[KickStarter] Against Medical Advice (a short film)
Published on | Source
LOGLINE
It's about something that marks all of us - the unenviable reality of our parents growing old.
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SYNOPSIS
Soon-Jung Kim (60's) goes for a routine check up at her doctor's office, but accidentally ends up in the ER. Mimi (30's), her daughter, hears the news and rushes to the hospital thinking that there was a misunderstanding due to Soon-Jung's difficulty with English. Upon arrival, Mimi finds out there is a real cause for concern, but they are both not ready to accept the news.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
To outgrow your parents is part of a life cycle.
You first realize that they are not invincible. Then you realize they are flawed human beings just like any others. Then eventually you become the caregiver and the role reversal is complete.
Each of these stages is heartbreaking.
I am in my 30's and the health of parents have become one of the biggest concerns for me and my friends in the recent years. I remember being small enough to fit in my mom's lap. I would look up at her smiling face as she gently patted my back and my whole view was engulfed in her embrace. Now it is hard to believe that moment ever happened. This is why I want to tell this story, to capture this moment with love and humor.
I hope to convey the shifting dynamics between parent and child and how we learn to cope and react to it. It's about us growing up and our parents growing old.
Hye Mee Na, Writer/Director
Writer/Director/Editor Hye Mee Na immigrated with her family to the United States from South Korea when she was fifteen. Her initial struggles with language barriers placed her in math and science classes, leading her down the path to studying behavioral biology and neuroscience in college. For seven years, she worked in a renowned Parkinson's Disease Research lab where she shaved tiny rodent brains into thinner than paper slices on a glorified meat slicer. She also became an expert at bargaining for microscope parts. In 2008, she left the world of microscopic imaging and enrolled at New York University's prestigious MFA Film program in order to pursue her lifelong dream of filmmaking.
Within four years of switching her career, she received the Tisch School of the Arts Departmental Fellowship, became an adjunct instructor for editing workshop, and edited Spike Lee's feature film Red Hook Summer which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. She now works in New York City where she is currently editing Spike Lee's next feature length documentary about Brazil. Evident in both her background in neuroscience and her passion for filmmaking is her fascination with human behavior that strays from the perceived "norm". She is also deeply interested in exploring the factors that influence the formation of one's identity and the perception of the "other" in her films. Her ultimate goal as a filmmaker is to make the audience laugh and cry at the same time.
KickStarter's page
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/against-advice/against-medical-advice