About Jed Films

I'm Joy Dietrich and Jed Films houses the films that I and my ad hoc group of collaborators make. The films are mostly about girls in trouble. That's abandoned girls; girls feeling numb, disconnected, alienated; under-represented Asian-American girls, who by the way have one of the highest suicide rates in this country.

Though my subjects are primarily girls, I'm also for telling stories that hopefully touch you all - stories dealing with such universal themes as the search for identity, the yearning to belong, duality of human nature, social injustice...

Big themes for such a small outfit, right? Maybe. But I don't mind being a little lost and a little rough around the edges to get me where I want to go. In fact, I prefer it.

Since my move to New York City in September 1998, preceded by journalistic stints in Geneva and Paris, I have written, directed and co-produced two short films. The first film, Surplus dealt with the devastating effects of poverty on the children of a Korean family. The 22-minute, 16mm short completed in 2000, has been shown at several film festivals including the San Francisco International Asian-American Film Festival, the Los Angeles Short Film Festival, and Raindance in London. San Francisco-based NAATA picked Surplus up for distribution in 2001.

The most recent film, Robot Girl, also a 16mm short, was shot in April 2001 and completed in the following year. This film is about an emotionally numb woman under the delusion that she is a robot. It is currently being marketed at film festivals.

In case you're wondering, no, I didn't go to film school and, no, I don't work in the "Industry" on a day to day basis. I went the outsider's route of spending a year of weekends and off-days working on other people's no-budget films, getting the hang of the process. And if it weren't for other people in the indie film business doing exactly the same thing I was doing a few years ago, neither Surplus or Robot Girl would have been made. Thanks to all for chipping in.

Just one last thing about myself - I'm a cowgirl at heart. You would not believe this if you met me. I'm a Korean adoptee who found herself in this weird state called Texas when I first arrived in the States at the age of 5. Though I only spent two years there and moved to a small MidWestern town afterwards, I'll always remember the wide open spaces that made me feel like I had landed on some frontier where anything was possible.

Joy Dietrich works as a Research Editor at the New York Times when not engaged in her filmmaking activities.