woman's fears, fantasies and projections" that "provides the viewer with an unusual self-portrait that is deeply unsettling, moving and life-affirming", and now it is frequently cited as a classic in the genre of personal documentaries.

### Invisible Light (2003)

Following Gina Kim's Video Diary, Kim began making fiction films to further many of the same concerns as her documentary work. Invisible Light (2003) tracks the physical and psychological journeys of two Korean/Korean-American women, which led Cahiers du Cinéma to call it "a little block of feminine hardness and repressed anger". Senses of Cinema also asserts that "Kim's rigorous mise-en-scene matches the unflinching singularity of her vision." In addition to winning the special award at the 2004 Seoul Women's Film Festival, Invisible Light has been screened at more than 23 film festivals and in over 15 countries.

### Never Forever (2007)

Kim's next film, Never Forever, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for its Grand Jury Prize. Starring Vera Farmiga and Ha Jung-woo, Never Forever engages the generic conventions of melodrama to examine facets of gender, sexuality, race and class for both women and Koreans in America. Never Forever was the first co-production between the United States and South Korea, and it was commended by Variety for "Kim's highly sensitive camera", which "turns the film into a chamber-piece hushed eroticism and surprising narrative grip". Martin Scorsese has also called the film, "A moving experience [in which] the performances are wonderful and touching, and the style...intense and very precise." Kim was nominated as Best New Director for the Grand Bell Awards (South Korea's Academy Awards), and Never Forever won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Deauville American Film Festival.

### Faces of Seoul (2009)

Following a commission by the Korea Foundation, Kim returned to her documentary work and created a video essay called Faces of Seoul, which "reveals Korea's capital as a dynamic place where these opposing concepts—language vs. image, tradition vs. modern, native knowledge vs. exotic encounter—rub against each other without yielding a single dominant perspective." Praised as a "palimpsest of time" by Seoul National University Professor Min Eun Kyung, Faces of Seoul combines both original and archival footage, including video taken by Kim herself of the infamous Sampoong Department Store collapse in 1995. Faces of Seoul premiered at the 2009 Venice Film Festival, where Kim was invited to be a jury member. Subsequently, she was featured in L'Uomo Vogue as one of the "Talents of Venice".

### Final Recipe (2013)

Kim's film Final Recipe (2013) is a Thai-Korean co-production starring Michelle Yeoh and Henry Lau. It premiered at the 2013 San Sebastian Film Festival as the opening film for the Culinary Zinema section and was invited to be the opening film for the Hawaii International Film Festival. Final Recipe is the first English-language film made by an Asian director with all Asian stars, and it can be seen as Kim's response to any sense of a single dominating Asian culture, as well as Hollywood's past appropriations of Asia. It features actors and crew from all over the continent, such China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. The Hollywood Reporter commends Kim for how "she conjures a non-exotic piece out of a territory-trotting narrative, where every place is made to seem like home". Final Recipe also opened the Culinary Cinema section of the 2014 Berlin Film Festival.
In January 2015, Final Recipe was announced as the first official co-production between China and South Korea.
The film was wide released in China on August 26, 2016 and opened on 3,240 theaters nationwide. The film will be released in the US and South Korea in 2017.

### Bloodless (2017)

Bloodless is a 12 minute VR film that deals with camp town sex workers for US army personnel stationed in South Korea since the 1950s.
Bloodless was awarded the Best VR Story Award at the 74th Venice Film Festival.

### Tearless (2021)

Tearless (2021) was awarded the Reflet d'Or for the best immersive work at the 27th Geneva International Film Festival.

### Comfortless (2023)
## Academic and teaching career

Kim received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Seoul National University in 1996 before moving to the United States to attend the California Institute of the Arts where she received her Masters of Fine Arts in 1999.
Between 2004–2007, and 2013–2014, Kim has taught film production and theory classes at Harvard University, being the first Asian woman teaching in her department. Kim's Korean Cinema course was also the first of its kind taught at an Ivy League college, and in 2005 she curated the series "Visions from the South: South Korean Films from 1960–2003" at the Harvard Film Archive. As acknowledgment of special contribution to the teaching of undergraduates at Harvard College, she was awarded a Certificate of Teaching Excellence from Harvard University in October 2014.
Kim became a professor at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 2017.

