Mountain View-based filmmaker John W. Kim’s career has taken him all around the industry for more than 25 years, from screenwriting to directing. But this month, for the first time, Kim’s work has reached the silver screen.
Kim’s film “Reunion” made its world premiere March 15 at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose and will be screened at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Mountain View. A Q&A with Kim and associate producer Devin Altman follows the screening.
“We’re grateful for the community support,” Kim said. “The movie is an ensemble piece, and I think every character is someone people can relate to.”
“Reunion” follows Guy (Jake Choi from the sitcom “Single Parents”), an Asian-American funeral-home worker attending his high school reunion as he tries to jump-start his life. There, he is mistaken for another Asian alum who has become a billionaire after graduation.
The plot, according to Kim, is loosely based on his experience as an Asian-American immigrant in the Bay Area. Kim was born in South Korea and grew up in Palo Alto, attending Gunn High School.
“Being Asian American, you’re looked at differently – you felt adjacent to every conversation,” Kim said. “That feeds into the themes of ‘Reunion,’ where you have a character who enters a universe where people mistake him for someone else because they can’t tell the difference.”
For Kim, that “difference” is what inspired him to become a screenwriter and director. Kim grew up during the 1970s’ Second Golden Age of American Film, and recalled watching movies like “The Godfather,” “Serpico” and “All the President’s Men” – often with his mother at the old Mountain View Theatre on Castro Street.
“You could go out almost every weekend and see a great movie,” Kim said. “The combination of exposure to great movies and stories and the opportunity to experiment helped feed my ambition.”
That love for movies and storytelling initially led Kim to pursue an acting career. But he said the lack of Asian representation on the stage and screen redirected him to working behind the camera.
“I looked around on television and film, and I didn’t see anyone who looked like me,” Kim said. “I thought those were bad odds. I knew I could write, so I thought I could learn to direct. That’s when I started making short films.”
After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with his bachelor’s in literature and creative writing, Kim went all-in on filmmaking. In 1996, he graduated with an MFA in film production from the University of Southern California – one of the nation’s top film schools. Mentored by and collaborating with now-award-winning producers and directors, Kim said he attributes much of his success to his experiences and connections from USC.
“I needed to go somewhere that would teach me how to direct, and that was USC,” Kim said. “They taught us everything – including the unpleasant realities. For that, I’ll always be grateful.”
For the next “20-something” years, Kim said he wrote and directed short films, finding success in competitions such as the Nicholl Fellowship, Austin Screenplay Competition and Sundance Filmmakers Lab. But Kim said the script for “Reunion,” which he started writing around the COVID-19 pandemic, was his big breakthrough.
“It (the script) won a Silver Prize in the Page International Screenwriting Awards – it was the first time in years someone actually paid me money,” Kim said. “That was when things started to move. We did table readings and began raising money. We had a lot of positive responses. Eventually, we pulled together a team, including several USC graduates, and began production.”
But filming quickly faced an unexpected roadblock. After just one day of shooting on Jan. 7, 2025, the Eaton and Palisades wildfires forced a weeklong pause.
“We were put through the fire – literally,” co-producer Noah Pitifer said. “After two years of preparation, our very first day of filming had to shut down because the worst wildfires in LA history were about to begin. We had to evacuate immediately and leave everything behind.”
But immediately upon returning to the studio, it was right back to business.
“A week later, I had to redo all the film permits, reschedule the actors and reorganize everything,” Pitifer said. “But the crew stuck together, and we finished the film only about a week behind schedule.”
About a year later, “Reunion” was completed.
Along with Choi, the film features Hollywood veterans such as Candy Clark (Oscar nominee, “American Graffiti”), Madeline Zima (“Californication”), Kelli Garner (“Lars and the Real Girl”) and Ryan Hansen (“Party Down”).
For Kim, the film’s premiere at Cinequest not only brings his work back to his roots, but it also gathers the community to share feedback and experience the joy of watching movies together.
“One of the things I love about movie theaters is the shared experience,” Kim said. “As an artist, what you want from an audience is a reaction. What you don’t want is indifference. Art exists to hold a mirror up to society and ask questions about who we are.”
Tickets to Saturday’s screening are $14. The theater is located at 2575 California St., Ste. 99. For tickets and more information, visit tinyurl.com/JKimReunion.
