Inspirations for My Film: White Rabbit

Producer Ben Kim and Writer/Director Christina Yoon

EDITOR’S NOTE: White Rabbit is a senior thesis film written and directed by Christina Yoon at NYU Tisch School of the Arts –Joz

By Christina Yoon

Grace, a lonely 13-year-old aspiring journalist, discovers that a fellow classmate is murdering rabbits and is driven to stop him. When she confronts him in the act, she realizes that she may care more for the damaged perpetrator than the murdered rabbits themselves.

Human connection and disconnection has always fascinated me, perhaps because it has always been one of my struggles. When I was young, I had few friends and always felt like an outsider looking in. It wasn’t until my teenage years that I became fully aware of my inability to connect. Thus began the darkest and most transformative period of my life, when for the first time, I became plagued by endless questions – how to be better, how to feel whole, how to be happy. Ultimately, this film asks: What happens when you can’t find the answers?

You’re living in the dark. Some may kick and punch through it in rebellion; others dwell and sink deeper, hoping for an escape.

This film explores this darkness and the two people whose worlds collide in it.
Early adolescence is an age that I believe is too often portrayed as one-dimensional – a major exception being The 400 Blows. I wish to bring my characters to life the way Francois Truffaut did – making them sophisticated and complicated, yet still too childish to fully understand themselves and their place in the world. Grace and Dylan experience tragedy, desperation, and yearning, but most of all, develop a deep connection that finally gives them the answers they have been looking for. What comes to life is a strange and beautiful reality, reflecting the subjective point of view of the 13-year-olds within it.

The beauty of cinema to me is the ability for the viewer to discover inner truth in new and foreign worlds. To go far and find yourself. With White Rabbit, I seek to draw from what has lived within me to create an honest, perspective-changing film about what it means to be lost. Just as Grace and Dylan begin to find answers, I hope this film will move you to search for answers of your own.

Check out more about about our project and see how we funded our Kickstarter project!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christina Yoon is a writer and director at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she makes dramatic films exploring love, psychology, dreams, and human connection or lack thereof. Her most recent film, Wake, explores the dreams and deep-seated fears of a boy whose grandfather re-enters his life after suffering from a stroke. Christina has worked professionally for Di Bonaventura Pictures (Paramount Pictures), Viacom/MTV Networks, and The Institute – Michael Bay and Scott Gardenhour’s commercial production company.