So Yun Um | Director/Producer

So Yun Um | Director/Producer

As a BAFTA Breakthrough, I hope to meet and learn from many of the BAFTA award winning members who can help me advance my career as a Director/Producer in both documentary and narrative film.

Growing up in Koreatown, Los Angeles, merely 5 miles away from Hollywood, So Yun Um always dreamt of telling her own stories on the big screen. Before knowing what path to take, she worked at a Korean Film Festival in Los Angeles one summer - it’s here where she met Park Chan-wook and Lee Chang-dong, with Lee telling her, “If you ever make a film, let me know.” From there, she’d expand her taste of film programming and film critique into filmmaking itself. 

So’s directorial debut, a feature length documentary and Breakthrough project, Liquor Store Dreams (2022), is about second generation Korean American children of liquor stores who set out to bridge generational divides with their immigrant parents in Los Angeles. The film made its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and went on to screen at Busan International Film Festival, BFI London and more. She hopes to continue to explore intimate and challenging stories of marginalized people with piercing humanity and poignant editing.