- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we meet two second-generation Korean Americans,
the children of liquor store owners in Los Angeles,
who are trying to bridge the generational gap
between themselves and their parents
in the film Liquor Store Dreams.
So Yun Um grew up watching her immigrant father
work 15-hour days,
365 days a year in a liquor store
in a predominantly Black neighborhood in LA.
It gave the family a seat that was front and center
in the LA riots in 1992
after Rodney King was a victim of police brutality.
So became friends with Danny Park,
who also grew up in and around his family's liquor store
in the same vicinity of LA.
It wasn't until they were much older
that they realized what they had in common:
a very working-class upbringing
against the backdrop of racial inequality
in the nation's second largest city.
It created a bond the two still have today.
Having similar backgrounds,
they leaned on each other as they both came of age.
Eventually, So Yun Um decided to pursue a career as a filmmaker.
It's probably no surprise
that she is also the director of tonight's film.
Park on the other hand
decided to help his mother run the store
after his father passed away.
He left his dream gig at Nike
to join his mother at their family store on "Skid Row"
and believed strongly in building a bridge
between the Black community and his own.
Both of them are honoring their parents in different ways,
as they chose different paths
to pursue their own version of the American dream.
For So Yun Um, it's always been her dream
to tell her own stories on the big screen.
Liquor Store Dreams is her feature film directorial debut
and was derived from a previous work of hers.
In 2018, she received an Armed With A Camera fellowship
and went on to produce a short film.
She drew inspiration from her experiences with Park
and made Liquor Store Babies.
It was during that experience
that she gained the confidence to make a feature film.
During a recent interview,
Um said one of her influences is Martin Scorsese.
She hopes to bring to the big screen
the experiences of Asian Americans
the way Scorsese brought Italian-American experiences
to theaters.
She might not yet have the track record of a Scorsese,
but her film marvelously captures
the struggle and perseverance
first-generation business owners face
as they try to make a better life for their children,
showing us that the American dream
comes in many different forms.
Let's all be part of it.
Liquor Store Dreams starts now
on PBS Wisconsin, your home for independent film.