In short: We Are Kings
Posted on Aug 12, 2025 by Admin
Frank Sun and Scott Aharoni delve into We Are Kings, their coming-of-age short that tackles the immigrant experience
Words Katie Kasperson
There’s nothing quite like the inherent drama of growing up – that’s what writer/director Frank Sun explores in his semi-autobiographical short film We Are Kings. Set in an international neighbourhood of North Carolina, Sun explains, the story follows first-gen immigrant Lin and his best friend Walid as they navigate friendship, identity and pressure to fit in.
As a kid, Sun lived in a similar community. “The worldbuilding is based on my upbringing,” he shares. “Everyone has this hustle mentality because they’re immigrants and they’re trying to make ends meet. This is America, in a sense.”
We can see this grit across the board; Lin and Walid sell pirated DVDs to make some extra cash, while Lin’s mother works in a local Chinese restaurant; the film’s main setting. The real establishment, So Far So Good, allowed Sun and his crew to shoot on location, as long as they cleared out before opening. “Our call time was three in the morning,” Sun recalls not-so-fondly. “I’ll never do it again.”
Working in the wee hours forced them to shoot night-for-day. “We had to light the set in a way that it would feel bright outside,” Sun explains. “I think that was hard for a lot of people.”
Scott Aharoni, the film’s executive and creative producer, echoes this. “Every short film is a challenge. You’re trying to do it with as little as possible, and need to find dedicated people who are willing to wake up and be energetic and bring the performances. Luckily, we did,” he states.
Sun and Aharoni collaborated on casting and sourcing crew. “Right off the bat, we were trying to figure out who would play Lin, our lead,” begins Aharoni. “I had auditioned Kenny Ridwan for another movie, and I thought he fit this quirky, yet dramatic role. I thought he could find the balance between the two sides of the film, emotionally. It was a perfect fit.”
The remaining characters were slightly more difficult to cast – especially Amber, Lin’s love interest. “Jade Spear came through at the very last second – maybe a week before we were rolling camera,” Sun reveals. “We took the time,” Aharoni adds. “It didn’t come easily, but it came.”
Sun and Aharoni agree that the cast had incredible chemistry. “Kenny and Mahi Alam did such good improv together. That made it easy,” says Sun. Ultimately, though, “we had to cut a lot of stuff because we’re limited on runtime.”
As with most shorts, such details largely revolved around the festival circuit. “I shoot a lot of shorts in the summer, and then you try to hit certain deadlines,” describes Aharoni, who also produced Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water. We Are Kings landed its world premiere with Tribeca. “We have a New York-based crew and New York-based actors. It’s always great to world premiere somewhere that you can bring all your family and friends, as well as all the cast and crew.”
Now that Tribeca has come and gone, Sun is looking ahead at what’s next for him. He hopes to turn We Are Kings into a full feature and, separately, he’s writing a film about the world of professional wrestling. “I’d love to work with Scott on something longer,” says Sun, “if we have the opportunity. We’re both really excited about all of this.”
Explore another captivating short film in this article about Marion.
This story appears in the July/August 2025 issue of Definition
