I discovered The Speed Cubers during the 2020-2021 pandemic school year when my partner and I were homeschooling our children, then 4th and 5th boys. We looked to this film for its math components and to discuss neuro divergences and learning differences. We immediately fell in love with the film and it became a favorite of my, now 12-year-old. As not only a filmmaker, writer and educator committed to social impact media, but also a fan, it was truly a pleasure to talk with the film’s director, Sue Kim about her first documentary feature. Consider adding this film to your math film collection for young adult library programming.
How did this film come to be?
I have been a producer and an executive producer for 20 years, on the commercial side. So, it wasn’t so much of a stretch for me to make a film because I had experience in production. While my professional life was consumed by handling the Nike account at a big ad agency, my personal life began to be taken over by speedcubing as my son became a speedcuber. He started speedcubing in 2006, and he got really good really fast. He asked me if I would take him to a competition. I walked into our first competition and within 10 minutes, I was in love. I was so fascinated by it, and I started thinking: Someone must have made a documentary about this world, but no one had.
My son started getting faster and faster and more involved, and it started taking up all of our weekends. The whole time, I kept thinking about making a documentary. I have a few filmmaker friends. I tried to convince them to make it with me working as a producer. Everyone I spoke to said that it was a great story, but they didn’t have the passion for it the way that I did, so there was no follow-through. Eventually, I realized that no one was going to make this film unless I made this film. At first, I thought I could get this up and running while I was working. But, my job was insane and intense and I had no brain power to devote to this side project.
I realized that if I wanted to make this film, I needed to commit to it, so I quit my job to commit 100% to this film. Once I did that, things started falling into place. I found a producer partner who had a history with documentary films. He rounded out the producer's knowledge that I didn’t have (from commercials) and he insisted that I direct it. The film centers around Felix and the Parks, two superstar speedcubers. It wasn’t hard to get them on board since I was a cubing mom.
How the film landed on Netflix is one of those bizarre stories. I was talking to a friend and his friend’s brother-in-law worked in the documentary department at Netflix. It was really a shot in the dark, but my friend emailed his friend who wrote an email introducing me to his brother-in-law. It is a very improbable success story, but I sent my treatment and trailer to this brother-in-law over email. It must have landed with someone at Netflix who connected with the material because within 24 hours, I was connected to the right people at Netflix and this was happening.
Regarding the film and its story, it was so organic and simple. I saw this beautiful friendship happening before my eyes, and I felt deeply compelled to put that out into the universe as an anecdotal data point for how to look at aspirational masculinity. We can look at male bonding in a gentler way in addition to all these other ways we see in the media.
I was a tool to have the story come out. It was very spiritual from beginning to end. We made no money off of it. There was no profit to be made off of it, but it was very rewarding to me. It allowed me to put something out there that is another reference point for how we can be in this world.
What are you hoping that audience members take from the film?
Definitely, I hope they take away the idea of what a community can be. I think very much with Max’s story, I wanted to show not just inclusion, but integration. Integration is the next level past inclusion. Inclusion is ‘you can have a seat at the table.’ Integration is ‘you are an active speaker in this conversation that we’re having.’
We documented the environment that already existed, and Max is a huge part of the cubing community. He is the biggest rock star in the cubing community and his autism has nothing to do with that. No one treats him differently. Everyone is aware that he is autistic and maybe there’s certain things that they should do in response to that, but being autistic has no bearing on how he’s received and admired.
I’ve done a lot of diversity work and DEI work among the commercial world, and DEI is usually addressing inclusion. “Hey, we have been gatekeeping and not allowing all of these voices to have a seat at the table. But, in the cubing community, I saw integration. This is the next step. This is what it’s like when you make people a part of the process. The cubing community knew intuitively how to embrace him [Max}] and lift him up in that community so that his true talents shine and he feels loved and respected and admired and it is very much deserved because he’s the king of cubing.
Seeing friendships, between boys and young men, that are warm and supportive, having the absence of villains, especially in a competitive setting, is so refreshing. How important was that for you?
I have a son and he’s 16 years old. When he started cubing, when he entered this competitive universe, he was 11. That is a very vulnerable time. He very much looked up to older boys and young men. When we started cubing, I discovered that it literally is this weird magical universe where everyone is super kind and decent. They all applaud each other. When someone breaks a world record, the whole room erupts in admiration. I don’t know why they are like this. Part of feeling compelled to do whatever I had to do to get this film into the universe was to offer a different form of what a community could look like, especially when it is competitive. Look how kind and decent and generous of heart these young men and boys are.
It was so surprising to me as a parent. As soon as my son got into this world, it was amazing to me. He’s found this amazing cohort. It is so different from what is happening in the U.S. right now and it’s kids that come from all different places and backgrounds and socioeconomic levels and politics and it doesn’t matter. They help each other. It’s just this universe of decency that exists. I don’t know how or why it exists, I am so grateful that it does.
I wish there were more girls and no one seems to know why there aren’t. Maybe in the future, this will change.
This was your first film and it did so well and got such amazing recognition. What was that like for you?
It was very overwhelming, but also gratifying. It goes back to my spiritual reasons for doing this. Every time we encountered a gate, it opened. I made sure not to take that as an indication of my efforts, but as an indication that it was a story that was meant to get out there.
The nominations and press recognition were hard to navigate, but also just a cherry on top. It wasn’t why I did this. I never really had those aspirations in the making of it, but the accolades came. Even now, I have the same mentality. Keep your head down. Do what you have to do. Put one foot in front of you. I just focus on the making of it. I try to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually detach from any kind of ending to a project and try to enjoy the actual making of it.
I was in love with the story. It was part of our world. I got to have my son with me. It was part of our life. Everything was so fulfilling for me. If I think about endings or how something will be received, then I think that’s the kiss of death because you can’t control that. The reason why you do a thing has to be because you love the thing.
What classroom uses, if any, do you imagine for this film? In schools and in homeschool settings?
It’s actually being shown in classrooms all the time. I get a lot of emails from teachers, and I’ve had a lot of people from festivals (autistic community festivals or gatherings) that have asked for permission to screen the film. I definitely think it’s being used, not as a teaching school so much as a film that highlights a different way of portraying young men or competition or for the way it shows a young man with autism and the way it highlights mentorship. There are a lot of different themes that come through in the film.
Are you working on any new films or creative projects right now?
I have two projects that are greenlit and that I’m working on. One is a documentary series and one is a documentary feature. Both are largely taking place in Korea.
Discover more titles for your film collection with our list of math movies