USC Annenberg and the USC Korean Studies Institute hosted a discussion on the movie K-Pops! with co-creators Anderson .Paak and Khaila Amazan on March 5 at the ASC Auditorium of USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The session was moderated by USC Annenberg Clinical Associate Professor Hye Jin Lee, who made this event possible.
K-Pops! explores a musician who travels to South Korea to revive his career only to discover his long-lost son is a contestant on a hit K-pop competition show. The movie took nearly five years to develop and was shot across the U.S, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Amazan described becoming involved in K-Pops! through an email invitation for her to join the team. Amazan has been a K-pop fan since 2010 and wrote an AP Literature paper on it.
“Believe in your essays, kids!” she said.
Amazan recounted supporting .Paak in shaping his narrative for the film. Amazan complimented .Paak’s humility and dedication to screenwriting – even recounting .Paak responding to her messages while performing on-stage with Bruno Mars.
While describing his creative inspiration for the film, .Paak detailed growing up in a predominantly Black community and seeing few Black and Asian stories on-screen. .Paak said the lack of representation fueled his filmmaking centering lived experience of Black and Korean communities.
“When people like myself get a platform, it’s important to invest in different, unique stories, and give people opportunities so that we can start changing things,” he said.
The movie explores the nuances at the intersection of Black and Korean identities through the perspective of an estranged father learning to connect with his son.
.Paak further elaborated that the film was inspired by his own father-son relationship with his then-8 year old Soul Rasheed. During the COVID-19 quarantine, .Paak spent increased time with his son and learned about his interests in K-pop and YouTube.
While performing skits with Rasheed, .Paak was compelled by his son’s innate humor and fast learning. This inspired .Paak to develop a film around his son’s passion for K-Pop. And of course his son would be featured in it!
.Paak described becoming a student of K-pop because he was not familiar with the genre. However, his son’s love for K-pop fueled him to learn more so he could develop the film.
In his studies, .Paak learned that K-pop is used as a narrative device and the music acts as the bridge between the different generations. Specifically, .Paak realized K-Pop is deeply inspired by Black American culture – specifically The Jackson Five, The Temptations and Motown Records.
Emma Feldman, a videographer for USC’s K-Pop cover dance team ‘Spade A,’ shared excitement around the identities being represented on screen.
“I love that we get to see Korean heritage plus Black heritage combined into one thing,” she said.
USC Communications major Lillian Lee said attending the session shed light on how cultures and generations are deeply interconnected.
“This is showing me that collaboration between different cultures is possible and people actually like that,” she said.
Coming from a musical background and delving into filmmaking, .Paak made the movie the same way as he would make an album, carving out his particular style as a director.
“It was important for my first film to be something that would unite families and people. To see a family on screen, something that was joyous and fun, about love, music and bonding,” he said.
For .Paak, the future seems exciting as he is optimistic that this movie might be one of those things that adds to the conversation, leading to more such movies being made.