Tag: filmmaker

Yoon Grace Ra
Yoon (they/them) is a trans/non-binary filmmaker and organizer raised by communities in and around New Jersey and New York. Growing up in a family of mixed classes and statuses, they were exposed to a diversity of identities early on. It was through a class-based understanding of identity that Yoon mediated other modes of identity, such as queerness and love. Acknowledging the beauty of romantic love and romantic queer love, they describe their formative experiences as being shaped by community, spirituality, and family. Yoon soon began to understand that love could also be a collective force. In their own words, queerness is how someone builds relationships outside of what the “norm” may be; queer people are anyone who chooses to live outside a nuclear family, “having the liberation to be with whoever is best for you.”

Anthony Hull
Anthony Hull was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey, to a Korean mother and a Black father who worked as an army mechanic. As a child, he remembers growing up in a relatively diverse community with friends who were Asian, or had Asian parents; it was in the fourth grade, when he befriended a transfer student from Korea, that Anthony began to feel a sense of pride and solidarity in his own Korean identity. In college, he remembers struggling to “half” identify with his dual heritage, feeling alienated from in-groups who didn’t see him “Black enough” or “Korean enough:” then and today, he feels that he is both 100% Black and 100% Korean. Following graduation, Anthony moved to New York to pursue a career in acting and filmmaking, where he now has his own production company to tell the stories he’s always wanted to share.

Aaron Choe
Born and raised in San Jose, Aaron Choe always knew he wanted to reconnect with Korean culture. In high school, he discovered 90s K-pop, which sparked a curiosity that eventually led him to visit his sister who lived in Korea. Aaron fell in love with the country and ended up moving there permanently in 2008. Since then, Aaron’s been living in Korea as a film director and DJ. Making sense of his identity, Aaron has fully embraced his Koreanness and encourages others to move there to truly experience the country.