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Forever We Are Young, a documentary exploring the global fanbase of BTS, is set to premiere at the SXSW festival on March 11, 2025. Directed by Grace Lee and Patty Ahn, the film named after BTS's 2016 track will screen at the Paramount Theater, with an additional showing at the ZACH Theatre the following day.
The documentary delves into the diverse and dedicated fandom community of the South Korean boy band, known as ARMY, an acronym for "Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth."
ARMY spans various nationalities, races, cultures, languages, backgrounds, and age groups. In an interview with American online news site Deadline, published on March 7, 2025, director Patty Ahn, noting the diverse reach of the fandom, states:
"A lot of K-Pop fandoms do have some intergenerational reach to them… but I think that is particularly unique to ARMY, the number of people who are over 40 and are in the fandom and as active and energetic as those who are in their teens. There is something quite unique to the fandom on this."
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Grace Lee also highlights the fanbase’s inclusivity, calling it:
"The most diverse fan base I’ve ever seen in my life." She then added, "There are groups that are like ’40-plus ARMY,’ and there are folks that identify as ‘Elder ARMY’, ‘Silver ARMY’ — who are 70- plus."
Forever We Are Young explores BTS ARMY's growth and connection ahead of SXSW premiere
The upcoming documentary Forever We Are Young's director Lee said in the interview with Deadline, that many fans featured in the documentary have discovered BTS during their teenage years.
She says that one participant in the film describes the relationship between BTS and ARMY as that of "life companions."
“One of the Korean participants [in the film], she talks about, ‘We’re more like life companions.’ They sort of went through life together — growing up, going through all the sort of growing pains, the emotions." Lee shares, adding "BTS is growing as a band and as a phenomenon, and so is ARMY at the same time. They’re inextricable. That was one of the things that fascinated us the most about this relationship.”
The film also touches on the fan culture surrounding BTS, including the concept of having a "bias"—a term used to describe a fan's favorite member. Discussions within the fandom analyze what a fan’s choice of bias might reveal about them.
Various online sources according to Deadline, describe SUGA fans as individuals who resonate with his ability to channel personal struggles into music, while Jimin fans often highlight his stage presence and emotional expressiveness.
Both directors identify as BTS fans. Lee, who has followed K-pop since the 1990s, became particularly drawn to BTS.
“I was interested in the first generation of K-Pop, which was back in the ‘90s, but something about BTS really kind of captured my imagination… I just started listening and following and getting into the music,” Lee tells Deadline.
While Ahn, who has a Ph.D. from USC, has taken an academic interest in the group.
“It was really interesting to just see people coming out of the BTS ARMY closet, especially as adults when they find out like, ‘Oh, you’re making a film about ARMY. Actually, I’m secretly ARMY too.’ It was funny to see when BTS came for that SoFi concert [in Los Angeles], I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know they were at the concert.’”
Additionally, Ahn said she is biased towards Jimin:
“I love them all so dearly. But my bias is Jimin. He’s the dancer and the ballerina and the gender-fluid one that people talk about in the movie, and I feel very closely identified with him.”
On the other hand, Lee considers herself "OT7," meaning she supports all seven members equally.
"I like them all equally. I cannot choose." she says.
Forever We Are Young features BTS performances and archival footage, which has been made possible through cooperation with HYBE, the company representing the group. Ahn explains that while the documentary has been developed independently, securing permission for music rights and archival content has been essential.
Coinciding with the SXSW premiere is BTS member SUGA’s birthday. In celebration, ARMY members attending the event plan to hold a "random dance play" outside the theater.
“It is the weekend of Suga’s birthday, [...] Anytime it’s a member’s birthday, fans get together. A lot of fans are coming to see the movie itself on Monday, that first screening." Says Lee, adding, "And so we’ll have a little [...] ‘random dance play’ outside the theater, where people can do dance moves together. And it’s a really important part of the fandom and staying connected and showing love and paying homage to the group itself.”
About the directors of Forever We Are Young, in brief
Grace Lee is an independent filmmaker known for her work on documentaries exploring social and cultural issues. She produced and directed two episodes of Asian Americans (2020), a Peabody Award-winning series, and And She Could Be Next (2020), a POV documentary on women of color in politics, which earned an NAACP Image Award nomination.
Her other notable projects include American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (2013), which won a Peabody Award. He other projects are The Grace Lee Project (2005), Makers: Women Who Make America" Women in Politics, (2013) and Off the Menu: Asian America (2015). She also created K-TOWN’92, an interactive project examining the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest.
Beyond filmmaking, Lee is the host and executive producer of Viewers Like Us, a podcast that investigates systemic inequities in public media. She is also a co-founder of the Asian American Documentary Network and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Documentary Branch.
Meanwhile, Patty Ahn is a filmmaker and a professor in the Communication Department at the University of California, San Diego. Their work focuses on the expanding global impact of K-pop in the U.S.
They also co-edited the first academic volume in English dedicated to BTS, exploring the group's cultural significance.
