Ten by Ten (2021)
Jean Rouch International Film Festival
(Paris, France - May 2022)
European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference
(Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK - July 2022)
Nashville Film Festival
(Nashville, Tennessee, USA - Sept/Oct 2022)
Ethnological Documentary Film Festival
(Kratovo, North Macedonia - October 2022)
Regard Bleu Film Festival
(Zürich, Switzerland - October 2022)
EthnoKino Film Festival
(Bern, Switzerland - October 2022)
Tennessee International Indie Film Festival
(Franklin, Tennessee, USA - November 2022)
DocUtah International Film Festival
(St. George, Utah, USA - November 2022)
FESTIVAL SCREENINGS / EXHIBITIONS
North East International Film Festival
(Newcastle, England, UK - November 2022)
IFF Etnofilm Festival
(Čadca, Slovakia - November 2022)
Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival
(Seattle, Washington, USA - November 2022)
Ethnofest - Athens Ethnographic Film Festival
(Athens, Greece - November 2022)
Days of Ethnographic Film Festival
(Ljubljana, Slovenia - February 2023)
Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival
(Bristol, England, UK - March 2023)
American Documentary & Animation Film Festival
(Palm Springs, California, USA - March 2023)
Ethnografilm Festival
(Paris, France - April 2023)
Reel South Short Award - Winner
Nashville Film Festival 2022
Best Student Documentary - Winner
Grierson British Documentary Awards 2022
Best Short Film - Winner
Best of the Fest - Winner
Tennessee International Indie Film Festival 2022
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
Emerging Artist Award - Winner
DocUtah International Film Festival 2022
Best Student Doc - Honorable Mention
Society for Visual Anthropology Film & Media Festival 2022
Wiley Blackwell Student Film Prize - Commendation
Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival 2023
Trailer
About
There is no denying the evocative power of food to remind us of who we are and where we come from. And after living in Asia for over fifteen years, my sister Jessica was longing for the burgers and barbecue of her native Tennessee.
With the help of her husband Dongseop, Jessica opened an American-style diner out of her home on Jeju Island, South Korea in 2018. But after being featured on one of the country’s most popular television shows, the couple must now adjust to the shock of their newfound TV fame, the crowds of curious new customers it brings, and all this amidst the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Exploring themes of food, home, identity, and celebrity, Ten by Ten is an intimate portrait of Jessica’s journey through these events as she learns to navigate the blurred boundaries between private life and public persona.
* This film was produced as part of my MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester - Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.
Director’s Statement
Confession: When I flew to Jeju Island, South Korea in the summer of 2021, Ten by Ten was not the documentary I went there to make. My original thesis research centered on filming an ancestor memorial rite called gijesa, a feast ceremony that my brother-in-law Dongseop performs every July on the anniversary of his father’s death.
Fate (and the COVID-19 pandemic) had other plans.
Frequently changing immigration and quarantine policies delayed my arrival in Korea by more than six weeks and the opportunity to document the entirety of the ceremony passed me by. However, as fate would have it, my delayed arrival placed me in Jeju during Jessica and Dongseop’s television premiere and their sudden brush with fame. I picked up my camera, captured the story as it unfolded, and was there to witness a truly special moment in the lives of my family. This project was so much more than a film or a thesis… It was a gift.