Florida Film Festival 2019 – A Year
A Himalayan village woman yearns to provide a better life for her young daughters. But the only possible option she sees is surrogacy – a choice that will explode her domestic tranquility and become a searing dilemma.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer/Editor Jisun Jamie Kim
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
A Year started when I heard about the evacuation of 26 Israeli surrogate babies from Nepal during the recent earthquake. Right about then I had been thinking of having my own eggs frozen. Changing my career and pursuing my dream of becoming a filmmaker in my 30s made me delay, year after year, facing the question of having another child. Freezing eggs and having a child through IVFs were not uncommon choices among my friends.
So this film begins with the question of how this international surrogate system affects the people involved. The surrogate mothers who carry babies for those she never even meets, the barren parents who hire must surrogate mothers – like same-sex parents from Israel, who turn to nameless Nepalese women to fulfill their dreams.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
The experience I’m most trying to communicate with this film is the experience of a searing dilemma – of the sort that many know all too well. It’s the feeling of being torn in two. We struggle to do the best for our kids, sometimes with no idea what the “best” would be. Do we work more for possible access to their better financial and social status, or do we worry less about their future and more about the love they very much need from us right here, right now? While this story is set in so specific situation, I think this question is universal to all of us.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
My work as a writer-director is largely focused on exploring the complex dynamics of motherhood. My interest in this subject is rooted in my own relationships with both my mother and daughter. I think it represents both personal and universal themes for my film.
I find myself continually returning to the subject of motherhood because it wasn’t until I became a mother myself that I found the courage to pursue filmmaking. Growing up as the daughter of a hyper-critical mother who did not believe in the value of following a creative path, I never felt that I was strong enough to pursue my own artistic dreams. Embarking on motherhood sparked my resolve to write and direct my own stories, which has subsequently given me the strength to quiet the constant, internal critic I inherited from my upbringing.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I went to visit Nepal for the first time only four months before the principal shooting. I only had one name on hand when I landed in Katmandu airport. This was Keshab Pandey, a film teacher of the only film school in all of Nepal. I met him on the first day I arrived there. Two days later, I left Katmandu with him and his former student, Prabin Rawat, to scout a location. It was an adventure. I trusted them. I had to.
Over the course of our week-long trip into the villages in the heart of Nepal, we ate in their kitchen and slept in their guest rooms. The villages seemed over-populated by women and virtually run just by their own manual labors. The men had left home to earn money in the cities. My ears and eyes were drawn to those women. What might make these women choose to be surrogates and leave behind their home and kids? When I left the same Katmandu airport ten days later, my heart was filled with these questions.
This script was developed with a vision of something this specific transformed into something poignantly universal. The basic story follows Anu for one day, as she visits the city to meet the surrogacy broker. She learns that not only does she need to deliver the baby for strangers but she also needs to leave her daughters for an entire year, just to get paid. And get paid she must, because that will be the money for her daughters’ education.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
After this film premiered at Telluride last August, it has shown to many film festivals and won an award. Since Telluride was the first film festival to show my film, it was certainly a nerve breaking moment for me. I didn’t know what to expect. However, I’ve approached by many people after the screening and was told that they found this film very relevant to their lives even though the situation of the film was very specific.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Unfortunately, I haven’t been challenged by yet. I hope when this film is shown to more film festivals and eventually online, I would access a broader and more diverse feedback.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I am very honored that wearemovingstories found this film and have contacted me. I am very sorry it took me a while to respond to you. Looking back, I know the reason. Since you are the first journalist to contact me regarding this film, I’ve been overwhelmed by my own expectation of doing this right.
I would hope that this opportunity will bring more opportunities to share this film either on paper or on screen. Also, I hope this article will provide more information for those who already have seen this film.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We do not have sales agents, distributors yet. Also, we welcome any contacts from journalist and film festival directors.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I can only wish this film will help the audience to reflect their own lives and the lives they don’t know well about.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
When I first visited Nepal, I stayed at a traditional hotel called Kantipur Temple House. The owner of the hotel showed an interest in what I was doing there. After I told him the story, he asked me what I think is the “best” for the kids in the film.
Four months later, when I came back to Nepal to shoot, I shared my script I just finished with Anu, the lead actress of the film. When we met the next day to discuss the script, Anu began to cry during our conversation. After her sobbing slowed down, she said my script was the story of her mother’s.
To my surprise, Anu shared me the following story; Anu’s mother worked at the health post in her village. Even though she had only two daughters, she refused to have more children to have a son. Instead, she wanted her daughters to be doctors. Without her husband’s support, Anu’s mother left her two daughters in Katmandu where Anu’s father lived for his job. For the next 11 years, Anu’s mother worked at the same health post in her village to send tuition for her daughters.
The twist of the story is that being a doctor turned out not the best path for Anu. Even though she really worked hard at her college, Anu couldn’t get good enough grades for many required classes. She got depressed until she found acting and started to pursue it as her career.
I’d like the audience to ask themselves after watching this film, what really is the best? Sometimes we struggle so much with no idea what the best would be for our children. Do we work more for possible access to their financial and social status, or do we worry less about their future and more about the love they very much need from us right now? I think it is a question worth asking.
Would you like to add anything else?
Thank you so much again for contacting me.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
My current project, Nobody’s Perfect, is the story of a woman who, under the shadow of her own overbearing mother, sacrifices her sense of self for the sake of her family, especially her Autistic and epileptic son. Despite her best intentions to care for her child, the woman eventually comes to the painful realization that she never made the attempt to understand or form a meaningful relationship with him. This epiphany sparks a moment of self-reckoning, giving the woman the courage and conviction to stand up to her own mother and reclaim her life.
Interview: May 2019
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A Year
A Himalayan village woman yearns to provide a better life for her young daughters. But the only possible option she sees is surrogacy – a choice that will explode her domestic tranquility and become a searing dilemma.
Length: 13:47
Director: Jisun Jamie Kim
Producer: Jisun Jamie Kim
Writer: Jisun Jamie Kim
About the writer, director and producer:
JISUN JAMIE KIM is a Korean-American writer-director who was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. Her latest short film, A Year premiered at Telluride Film Festival in 2018 and was the recipient of Woodstock Film Festival’s 2018 best student film award. Her other previous work includes MIA, which won the Golden Palm Award at Mexico International film festival in 2018. Jisun’s work has been shown to Boston film festival, New Orleans film festival, Florida film festival and Short shorts in Japan.
Prior to filmmaking Jisun taught Psychology as a lecturer and worked as an investment analyst at UBS wealth management. She is currently making her first feature film Nobody’s Perfect. The film is being produced by Christos Konstantakopoulos whose credits include: Before Midnight, The Lobster, and Love is Strange. Jisun is a Maurice Kanbar Scholar and a graduate candidate of NYU’s Graduate Film Program.
Key cast: Anu Thapa, Mahesh Tripathi, Mihika Gyawali, Omika Gyawali
Looking for: distributors, journalists