Bi-Mok
After her father's disappearance at sea, a Korean-Australian girl, Soo Ji, struggles to find peace with her ailing Grandmother in a bleak steelwork town that holds few answers to her fragmented past.
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Baro LeeDirectorHiruaerak
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Baro LeeWriter
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Olivia JeavonsProducerHomestead
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Milly OlrogProducerCarmen, New Gold Mountain, The Invisible Man, I Am Woman
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Ansel WakamatsuProducer
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Helen KimKey Cast"Older Soo Ji"Wolf Like Me, No Ordinary Love, Doctor Doctor, Ugly Carter
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Anna WooKey Cast"Grandmother"
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Jayne HoKey Cast"Young Soo Ji"
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Diamond TatCinematographyThe Big Dog, Everything In Between,
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Tara SriharanProduction Design
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Kai ChenComposer
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Stephanie Todd1st Assistant Director
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Michael RestifoArt Director
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Will SuenGaffer
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Sebastian ReateguiPost Production Supervisor
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Claire Haru ChoiScript Supervisor
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Soobine ParkCostume Designer
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Project Type:Experimental, Short
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Runtime:19 minutes 20 seconds
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Completion Date:January 12, 2023
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Production Budget:25,000 AUD
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Country of Origin:Australia
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Country of Filming:Australia
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Language:Korean
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Shooting Format:Arri Raw 4.5K
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Aspect Ratio:1.33:1
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Film Color:Black & White
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
BARO LEE is an emerging Korean Australian writer and director
whose stories focus on the sacrifice, grief and tenacity influenced
by his immigrant family and community.
Baro graduated from the University of Technology Sydney in Media Arts and Production and the Film and Television Institute of India. Baro wrote and directed his personal documentary ‘Hiruaerak’, selected as a finalist at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival.
He is also currently a writer in the ‘Stories From Another Australia’ initiative run by Co-Curious and supported by The Ian Potter Foundation, Screenrights Cultural Fund and Screen NSW. Baro has spent the past five years working in several film production such as Marvel Studios to Australian features ‘Elvis’, 'Bosch & Rockit', 'Hearts and Bones', 'Penguin Bloom’, and ‘Carmen'.
I started thinking about this story when I travelled to Korea with my family for a funeral, in 2018. Despite being together, despite needing each other, we never expressed our feelings to each other. Ultimately, grief acted as a barrier between us.
In Bi-Mok, Soo Ji’s sense of loss doesn’t fade away. Her inability to speak about her father's disappearance stunts her ability to move on. She is unable to connect with her only other living relative in the country; her Grandmother. I think a story about the heaviness of silence in immigrant families is a story that speaks significantly to the everyday lives of immigrant families whose experiences have been informed by migration and dislocation.
‘Bi-Mok’ hopes to capture how emotional traumas left unspoken can impact how we navigate our relationship with one another. I witnessed my parents and grandparents hold in their sorrows and hardships, and I’m sure many others like me have experienced the same thing. We made this film in the hope that it will give viewers from CALD backgrounds the courage to find a way to reconnect and heal with their loved ones.