christine thomas yoon

Christine Thomas Yoon is a community filmmaker, educator, and activist living in BedStuy, Brooklyn with an MA in Documentary Film, Activism, & Education from NYU. Her approach to community storytelling is the same as it was when she worked in public health– seeking to center the history and dignity of people, to listen more than speak, and to move towards a place of healing.

Her award-winning films Ralph & Bug and Stoop Chat with Sweat & Maani, as well as the digital archival project “As Quiet as It's Kept", center the themes of community identity and resistance when faced with the realities of gentrification. Her ongoing work in community impact with the documentary Emergent City continues to connect New Yorkers with their agency to fight back against displacement. In her upcoming projects, she hopes to explore new creative ways to storytell around her own South Asian identity. 

Christine draws her educational philosophy from Reggio Emilia, rooted in a practice of encouraging curiosity, empathy, and the open ended exploration of one's environment. Youth participating in her activism-centered filmmaking curriculum have produced the films Sanrakshan and Ekta on environmental and cultural impacts of climate change in the Himalayas and Stefanie’s Coffee Shop and Bedstuy Blooming on urban displacement and preservation. 

As Education Instructor at ReelWorks, Christine continues to dedicate herself to supporting the students and teaching artists participating in Reel Works After School and In School classes and developing the program’s pedagogy and curricula. Creating alongside students across different backgrounds and ages, she finds filmmaking to be a space holding the potential for people to connect with the beauty within themselves, as well as in the world around them. Other practices that remind her to pursue wonder include 35mm photography, writing love notes on Substack, and picking up new forms of art making she’s not very good at, like pottery.