DaSol Park
Fiction & Documentary Filmmaker based in NY state and South Korea
Fiction and documentary filmmaker DaSol Park draws on her experiences of moving between contrasting worlds—rural and urban, South Korea and the U.S. —to portray women’s simultaneous disconnection and solidarity in her films. Park’s work explores Korean women's dilemmas and struggles taking place in the 30 years after South Korea's rapid economic development, a period often referred to as "Miracle on the Han River".
Depicting the close connections people form and experience with family, romantic partners and friends, Park highlights the unspoken hierarchies and oppression that often exist in these relationships. Inspired by sociologist Erving Goffman’s idea that everyday life is a stage where people wear different masks, Park shaped her first film, "The Play" (2023), around this premise. In this five-minute, one-character film, the facade of a happy family is depicted through the character's mask-like makeup and the layered sound design, where family members only appear through their voices offscreen. Through these stylistic . . , Park points out deeply rooted disconnections and generational conflict present in many South Korean families.
Her interest in complicated interpersonal relationships continues in her slice-of-life short film "Fix You" (2025). Portraying a friendship between two teenage girls, Park asks a painful question, "Can you accept yourself as who you are?" Park portrays characters who embody the suffocating reality faced by Korean teenagers suffering under unrealistic beauty standards and intense academic pressure. Through narratives of overcoming these struggles with friendship, her work seeks to heal the wounds they carry.
In her most recent film, "Nothing but Relationships" (2025), Park deepens her exploration of disconnection. Centered on the stories of two women in their mid-twenties, this documentary translates a decade of Korean feminist discourse into an intimate, personal narrative. Against the backdrop of an intense anti-feminist backlash, Park frames the struggles of Korean society through the lens of two women’s love stories. The tight focus ultimately reveals a perspective on the country’s intense and constant social tensions around sex and sexual politics.