Minari (2020)
Director: Lee Isaac Chung Run Time: 115 min. Rating: PG-13
Starring: Alan S. Kim, Noel Cho, Steven Yuen, Will Patton, Yeri Han, Yuh-Jung Youn
Country: United States
Language: English, Korean with English subtitles
Gateway Film Center is proud to present the first official retrospective of A24 films, Uncut Gems: A Twenty-Four Day Collection, August 4—September 11, 2022. Explore the full schedule of films here.
About the film:
“One of the most profound and honest cinematic depictions of what it means to be American, not just this year, but in recent memory.”
—Oliver Jones for Observer
Winner of the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and winner of the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language. Universally acclaimed, the film earned six nominations at the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards, and six nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards – including Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor for Steven Yeun – with Yuh-Jung Youn winning both the Academy Award and Independent Spirit Award for her supporting role.
A tender and sweeping story about what roots us, Minari (2020) follows a Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother.
Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, the film shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.
About the filmmaker:
Award-winning writer and director Lee Isaac Chung grew up on a small farm in Lincoln, Arkansas. He received his BA in biology at Yale University and his MFA in film studies at the University of Utah. His work deals with memory, family, and authentic human experiences.
His highly acclaimed debut feature was the Rwandan family drama Munyurangabo (2007), a collaboration with his filmmaking students in Kigali and the first narrative feature film in the Kinyarwanda language. The film premiered at Cannes, and Chung was selected for the New Directors/New Films series at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, and he was nominated for the Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirit Awards.
His follow-up features include Lucky Life (2010) based on the poetry of Gerald Stern and Abigail Harm (2012), a modern story inspired by the Korean folktale “The Woodcutter and the Nymph.” He revisited Rwanda in the documentary I Have Seen My Last Born (2015), a moving portrayal of a man navigating life in a changing country.
For the semi-autobiographical Minari, Chung worked with a predominantly Korean American cast and crew, including Executive Producer Steven Yeun, who became the first Asian American to be nominated for Best Actor, and acclaimed South Korean actress Yuh-jung Youn.
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