## Publication

In 2017, L'atelier des Cahiers published Séoul, Visages d'une Ville, a multimedia photo book essay based on Kim's feature length documentary Faces of Seoul (2009).
In 2018 Kim was listed as one of the "Top Teachers in Film, TV" by Variety magazine.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Festivals | Special Screenings | Awards |
| 2023 | Comfortless | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2023 Venice International Film Festival 2023 Jeonju International Film Festival 2024 Atlanta Film Festival | 2024 Korean Film Archive Special Screening 2024 Special Screening at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea |
| 2021 | Tearless (short) | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2021 BUCHEON International Fantastic Film Festival 2021 Geneva International Film Festival 2021 Venice International Film Festival | Centre PHI Sandman Studios, "Sandbox Immersive Festival" MC2:Grenoble Centquatre-Paris Invr.Space MEET Digital Culture Center Fandazione Giacomo Brodolini - Laboratorio Aperto Di Modena Museo Nazionale del Cinema M9 - Museum of the 20th Century Eye Filmmuseum Less Media Group - Moscow Museum of Modern Art Espronceda - Institute of Art & Culture Salon IKSV and Kolektif House (Levent and Maslak) "Euromersive Turkey" Portland Art Museum & Northwest Film Center | Recipient of Best Immersive Work, Geneva International Film Festival 2021 |
| 2017 | Bloodless | Yes | Yes | Yes | 47th Festival du nouveau cinéma Kino Asia 2018 Docaviv 2018 Paris Virtual Film Festival 2018 22nd Sofia International Film Festival 2018 True/False Film Festival 2018 Charleroi Women's Film Festival 2018 Movies that Matter Festival 20th One World Film Festival 14th Dubai International Film Festival 15th Bogotá Short Film Festival 10th Geneva International Film Festival 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 41st São Paulo International Film Festival 22nd Busan International Film Festival 22nd Milan Film Festival 50th Sitges Film Festival 18th Adelaide Film Festival 74th Venice International Film Festival 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 19th SEOUL International Women's Film Festival | Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro "VFX RIO 2017" Museum of Tomorrow "VFX RIO 2017" Ventana Sur "Trends VR" B3 Biennale EYE Film Institute Netherlands Västsvenska Filmdagarna "Narrating in VR and 360 Degree Films" VR Days Europe 2017 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art "Asia Film and Video Forum" University of California, Los Angeles "VR Showcase" University of California, Los Angeles "Colloquium" | Filmmaker (magazine), Best VR Storytelling of 2017 Recipient of Breakthrough in Storytelling Award, Digital Storytelling Lab at Columbia University School of the Arts Recipient of Best VR Story Award at Venice International Film Festival Santa Lucía Award for Best Virtual Reality Short Film at Bogotá Short Film Festival Recipient of Film Centre Serbia Best VR Film Award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival Recipient of Venta VR Production Grant in 2017 Recipient of Dankook University BK 21 PLUS Production Grant in 2017 |
| 2013 | Final Recipe | Yes | Yes | Yes | 25th USA Film Festival – Opening Night film 22nd Febiofest International Film Festival 21st Victoria Film Festival 33rd Hawaii International Film Festival – Opening film 61st San Sebastian Film Festival – Opening film for Culinary Zinema section 64th Berlin Film Festival – Opening film for Culinary Cinema section 6th Duoro Film Harvest 14th Jakarta International Film Festival 1st Buenos Aires Korean Film Festival 4th Transatlantyk Film Festival 40th Seattle International film festival 30th Los Angeles Asian Pacific film festival – Closing film 31st Miami International film festival TIFF Next Wave Film Festival 37th São Paulo International film festival | Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art | |
| 2009 | Faces of Seoul | Yes | Yes | | Asian American Film Festival (New York) 66th Venice International Film Festival 6th Dubai International Film Festival | Space One Gallery DanO Spring Festival, Saint Louis Art Museum Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine Seoul National University Claremont McKenna College | Recipient of Korea Foundation Media Fellowship |
