The Final Chapter
dir. Mina T. Son
Stanford University, USA
Synopsis:
Following two morticians, Final Chapter explores the meaning of death through the eyes of individuals who confront mortality on a daily basis.
Director:
Mina T. Son is an award-winning documentary filmmaker currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University. She strives to make films on an eclectic range of topics, all with the common thread of offering a glimpse into underrepresented and rarely seen subjects and individuals. Her thesis film is a short observational documentary film following two Korean students who attend the California School for the Deaf. The documentary explores how the students navigate the complexities of adolescence and the transition to adulthood within the duality of Deaf and Korean culture.
Originally from Garden Grove, California, Son ventured into the world of filmmaking in 2006 with her first short documentary, In My Home, about her experience as a full-time caretaker for her mother. In 2007, she was awarded the Armed with a Camera Fellowship from Visual Communications, a premier Asian Pacific media arts center in the United States, and completed her second short documentary, Past the Food, about a Vietnamese American man’s experience with compulsive binge eating.
Son’s films have screened at several prestigious film festivals including Margaret Mead, Mill Valley, Starz Denver, and the LA Shorts Fest. Her recent short documentary about a young table tennis champion called Top Spin, which she co-directed with Sara Newens, was selected as a 2010 Student Academy Awards Regional Finalist and won Best Short Documentary at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.