PATTI KIM GIL'S "BLACK KOREA" EXPLORES THE OVERLOOKED STORY OF BIRACIAL UPBRINGING IN TROUBLED TIMES

As a B Dad, it's important to be in touch with the challenges our spouses, partners and children face.  Unfortunately, there aren't always rosy stories of great, safe childhood upbringings.  We also live in an age where there are more and more interracial marriages than ever.  According to Pew Research, one-in-six U.S. newlyweds (17%) were married to a person of a different race or ethnicity in 2015, a more than fivefold increase from 3% in 1967. Among all married people in 2015 (not just those who recently wed), 10% are now intermarried – 11 million in total.  When marrying and entering into different cultures, cultural acceptance becomes essential not only to the man and woman, but to the children that are born of that relationship.  Identifying wholly with both sides of a child's culture is important but often difficult. 

The film Black Korea, created by filmmakers Patti Kim Gill and Christine Swanson, tells a story of a family coping with understanding and interpreting two different cultures in an often hostile world.  Gil's Korean mother, bore Gil with a black man, who became abusive and drove Gil to live with her mother in law on the South Side of Chicago.  The experience for Gil was foreign - while she was half Black, she knew nothing of this new culture. To make matters more difficult, Gil's mother abandoned her at the age of 13 leaving her to navigate this new world on it's own.  The film explores this journey of discovery, acceptance, denial, and disruption in a young child's life - all seen through the myriad of perspectives we have about mixed race children and culture.  

The 30 minute short film screened last night at The Bronze Lens Film Festival in Atlanta and is set to screen in theaters across the US in the coming months.  Check your local listings for visits to a town near you.