Cindy Choi

Set in early-2000s SoCal, Smoking Tigers follows a Korean American girl as she navigates derision and growing tensions while balancing the duality of her low-income family and wealthy, elite high school environment.

When Hanna Su's mom kicks her out of the house after she drops out of college, Hanna moves into her car and in an act of defiance parks it on the public side of the street across from her family home.

This personal hybrid documentary unearths the complexities and nuances of the relationship between a Korean-American daughter and her immigrant mother. As the filmmaker creates her own images of her mother's life before motherhood, difficult questions of freedom, authorship, and filial responsibility emerge.