Join us for a Screening of EDHI ALICE followed by conversation with Edhi and Alice, and Director Ilrhan Kim, Producer Sona Jo, and Assistant Director/Associate Producer Ohyeon Kwon

Presented by GYOPO x IDA (International Documentary Association) x PINKS

Supported by Japanese American National Museum (JANM), UCLA Center for Korean Studies, USC Korean Studies Institute, Koreatown Youth + Community Center (KYCCLA), LA County Arts & Culture, and Visual Communications

About the Film:

Edhi Alice is a film project consisting of two feature-length documentaries that are both the same and yet different: Edhi Alice: Take and Edhi Alice: Reverse. Conceived under the proposition “Transgender is Cinematic,” the project aims to offer audiences a distinctive cinematic experience while fostering dialogue across the community.

Edhi Alice: Take begins from the perspective of lighting director Alice, who has been pushed away from the film set, as she confronts her own body, and transitions to the journey of another protagonist, Edhi, as she encounters new sensations within hers. The film establishes the relationship between the two characters through its cinematic structure, continually drawing the audience’s attention to the act of filmmaking itself. Here, transition extends beyond an individual’s life story, unfolding into a cinematic experience that encompasses relationships, the body, and the perception of space.

Director’s Note:

Edhi and Alice are friends I met through human rights activism. Working with them led me to cinematically re-encounter the concept of transition. For many, a transgender person’s transition is understood as a linear process involving hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgery, and legal gender recognition. But the transition they described was something more. In their experiences, transition was a fleeting yet recurring sensation—like layers continually forming an identity. Identity, they showed me, is not a fixed or completed state, but something fluid, endlessly constructed.

I came to see this transition as a time and space of potentiality, and I sought to explore it through a cinematic sensibility. Edhi Alice is a film about the transformations that occur when two different worlds meet. In Edhi Alice: Reverse, the narrative flows from Edhi to Alice, while in Edhi Alice: Take it moves from Alice to Edhi. Through these mirrored structures, the project seeks to sense and illuminate the transition of a transgender person within the transition of a film itself.

When the end credits roll, is the film truly over? I imagine the edited-out shots, the deleted data, and the unchosen scenes continuing to drift around the film long after it ends. Edhi Alice places its trust in the boundless imagination and expanded possibilities of these floating fragments. My hope is that this film is not an ending, but a beginning—for imagination, for dialogue, and for contemplation.

Edhi (She/Her)

Edhi is a trans woman, queer entertainer, and human rights activist dedicated to transgender visibility. She works as a counselor for LGBTQIA youth in Seoul. After nearly a decade of reflection, she traveled to Thailand in 2022 for gender-affirming surgery, hoping to find peace by aligning her body with her identity—yet her journey continues to unfold through ongoing personal and social challenges.

She founded Jogakbo, a transgender rights organization, and co-founded the Youth LGBTQ Support Center Dingdong, which supports queer youth in crisis. She has hosted PINKS TV, a queer media channel on YouTube, and is the author of If All Goes Well, I’ll Become a Delightful Grandma (2023). Recognized for her work as a social innovator, she was named a Kakao Impact Fellow and has served on the board of the Byun Huisu Foundation. Edhi is a central figure in Edhi Alice.

Alice (She/Her)

Alice is a veteran lighting director with over 20 years of experience. She has built her career on the belief that lighting can open up worlds beyond the frame. Her credits include Rough Play (2013, dir. Shin Yeon-sik), Dongju: Portrait of a Poet (2015, dir. Lee Joon-ik), and The World of Us (2016, dir. Yoon Ga-eun). Since her transition, she has been exploring new directions beyond the film industry. Amid a sense of dissonance with her body, she has turned to dance as a way to more fully express herself. Alice is a central figure in Edhi Alice.

Ilrhan Kim (She/Her)

Ilrhan Kim is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and co-founder of PINKS, a queer feminist media collective active for over two decades. Working at the intersection of queer politics and documentary practice, her films center marginalized lives while engaging questions of state violence, social justice, and collective memory. Her debut, Mamasang: Remember Me This Way (2005), emerged from activist research on U.S. military camptowns. She is widely known for Two Doors (2010), a landmark documentary on the Yongsan tragedy that won the Special Jury Prize at the 2012 DMZ International Documentary Film Festival and was selected for the Korean Film Archive’s 100 Great Korean Films. Her recent film, Edhi Alice (2024), follows two trans women while reflecting on the ethics of documentary filmmaking. Kim was named Woman in Film of the Year in 2018.

Sona Jo (She/Her)

Sona Jo produces feature documentaries on conflict, war, trauma, and women. Her recent work includes 206: Unearthed (Best Documentary, Busan International Film Festival 2021), Coming to You (Best Documentary, Jeonju International Film Festival 2021), Xixi (Hot Docs 2024), and Free Chol Soo Lee, a U.S.–Korean co-production that premiered at Sundance, aired on PBS’s Independent Lens, and won the 2024 Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. In 2024, she became the first documentary producer to receive the MPA Best Producer award at the Wildflower Film Awards.

Ohyeon Kwon (She/Her)

Ohyeon Kwon is a documentary filmmaker and member of PINKS. Her work engages feminist and queer solidarities across borders, as well as contemporary social struggles in Korea. She served as assistant director and associate producer on Edhi Alice, and co-directed Teleporting (2022), a documentary on East Asian feminist solidarity that screened at Hot Docs, the DMZ Documentary Film Festival, and the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival. Her film The Stars Know (2023) follows the ongoing struggle for truth and justice in the aftermath of the Itaewon crowd crush.

Please be advised that this event will be photographed and filmed and that GYOPO may use such photos and videos in print and online, including in social media. By volunteering and RSVPing and attending this program, it signifies your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded.

Community Screening of EDHI ALICE followed by conversation with filmmakers

By GYOPO

Community Screening of EDHI ALICE followed by conversation with filmmakers

Presented by GYOPO × PINKS × International Documentary Association (IDA)

Team Members