Unspoken

Director   Patrick G Lee
Country   USA
Year   2020
Languages   English
Genre   Documentary
Running Time   17 min

Through letter-writing, a community discussion, and a drag performance, six queer and trans Asian Americans grapple with their queerness and consider what family acceptance might look like.

This film is part of the Homecoming series.

Director’s Statement

I started imagining a film like Unspoken around the same time I started seriously considering what coming out to my Korean immigrant parents might look like. In that process, I realized that coming out was a personal choice for me to make based on my instincts and my circumstances — not a default “milestone” required of all queers, as it’s often assumed to be. I also realized that, before I could potentially navigate sharing my queerness with my family of origin, I first needed to find grounding in my own community of fellow diasporic queers of color.

I wanted to make a film that would transform the often solitary, even lonely process of coming out into a shared experience grounded in community, collective care, and celebration. And I hope Unspoken will help initiate honest and hopeful conversations around what unconditional acceptance can look like within immigrant communities.

Director’s Bio

Patrick G. Lee (he/they)

Patrick G. Lee (he/they) is a queer diasporic Korean documentary filmmaker, writer, and community organizer. He’s interested in building collaborative, community-based models of filmmaking that reject traditional hierarchies of authority and that equip queer and trans people of color with media-making skills. His work-in-progress feature documentary, UNTITLED KQT PROJECT, is supported by Firelight Media, Sundance, and CAAM. He has been coping with pandemic times mostly by eating carbs.