By Catherine Woo
Welcome to NYWIFT, Hyonok Kim!
Hyonok is an award-winning filmmaker and choreographer who creates innovative and experimental film. Hyonok was born in South Korea, then studied film and dance in Paris and New York. Rather than dialogue, her films use dance to express interactions, bringing the emotional experience to the viewer. She choreographed and directed 15 dance films including Weeping Water, For Sunrise, Dance with Horses, Ode on a Korean Urn, Isle of Waiting Souls, Passion & Rebirth, South Sea to Isang Yun and L’Heure de Coq. Her films were shown at international film festivals and broadcasted in France, Germany, Australia, China, Korea, the Netherlands, and the USA. Now, she lives and works in the Bronx.
Hyonok shares her inspirations in nature, as a choreographer and as a storyteller here!
NYWIFT Member Hyonok Kim
Describe yourself. Give us your elevator pitch!
I am an award-winning filmmaker and choreographer. My goal is pushing boundaries while embracing and elevating the arts. Instead of using dialogue, I create a film with a new language, depending on the union of expressive movements, music, set, atmosphere. I am concerned with conveying profound emotion, to externalize inner experiences through circumstances in a way that could stir similar responses in the viewer.
What brings you to NYWIFT?
I would like to communicate with other filmmakers and collaborate together.
What is the best and worst advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice is to listen yourself. The worst is to eliminate what was already conceived in order to write script.
What attracted you to the role as a choreographer?
It attracts me to express deep inner feeling within a theme by human body.
Hyonok Kim receiving a BRIO Award
How has your experience as a choreographer informed the way that you direct films?
Choreography means writing. It creates a language same as a film creates a language. It attracts me to use choreographic language in cinematic way in film to convey an emotion. Dance and film arts are both the art of time. In that sense, the choreography informs story to tell a story.
So many of your short films center nature and natural elements. How do you explore this theme through your choreography and direction?
I believe that nature has a spiritual power. I would like to capture the spiritual vision and bring [it] to the theatre. For me, location is important. Natural elements also become a set design which set the atmosphere desired for the film and play a role as secondary character. It also gives a challenge to movements.
What’s next for you? Are there any upcoming projects that you’re excited about?
I have an upcoming project which I plan to shoot in the Southwestern desert in America.
You can find Hyonok at her website, https://www.hyonokimdancearts.com/copy-of-b-i-o.
Catherine Woo
Catherine Woo is an intern at NYWIFT and an aspiring screenwriter. She will graduate from NYU Tisch with a BFA in Dramatic Writing in 2024. She has interned at Rattlestick Theater and Protozoa Pictures. She has done production photography for PrideFest 2023 at The Tank and Broke People Spring 2023 Play Festival at NYU.
Related Posts
NYWIFT Member Spotlight: Kathryn O’Kane
Today, we’re shining a spotlight on former NYWIFT Board Member Kathryn O’Kane! Kathryn is the co-director and co-writer of the short comedic film Subtext, which has been accepted into the 2025 LA Shorts International Film Festival, screening July 26 at 7:45 p.m. LA Shorts is the longest-running short film festival in Los Angeles. The festival screens over 400 films and attracts 10,000 attendees each year, including Hollywood industry professionals and emerging undiscovered independent filmmakers. Subtext follows Eric, who is running late to his first date with Sara, and he just can’t stop texting. A feeling so many of us, unfortunately, are bound to relate to. Kathryn sat down with co-director, co-writer, and editor Christopher Raby to talk to us about their creative process.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Christine Stoddard
Welcome to NYWIFT, Christine Stoddard! Christine Stoddard is a filmmaker, TV personality, and video artist named one of Brooklyn Magazine’s Top 50 Most Fascinating People. Her latest film is 5 Ways I Didn’t Marry You, directed by Tom Dunn. A 2025 graduate of Columbia Journalism School and the Columbia Painting Intensive, she creates imaginative films, deeply reported TV programs, and playful videos. Currently, she hosts the TV show Don't Mind If I Don't with Aaron Gold. She also runs the YouTube channel Stoddard Says and terrorizes the Internet with her alter ego Art Bitch. Her feature film, Sirena's Gallery, is streaming on Amazon and Tubi and was featured in The Brooklyn Rail. As founder of Quail Bell Press & Productions, her film and theater projects have been recognized by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Puffin Foundation, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and other organizations. Get to know Christine, her roots in the film industry, and her experiences as a TV host!
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Andrea Frierson
Welcome to NYWIFT, Andrea Frierson! Two-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Andrea Frierson is a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a NYSCA grant recipient, and a Library of Congress Award-winner (Ethnographic Research, American Folklife). Her plays and musicals have been produced by Lincoln Center Theater and the York Theatre Company in NYC, among others. As an actor, her Broadway productions include: The Lion King, Once on This Island, Bring in ‘Da Noise/Bring in ‘Da Funk, Eubie!, For Colored Girls, Marie Christine, and Julie Taymor’s Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass. Television appearances include: Quantico, Pose, Red Oaks, Elementary, and Harlem. Andrea was a series regular on the Nickelodeon TV series, Allegra’s Window. In our interview, Andrea discusses her experiences as a writer, actor, and singer, and her journey writing her memoir.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Mari SanGiovanni
Welcome to NYWIFT, Mari SanGiovanni! Mari is an award-winning LGBTQ filmmaker, screenwriter, director, and owner of Love Is Love Productions, LLC. She is also a published author of four novels and multiple screenplays, two of which have been produced as short films: The Sibling Rule (picked up by a LGBTQ streaming service, Lesflicks) and Retreat, which will be in festivals in 2025. In our conversation, Mari discusses her roots in the film industry, her experiences as a writer, and how she advocates for the LGBTQ+ community through her work.
READ MORE
Comments are closed