The Haenyeo Project

Abstract

The Haenyeo Project is a 22-minute grounded science fiction film set in 1990’s Northern Ontario, following 16-year-old Jane, a second-generation Korean-Canadian, as she confronts identity, cultural belonging, and a mysterious family legacy. After discovering her estranged grandmother, an elderly Haenyeo diver who transforms into a sea creature, Jane wonders if she has inherited this rare ability.

Blending speculative fiction with cultural history, the film reimagines the real-world Haenyeo of Jeju Island as carriers of ancestral power. The project explores how grounded sci-fi can illuminate immigrant experiences and intergenerational trauma. Developed through primary and secondary research, location shooting, and character-driven storytelling, the film reflects the filmmaker’s personal negotiation of cultural hybridity. This MFA thesis support paper documents the film’s development from concept to completion and argues that science fiction rooted in lived realities can challenge dominant narratives, reframing difference as strength and offering alternative ways to understand belonging, inheritance, and transformation.