The cultural inspiration behind Elemental
Led by director Peter Sohn, our tour began with presentations that took us behind the scenes of the film with an introduction detailing its inspirations. “It’s really a mix of three very personal parts of my life. The first one is my parents, [who] came from Korea in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s to New York. They didn’t have a lot of money. They had no family. They didn’t speak any English but they managed to create a beautiful life in the Bronx.” Sohn described how his father opened up a grocery store, which in turn opened up their world to other cultures—which in the film take the form of other elements. “I have so many memories of growing up in this town. All my dad’s customers came from everywhere—like my parents, they left their homes to come to a new land. They all were mixing into beautiful little neighborhoods with their cultures and languages. So from that, came this [idea].”
