Oscar®-Qualifying Sarajin by Justin Kim WooSŏk: Loss Faced by Immigrant Family Displaced by Climate Change

Sarajin explores layers of loss faced by immigrant family displaced by climate change

Los Angeles, CA (Oct. 9, 2023). Pronounced sa-la-jin, based on the Korean word for disappearing. Justin Kim WooSŏk’s Sarajin explores what we hold onto and what we let go of as the natural world begins to collapse around us. This short draws inspiration from Justin’s Alaska research, following 10 billion snow crabs disappearing from the Bering Sea. It follows an immigrant family and the tough decisions they have to make. When the snow crabs they rely on completely disappear.

Logline: Sarajin follows an immigrant fishing family. Who are forced to decide whether to stay or leave their new home in Alaska after the snow crabs they depend on disappear. 

This film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. It is part of Indeed’s Rising Voices campaign. An initiative set up to discover, invest in and share stories created by BIPOC filmmakers and storytellers. It is in qualification and consideration for a 2024 Academy® Award. Indeed’s Rising Voices program is a creation in collaboration with Lena Waithe, Hillman Grad Productions, Ventureland and 271 Films.

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Korean American director Justin Kim WooSŏk is a writer-director. His work focuses on loss, displacement, and our changing relationship with the natural world. He graduated Wesleyan with an honor’s degree in Film and American Studies. Justin got his start in the film industry working at Sugar23 and Jigsaw Productions.

His last short film White Grass is a selection for the 2022 Sundance Ignite program. It screened at various festivals and museums around the world including Sundance, HotDoc. Then Museum of Contemporary Art in South Korea. He is a current Sundance Asian American fellow and was previously a recipient of the Fulbright, Thomas J. Watson, Mortimer-Hays Brandeis, and Sony Pictures Classic x IFP Marcie Bloom fellowships. He is currently writing his first feature.

Tim and Sara Beers are the producing partners behind Sarajin. They have a rich and diverse portfolio across all genres and formats of entertainment. They have collaborated with with the world’s acclaimed stars, personalities and brands. Including Mark Hamill, Cadillac, Nobel Peace Prize Candidate Mahbouba Seraj, and Michelin Star Chefs Jordan Khan and Niki Nakayama.

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Their storytelling is deeply takes its root in their own life journeys. Tim’s upbringing in a rural blue-collar community in western New York and  Sara’s journey as a Bosnian war-refugee. Their have shared experience working on Discovery’s Deadliest Catch. This has endowed them with intimate understanding and empathy these issues. The challenges, triumphs, and complexities associated with immigration, blue-collar work, and the formation of identity. These personal experiences are at the very heart of their creative process. It enables them to craft authentic narratives that resonate profoundly with audiences and breathe life into powerful stories like Sarajin.

The short is in qualification and consideration for a 2024 Academy® Award.

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