Hey, everybody! You know what's up. It's time to meet the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Nelson Kim.
Who are you?
I'm Nelson Kim, a screenwriter and director about to release my first feature film -- a mind-bending drama/romance/thriller called Someone Else, starring Aaron Yoo and Leonardo Nam. You can find out more about it at SomeoneElseMovie.com.
What are you?
Korean American independent filmmaker. Husband. Uncle. Writer. Teacher.
Where are you?
Brooklyn. Currently scrambling to prep for my movie's LA release while juggling my jobs as an adjunct film prof at Fordham University and a copy editor at a midtown ad agency. But, like most artists, I live in my own private headspace much of the time, lost to the world around me... which my wife says is my excuse for not cleaning up after myself.
Where are you from?
Born and raised in northern NJ, high school in NYC, then college and my twenties in the Bay Area. Returned to NYC for grad school in 2002, and will probably be here 'til the very end -- although as I get older and travel more and see how friends are living elsewhere, it's increasingly clear that we New Yorkers put up with a LOT of hardship to justify staying in the Greatest City in the World®.
What do you do?
My ambition is to make movies that are emotionally and viscerally compelling, powered by deeply personal impulses, and centered around complexly imagined Asian American characters. Someone Else is my first serious and sustained attempt at doing so, and I hope to finish a few more before I die.
What are you all about?
Despite everything going against it (the cultural dominance of television and online videos, the collapse of the indie-film economic model, and much else), I'm still in thrall to the feature film format. The writer/director James Toback once said that his favorite movies feel like a single intense moment stretched out over two hours, and those are the kinds of films I love and the kind I aspire to make. In a darkened room, you enter into communion with a singular vision, and you leave somehow different from how you came in.
What makes you angry?
Cruelty. Dogmatism. Lack of empathy. Lack of self-awareness. Self-righteousness. Snobbery. Greed unchecked by morality. The blind worship of wealth and celebrity. Mindless conformity. Basically, human nature makes me angry -- my own sometimes included.