Fort Mill graduate wins top award at New York film festival

Isaac Kim found his love for film while surrounded by children suffering with health problems in India.

Kim, who graduated in June from Comenius School of Creative Leadership in Fort Mill, recently took home a top award at the All American High School Film Fest in New York.

The film festival, held last weekend in New York City, annually invites high school filmmakers from around the world to submit their creations.

“It’s kind of like the Oscars in high school,” said Ginese Wilmot, who teaches at Comenius.

It’s an achievement Kim has been working toward for years.

Kim’s parents were missionaries. He lived as a child in the Mary Wanless hospital in Kolhapur, India. Kim’s parents were renovating the hospital to treat children with HIV and AIDS.

“I remember being surrounding by constant depression,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “All the children were sick and dying. These children were my friends. It was wrong in every way to see these kids laying in hospital beds instead of playing out in the sun.”

Kim, now 18, said he one day found a projector on the stage of the hospital’s chapel room. He started playing the show “Tom and Jerry” for the kids.

“During the show, laughter filled the room. All the kids that were dull and sorrowful were suddenly filled with joy and happiness,” Kim wrote. “As they watched the film, it was almost as if they forgot that they were sick. It was during that moment that I realized the power of film and entertainment.”

Kim and his family moved around after India, traveling to California, then North Carolina (in Monroe and Charlotte) before landing in Fort Mill in August 2012.

Kim said the Comenius school provided a unique education that helped hone his creative skills. He said having no homework and no classes on Fridays provides more time for students to explore creative arts they are interested in.

Kim said Comenius doesn’t have a film program but inspires creativity.

“Comenius is a school of leadership. Their education system is remarkable, like nothing I've ever seen before,” Kim wrote. “If it weren't for the freedom that Comenius gives its students, I wouldn't have had the time or resources to make my film.”

Kim submitted his short film “Journey Bound” to the New York festival.

Kim describes the film as a “coming of age story set in the 1960s about four high school childhood friends going on one last adventure.”

Along the way, the friends learn how to balance adventure and growing up as they get ready to embark on their own paths, Kim said.

Kim said he used his own experience leaving high school as inspiration and invited his friends to star in the film.

“As my time at school neared its end, I felt a mixture of several emotions regarding leaving all my friends and going to film school,” he wrote. “So, to let it all out, I made a film about it.”

Kim said he was inspired by such films and shows as “The Goonies,” “Super 8,” “The Sandlot” and “Stranger Things.”

“I wanted to capture the feeling of childhood adventure,” Kim wrote. “The conflict in the film was the pull between adventure and growing up. As they near the end of their childhood, they must find their balance.”

Kim now lives in California and is a freshman in the University of California Los Angeles’ theater, film and television program.

He said he was happily surprised by the film festival win.

“I know the road up ahead is still going to be rough as a filmmaker, but winning this award gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, South Carolina dreams mean something,” he wrote.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Fort Mill graduate wins top award at New York film festival."