Only In Dreams

Clips

Jun is a Korean-born tattoo artist and small business owner living in Brooklyn, NY. Jun's also been part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program for nearly 20 years, after arriving in the U.S. as a small child.

As she builds a life and business in the only country she’s ever known, Jun reflects on her undocumented status, the grief of losing her brother, and the looming reality of family separation — all in the age of rampant ICE raids and rising anti-immigrant sentiment.

This deeply personal portrait explores identity, resilience, and what it means to belong in America when the country won’t claim you. What does chasing the American Dream look like when it feels just out of reach?

Synopsis

Only In Dreams is an intimate portrait of Jun, a Korean-born tattoo artist, undocumented immigrant and DACA recipient living in Brooklyn. As Jun navigates the daily responsibilities of being a small business owner, she reflects on the invisible toll of living in immigration limbo. From memories of gingko-lined streets in Korea to opening her studio in Williamsburg, her journey is marked by quiet resilience, cultural dislocation and a fragile hope for the future. Shot

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Only In Dreams is an intimate portrait of Jun, a Korean-born tattoo artist, undocumented immigrant and DACA recipient living in Brooklyn. As Jun navigates the daily responsibilities of being a small business owner, she reflects on the invisible toll of living in immigration limbo. From memories of gingko-lined streets in Korea to opening her studio in Williamsburg, her journey is marked by quiet resilience, cultural dislocation and a fragile hope for the future. Shot across two years and anchored by verité, archival footage and raw interviews, the film traces Jun’s pursuit of stability in a nation where belonging is conditional and political winds threaten to undo hard-won progress.

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Background

Only In Dreams is a character-driven documentary short film rooted in the lived experience of Jun Ko, a Korean-born tattoo artist, undocumented immigrant and DACA recipient living in Brooklyn, NY. The film was born out of a desire to counter the misinformation surrounding the immigration discourse by focusing on a single life shaped by forces that are often discussed only in the abstract.

The story is especially urgent now in this age of rampant ICE raids, federally

...

Only In Dreams is a character-driven documentary short film rooted in the lived experience of Jun Ko, a Korean-born tattoo artist, undocumented immigrant and DACA recipient living in Brooklyn, NY. The film was born out of a desire to counter the misinformation surrounding the immigration discourse by focusing on a single life shaped by forces that are often discussed only in the abstract.

The story is especially urgent now in this age of rampant ICE raids, federally funded concentration camps and anti-immigrant sentiment. Public narratives about undocumented immigrants--who they are, what they contribute, and what they “take”--remain deeply disconnected from reality. Rather than arguing against those narratives directly, the film uses Jun’s personal history--family loss, healthcare precarity, economic contribution, and legal limbo--as micro-examples that quietly but firmly rebut macro narratives.

Jun’s story also expands the frame beyond immigration alone. The film explores grief, identity, and belonging through the loss of her brother to cancer, an experience that intersects with broader conversations about access to healthcare, family responsibility, and the emotional cost of navigating American systems without safety nets. These themes position the film to resonate not only with immigrant audiences, but with viewers attuned to issues of care, labor, and structural inequality.

From an audience perspective, Only In Dreams is designed to reach viewers who engage with intimate, socially grounded storytelling, particularly audiences drawn to contemporary short-form documentaries, cultural platforms, and festivals that value ethical access and restraint over spectacle. The film’s visual language is rooted in verité observation and geography, using New York not as backdrop but as an active emotional and political environment.

The project is currently in its initial festival submission phase, with plans for a measured release that prioritizes context and conversation. Long-term, the film is intended to live beyond festivals through curated distribution, educational use, and partnerships with platforms interested in character-forward, culturally relevant work. Originally conceived of as a series of portraits, we are looking for opportunities and partnerships that could allow us to expand Only In Dreams beyond just Jun's story.

At its core, Only In Dreams asks a simple but pressing question: what does it mean to belong to a country that benefits from your presence while debating your right to exist within it? That question feels unavoidable right now and audiences are already searching for human-scale stories that help them sit with it.

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Style & Tone

Only In Dreams is designed to leave audiences quietly unsettled rather than emotionally overwhelmed. The film favors intimacy and reflection, inviting viewers to sit with ambiguity rather than offering easy resolution. Emotion builds gradually through proximity and observation, encouraging empathy without sentimentality or spectacle.

Visually, the film is rooted in verité and lived space. The camera lingers with Jun in the environments that shape her daily life: her

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Only In Dreams is designed to leave audiences quietly unsettled rather than emotionally overwhelmed. The film favors intimacy and reflection, inviting viewers to sit with ambiguity rather than offering easy resolution. Emotion builds gradually through proximity and observation, encouraging empathy without sentimentality or spectacle.

Visually, the film is rooted in verité and lived space. The camera lingers with Jun in the environments that shape her daily life: her tattoo studio, the streets of Brooklyn, and waterfront spaces charged with memory. New York City functions as an active presence rather than background, where personal history and national tension subtly intersect.

The visual language emphasizes natural light, restrained framing, and unobtrusive camera movement. Stillness and duration are intentional, allowing gestures, pauses, and environments to carry as much meaning as dialogue. Archival material disrupts the film’s observational calm, drawing a stark contrast between Jun’s lived reality and a broader national moment in which immigration is increasingly defined through rhetoric, force, and fear.

Editorially, the film balances observation with contextual clarity. Select text graphics are used to ground the audience in factual realities, such as undocumented immigrants’ participation in tax and healthcare systems, without interrupting narrative flow. These moments of information are intentionally brief, allowing the emotional experience to remain character-driven rather than explanatory. Music plays a deliberate role in shaping tone: while the compositions themselves carry tension and weight, they are deployed sparingly and with intention, amplifying unease and emotional stakes without overwhelming the lived moments onscreen.

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Budget

This section includes information about this project.

Journey producer award visual production award screenplay doc festival narrative. Project cinema director story cinema screenplay visual film award independent story.

Our Ask

Only In Dreams began as a single, intimate portrait, but it was always conceived as the starting point for a larger body of work. As immigration is increasingly defined through fear, distortion, and abstraction, there is an urgent need for human-scale stories that restore complexity, dignity, and empathy. Support would allow this project to expand beyond one subject, documenting additional undocumented individuals across regions and lived experiences, while maintaining the same ethical access and cinematic restraint. The ask is for development and production funding, as well as editorial and distribution partners who believe these stories deserve time, care, and visibility now.

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Only In Dreams

Logline

Clips

Team

Cassius Kim

Rachel Stewart

Tommy Duncan 3rd

Budget

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Our Ask