B-Side: For Taylor is a passion project inspired by my own upbringing, growing up in an interracial family in the American suburbs. After immigrating to the states with my mother and brother at the age of four, the distance quickly disconnected us from our relatives back in Korea, including my birth father. Soon after, we met Walter, my Caucasian stepfather who raised me from the age of eight. In these formative years, I found myself in the delicate struggle of having a deep curiosity about the birth parent and family that was absent from my life and guilt toward my stepfather in fear that the curiosity would mean my questioning who he was in my life. But this desire was persistent and multi-layered because it wasn’t simply about wanting to know about my family but was also about the culture that I was estranged from.

But as I delved deeper into this void I felt, it was evident that the absence and loss of my birth parent and origins played a pivotal role in shaping the surrogate parent I did have. And acknowledging this was a shift that transformed me from grief to hope in my adolescence.

This is what B-Side: For Taylor is about: letting go of the life and person you thought you were meant to be, to fully evolve and become who you actually are. Though B-Side: For Taylor is a coming-of-age story, it does not solely focus on finding oneself but rather on how the search itself shapes who we become. How our deepest voids can become the catalyst for resilience and empower us to determine for ourselves the person we want to become. It is both a cautionary tale and a story of hope – one that explores the decay of holding onto pain, but also how facing it can birth a new life. And finally, at its core, it is an homage to the unique relationship between a surrogate parent and a child (the kind that I know so well).

As a Korean-American filmmaker, I am also proud to state that our team is helmed by AAPI creatives in all key roles. Collectively, our works have premiered and received awards at festivals such as Palm Springs International ShortFest, Cinequest, Short of the Week, OUTFEST, CAAMFest, among others. We are also fortunate to have a cast that authentically reflects our story as they are Korean and Korean-American talent who have already enriched the screen through notable independent features such as MS. PURPLE (Sundance ‘19) and MINARI (Best Picture Oscar nominee ’21).