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Logline

Before Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming, there was Eun Jung Lee. EJ Lee, a Louisiana legend nicknamed the “Korean Magic Johnson of NCAA women’s basketball,” has been overlooked her entire career. But finally, at the age of 60, EJ receives her first opportunity to become a college head coach and lead an underdog team in West Texas.

Synopsis

Untitled EJ Lee Documentary is a feature-length documentary that combines verité and archival footage of a female Louisiana legend who’s been described as the greatest player you’ve never heard of. The film will be an intimate character study of this little-known Asian American superstar with a Southern twang by interweaving the historical journey of EJ developing into one of the best players in Korea and America and the present-day narrative tracking the final chapters of EJ’s 40-year-career as a first-time college head coach.
 

Jason Rhee – Director/Producer/Director of Photography
Jason Rhee is a Korean American writer and director with a passion for telling stories centered around his childhood and the AAPI community. Jason was selected as a script intern and writer’s PA for Conan, as well as a writing intern and contributor for The Onion. With a background in screenwriting, comedy, and satire, he’s produced two one-woman shows with stand-up comedian Kellye Howard, which has been featured on ABC and described as “exposing admirable vulnerability and strength.” Jason directed a sold-out run of a third show with Kellye at the Steppenwolf Theater as part of its 2022 LookOut series. After three years as The Onion’s writer assistant, Jason is currently working on personal projects, including a documentary about the “Korean Magic Johnson of the NCAA” that is being workshopped in the 2022 Kartemquin Diverse Fellows in Doc program. He is a proud member of the Asian American Documentary Network and the Writers Guild of America East.

Zoe Sua Cho – Producer/Editor
Zoe Sua Cho is a Korean-born, New Zealand-bred filmmaker and co-founder of Mass Ornament Films. She has produced numerous short films which went to win at top international film festivals, including Recorder Exam (Best Student Short winner at Woodstock Film Festival), Wolkaan (Toronto International Film Festival), and Needle (1st prize winner at Cinefondation, Cannes Film Festival). In 2017, she co-produced, and edited feature documentary Drifting Towards the Crescent directed by Laura Stewart, which premiered at Rotterdam International Film Festival, and produced Anahita Ghazvinizadeh’s They, an official selection at Cannes Film Festival. As a director, Zoe’s film experiment Hotel/Transit was nominated for the Critics’ Award at Black Movie Geneve International Film Festival in 2015. In 2018, Zoe edited and produced feature film House of Hummingbird directed by Bora Kim, which participated in the IFP Labs and Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program. The film premiered at Busan International Film Festival where it won the KNN Audience award and the NETPAC award for best Korean film. She is a fellow of LA Film Independent’s Project Involve and Fast Track, IFP Cannes Producer Network Fellow, Sundance Feature Films Fellow and a 2018 Berlinale Talents Fellow.

Sam Rong – Editor
Sam is a classically trained pianist. While he didn’t become a professional musician, a childhood spent sitting and pushing keys prepared him for the edit suite, where he has accumulated over a decade of experience in journalism and film. He has worked in newsrooms and production houses across three continents. His work has shown on Al-Jazeera, CNN, Vice, eNews Africa, and PBS. Sam’s first feature documentary edit was Faceless (2021), about the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. His subsequent work includes several more feature documentaries. The Faraway Nearby (2023), about the intersection of scientific discovery and artistic creativity. Ashima (2023), about a teenage rock-climbing prodigy and her relationship with her father/coach. New Wave (2024), a story of musical rebellion and refugee trauma centered on the Vietnamese American community of 1980s Southern California.

Shuling Yong – Consulting Producer/Cinematographer/Sound Mixer
Shuling Yong is a Singapore-born, Chicago-based award-winning documentary filmmaker, DP and Location Sound Recordist with a passion for social change. She has worked on films like Becoming (Netflix, 2020, dir. Nadia Hallgren), The Feeling of Being Watched (Tribeca/POV, 2018, dir. Assia Boundaoui), And She Could Be Next (Tribeca/POV, 2020, dir. Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia), Radical Grace (HotDocs, 2015, dir. Rebecca Parrish), In Time To Come (HotDocs, 2017, dir. Tan Pin Pin), and films by the award-winning Chicago media collective Kartemquin Films like In The Game (2015, dir. Maria Finitzo) and America To Me (Sundance, 2018, dir. Steve James).

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Contact

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