Illuminate I, 2025
Single-channel video, HD, color, Soundtrack by s é h e e, 4 min 52 sec
This film uses a surreal visual language accompanied by haiku-like dialogue. Rather than following a linear story, fragmented images of body parts such as eyes, hands, and lips express the protagonist’s emotions. In reality, I often encounter moments of synchronicity, and I wanted to reflect that in this film, when light unexpectedly appears in my daily life.
Illuminate II: Bright Tongue, 2026
Single-channel video, HD, color, Soundtrack by s é h e e, 7 short films
This omnibus film blends documentary and visual poetry to connect the stories of seven immigrants from diverse backgrounds, including Eritrea, Japan, China, Iran, Argentina, India, and Costa Rica. As all seven participants are residents of Washington state, the project carries both a local anchor and a global resonance that reflects the region’s rich cultural diversity.
The central theme begins with an open question: “Think about the brightest thing in your life.” Rather than following traditional biographical research, the film captures the participants' psychological worlds through a poetic lens. In a polarized world, the project seeks to express shared humanity and intimacy while finding beauty beneath division. The camera focuses on the subjects’ homes and personal spaces to document their gestures rather than their faces. Each segment is audio-driven, featuring narrations in the subjects' own voices through various formats such as poems, essays, stories, or conversational dialogue. Because English is not their first language, their distinct accents hold history and lend a unique "glow" to the sound. Their narrative monologues convey an emotional landscape, ultimately guiding them and the audience toward an optimistic vision of a shared future.
Jupiter Channel, 2025
Single-channel video, HD, color, 20 min 8 sec, Experimental film
Directed by Soo Hong. Sound from copyright-free sources.
Recycled footage from the past 15 years is transformed into an experimental dialogue between sound and image. Exploring how distortions of time, image, and sound affect the viewer’s unconscious, the film invites you to look again and reconsider perception.
Mono-Chameleon, 2025
Single-channel video, HD, BW, 2 min 55 sec, Experimental film
Direction and sound by Soo Hong
Mono-Chameleon observes urban identity and the evolving landscapes of city life, viewed through the lens of cosmopolitan street cultures and universal systems. I am particularly drawn to the language of the streets—bridges, windows, and roads—where graffiti and signs emerge as raw expressions of human presence and interaction. These shared public spaces serve as a canvas for examining how individuals leave their marks and navigate the complexities of identity within urban settings.
Liquid World, 2025
Single-channel video, HD, color, 3 min 11 sec, Experimental film
Direction and sound by Soo Hong
Liquid Modernity, a concept by Zygmunt Bauman, captures the drifting, unstable feeling I often experience in today’s world. What once felt adaptable now seems fragmented, marked by fleeting connections and a longing for belonging. This film is a short trilogy that explores fluid states and the search for stability amid constant change.
Monsoon, 2025
Single-channel video, HD, color, 3 min 43 sec, Music Video
Song by s é h e e, Direction by Soo Hong
Monsoon is a quiet portrait of emotional estrangement and the uneasy comfort of melancholia. Through fragmented gestures and overlapping imagery, a woman moves through a blurred inner landscape, where language falters, beauty feels distant, and rain becomes both shelter and companion.
Inspired by the song’s exploration of fear, longing, and the desire to remain in sorrow’s embrace, the film lingers in a fleeting emotional state, where stillness holds weight, and the monsoon season reflects a phase of quiet unraveling.
Welcome Dreamers, 2022
15 sec, Loop animation, Silent
Levitating Dream, 2022
15 sec, Loop animation, Silent
Mix Tape, 2021
Single-channel video, HD, color, 4 min 15 sec, Animation
Direction by Soo Hong, Sound credited at end of film
In the ’90s, we made and exchanged mixtapes as a way to communicate through music instead of letters. This film is a reflection of that nostalgia. It weaves together clips from my daily life into a glowing, kinetic mix of abstract digital painting, photographic imagery, texture, and vibrant color, where form and pattern move in rhythmic motion.
Screening at Local Sightings 2021 – Coloring Beyond the Lines: Animated Shorts.
Visiting Rain Village, 2020
Single-channel video, HD, color, 1 min 40 sec, Loop animation, Silent
Direction by Soo Hong, animated by Ian Nacke
The Rain Village project is a ritual to emotionally embrace the Pacific Northwest, specifically the Greater Seattle Area, as my new home. Rain symbolizes Seattle, with each droplet representing an individual. Community members contributed by drawing raindrop shapes on paper, which were then transformed into 3D renderings to create this seamless loop animation. This project was developed in collaboration with Ian Nacke, a student at Lakeside Upper School, during my residency there.
I See, 2009-2019
Single-channel video, 4K, color, 5 min 42 sec, 16mm film transferred to digital animation
Direction, hand painted on film and sound by Soo Hong