| 2007 | Never Forever | Yes | Yes | | Festival International de Films de Femmes (Creteil) Florence Korean Film Fest Braunschweig International Film Festival Silk Screen Asian Film Festival Verona International Film Festival – Special Mention San Francisco Asian American Film Festival Hawaii International Film Festival Deauville American Film Festival – Special Jury Prize Asian American Film Festival (New York) Sundance Film Festival – US Dramatic Competition, nominated for Grand Jury Prize | University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles Darren Star Screening Room Harvard University Korea Institute Wake Forest University Museum of Anthropology Claremont McKenna College Harvard Film Archive University of California, Irvine Film and Video Center | Nominated for Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival Recipient of the Special Jury Prize, Deauville American Film Festival Nominated for Best New Director, Choonsa Award Nominated for Best New Director, Grand Bell Award, Korea (Dae-jong Award) Recipient of LEF Moving Image Fellowship Recipient of Harvard Film Study Center Fellowship |
| 2003 | Invisible Light | Yes | Yes | Yes | Era New Horizons International Film Festival Art Plus Film Festival New York Video Festival Maine International Film Festival IFP Los Angeles International Film Festival Buenos Aires International Film Festival Minneapolis International Film Festival Seoul Women's Film Festival – Special Jury Award Chicago Asian American Film and Video Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Goteborg International Film Festival Seoul Independent Film Festival Turin International Film Festival Pusan International Film Festival Vancouver International Film Festival Locarno International Film Festival San Francisco Asian American Film Festival | Pacific Film Archive Hamilton College California Institute of the Arts Harvard Film Archive Korean Film Archive – Korean women directors retrospective Smithsonian Institution – Korean film retrospective University of Georgia – Korean film retrospective University of Hawaii – Korean Film Conference (closing film) | Special Jury Award, Seoul Women's Film Festival Recipient of KOFIC (Korean Film Council) production and distribution awards Recipient of Coreana Production Fellowship |
| 2002 | Gina Kim's Video Diary | Yes | Yes | | Torino International Film Festival Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Berlin International Film Festival Vancouver International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival | Gallery Wooduk (Seoul) – Self-portrait exhibition Indievideo Archive (Seoul) – Traces of Everyday film festival Tokyo Cinema Jukyu (Tokyo) – "Desires Within Image – Featuring Gina Kim's Video Diary" special screening | |
| 2001 | Morning Becomes Eclectic (short) | | | | Bangkok International Film Festival International Short Film Festival (Oberhausen) Visual Communications LA Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival | Shedalle Art Space (Zurich) – Slow exhibition | |
| 1999 | Empty House (short) | | | | Seoul International Documentary Film Festival Visual Communications LA Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival (Directors Guild of America) PIA Film Festival – Best Korean Short Films Selection (Tokyo, Japan) Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Seoul Women's Film Festival | Centre Pompidou – CalArts Programme 2: Bonheur Domestique Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) – TOMORROWLAND: CalArts in Moving Pictures UC Irvine – New Asian Pacific Cinemas Conference | Honorable Mention, Seoul Women's Film Festival |
| 1998 | Flying Appetite (short) | | | | | Post-colonial Classics of Korean Cinema Festival (UC Irvine) | |
| 1997 | Door (short) | | | | | Film Forum (CalArts) | |
| 1996 | Walking (short) | | | | | | |
| 1995 | Passing Eyes (short) | | | | | | |
| 1995 | The Picture I Draw (short) | | | | | | |
| 1995 | Ok Man, This Is Your World (short) | | | | | | |
| 1995 | Heroine (short) | | | | | | |