Staggered by the separation of her parents, a Korean-American girl struggles to find herself. Caught between supporting both parents in their work while longing for their old life together and burdened by the responsibility of a younger sibling, few things seem to be falling into place. Upon starting a new year of high school among wealthy elites, she also has to balance the duality of her new friends and low-income reality. 

A selection from Tribeca’s Untold Stories collection in 2022, So Young Shelly Yo marks her feature directorial debut with this film about traversing the demands of being a young, first-generation American grappling with teenage angst while lifting up the family members struggling (and at times flailing) around you. The intimacy of parent-child relationships and friendships between young women grab the audience's attention and subvert expectations around what it means to support one another through many lenses.––Casey Baron

Smoking Tigers will be preceded by the short Bellybutton.

Shelly Yo