SIXTEEN

2020 Completion, Duration: 12:09, Aspect Ratio: 2:1, Languages: Korean and English.

DIRECTOR

Nahyeon Lee

PRODUCER

Julie Zhu

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Milon Tesiram

STARRING

Ha Jin Park

Sua Cho

Dan Lee

ART DIRECTION

Amanda Jane

Robinson

COSTUME

Min-soh Choi

SHOW ME SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL (2021), DISORIENT ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL (2021), SAN DIEGO ASIAN SCREEN FESTIVAL (2020), PHILADELPHIA ASIAN AMERICAN SCREEN FESTIVAL (2020)

With an unplanned pregnancy and a strained relationship with her mother, life is not the K-pop fantasy Yaejin dreams of.

Sixteen-year-old Yaejin Kim (Sua Cho) lives in a gauzy, hormonal daydream, dilly-dallying on the streets and in the sheets, with her boyfriend Wes (Dan Lee). Enamoured by her first romance, she keeps her relationship a secret from her Christian mum, Hae Rin (Ha Jin Park), a Korean nail technician, as their one year anniversary celebration nears.

Sixteen is a coming-of-age short screen blending vignettes of domesticity with chaotic K-Pop fantasies in an honest exploration of intergenerational difference in a vivid portrait of Korean-New Zealand girlhood.

Many thanks to our Boosted Donors here, Shuchi Kothari, The University of Auckland and Chillbox Creative.