It took him 16 years, but writer and director Benson Lee finally succeeded in bringing his most personal film, “Seoul Searching,” to the silver screen. The film is largely autobiographical as it is based on his own experience of being part of a summer school camp in Seoul, South Korea which proved to be one of the best summers of his life. What he attended was a special summer camp for “gyopo” or foreign born teenagers where they could spend their summer in Seoul to learn about their motherland. The intentions of this program were more than honorable but the activities of the teens were not, and we watch as controversies and revelations unfold for the teens and the adults.

Lee is an award-winning Korean-American filmmaker who has worked in drama, documentary and commercial production for many years. His first feature film, “Miss Monday,” made him the first Korean-American filmmaker to be accepted to the Dramatic Competition of the Sundance Film Festival where he earned a Special Grand Jury Prize. His first documentary, “Planet B-Boy,” proved to be one of the top-grossing theatrical documentaries of 2008 in the United States. With “Seoul Searching,” Lee gives audiences something close to his heart as he shares his own experiences from when he was a teenager, and the film resonates with many universal themes.

I was fortunate enough to speak with Lee while he was in Los Angeles to promote “Seoul Searching,” and he could not have been nicer to talk with. Lee described how this project came about, the challenges of getting many 1980’s songs into it, and of whether he had to stay true to the events he experienced or instead to see where those events took him in a dramatic fashion. Furthermore, he made me realize how Hughes’ “The Breakfast Club” affected him on a subconscious level before he even realized it.

Check out the interview below, and be sure to check out the website for “Seoul Searching” (www.seoulsearchingthemovie.com) for more information.