Break Point
A friendly tennis match between siblings dredges up old grudges and highlights lost opportunities. The court is not the only place Dean and Kiara are at a break point.
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Yeri KimDirector
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Ashley DeanWriter
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Yeri KimWriter
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Ethan McDonnellProducer
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Popii ColbertKey Cast"Kiara"
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Edward DanielsKey Cast"Dean"
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Jennifer EsquivelKey Cast"Rachel"
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Amy NietesDirector of Photography/Camera Operator
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Harold BarbourEditor
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Trisha NguyenArt Department
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Ciara HutchinsonG&E
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Project Type:Short
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Runtime:8 minutes 10 seconds
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Completion Date:May 10, 2021
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Production Budget:2,500 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:4:3
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:Yes - Virginia Commonwealth University
Yeri Kim is a first-generation Korean-American and aspiring writer-director whose mission is to explore the individuality and universality of the minority experience through film. Her quarantine short film “Unfinished Products” was selected as part of The Anderson Gallery’s “From a Distance, Near and Small” showcase in 2020. She is currently finishing her BA in Cinema at the Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts.
It was in December 2020, well into the pandemic, when I wrote the short story concept that would later turn into “Break Point.” In hindsight, it was entirely reflective of what I had been writing about and experiencing for the past couple of years, namely nostalgia. Most of the time, we experience nostalgia as a pleasant, albeit bittersweet feeling. However, I didn’t realize that I had this genuine fear of growing older and becoming an “adult” that had been haunting and making itself known to me in my writing. That, coupled with spending the pandemic at home with my family, inclined me toward exploring how relationships within families change over time.
Ashley graciously took this concept and wrote the first drafts of “Break Point” before going on to work with me on later revisions. We explored the complexity of family dynamics as family members slowly grow into different versions of themselves as time passes. When I imagined the script coming to life, I pictured it in the still, meditative frames of Ozu. I wanted to capture the bittersweetness and ambiguity of relationships that are close – or, were once close – yet imperfect. This is something many people, especially college students, have had to reckon with as the pandemic has affected people’s living situations. I hope that our film will be a light to the people all across the globe who go through this human experience of growing older, wiser, and different.