These Wes Anderson-Esque TikToks Are Love Letters to San Francisco Food and Drink
Kelsey Wu watched a lot of movies growing up in Cupertino. She'd revel in the purple- and pink-hued medium-tight shots in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Then she'd watch Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love, drinking in all the vibrant colors and engrossing contrast. Whenever her dad, a photography nerd, would head to San Francisco for a shoot, she'd tag along to capture what she could.
Now she's graduated Harvard and lives in the city, working as a project manager at Salesforce and exploring the Bay Area through a new lens. Her first foray has been 'Stories from San Francisco,' a catalogue of TikTok mini documentaries, just a few minutes long at the most, covering the city's cherished food and beverage industry. Her videos on Foreign Cinema, Baklava Story, and Chocolate Covered have racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Most importantly, the quality behind Wu's work is immediately apparent — no influencer vlogging tropes to be found.
'I loved the city as a kid,' Wu says. 'I was so excited to come back. Everyone has a unique story to tell.'
Kelsey Wu working on her mini-documentary about Koolfi Creamery. Kelsey Wu
The idea came naturally to her, as in it was not premeditated. After relocating to Duboce Triangle post-grad, she encouraged herself to get into the small businesses and cafes that made up her new home. WuShe says it's easy to get caught in a tech bubble, and she wanted to do her work to keep her feet planted in the San Francisco outside of all that, too.
Her work lands somewhere between Chef's Table and those artful dramas from her youth. There's a heavy dose of PBS's Brief but Spectacular and Humans of New York in there, too. The cross-section is evident in each video, Wu herself entirely out of frame and dialogue while her subjects discuss the effort behind the curtain. The first documentary she put together was on Lombard Street's Kopiku. The owner, Adhi, is a vibrant, thoughtful character. Wu says she looks for these neighborhood pillars. Further, she advocates for Asian American workers and entrepreneurs with her work.
'It's good to reconnect with the people who really make this city San Francisco,' Wu says. 'I figured it'd be awesome to find some way to support them, be creative, and get back in touch with the camera.'
She brings a Canon R6 Mark Two, equipping them with her dad's pricey lenses. A friend gifted her a DGI Mic set to set up conversations. So whether it's the husband-and-wife team at That's My Jam or the young gun combo at Paper Son and Tano, Wu says she plans to keep making her videos surveying all San Francisco has to offer and the tales behind those treats.
'I'm just enjoying it for now,' Wu says. 'It's that idea of sonder. I'm going to keep on making my videos.'
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