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The story revolves around an elderly farmer tending her fields on the border between the two Koreas. Living on the other side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), she struggles to reclaim the land that was taken from her by the local government. The aged protagonist has already experienced the heartache of losing her homeland to the ravages of war. A poignant memory from seventy years ago resurfaces - during the Korean War, American soldiers suddenly entered her village. The subsequent division of the Korean peninsula and the course of development took away everything she held dear.
The Land of Frogs
Joo-yeon accidentally finds out that there is a woman who has disappeared from within her family. Along the way, she encounters women who have disappeared without a name.
The Erased Women
A portrait of Kon Mu-soon, a young man who works for sandwich shop and grows through music and boxing, even after suffering from the IMF. Mu-soon and his friend Park Tae-won run together for 470 kilometers from Busan to Seoul for 10 days, assimilating into the nature they face on the path.
Musoon, Across the Universe
A documentary covering the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul.
Beyond All Barriers
My mother left our home in Korea when I was 7 years old. I lived as if our father’s new wife was our real mother. My first name changed, we moved, I enrolled in a new school. My mother was a fallen woman never to be talked about. I could only stare at holes cut out of family photos, knowing it was her. Years later, now a filmmaker in France, I suddenly started having vertigo attacks that prevented me from working - my brain was deleting one of my eyes’ two images instead of merging them. As my world span, my thoughts returned to the blind spot in my existence: my mother. I learnt my father accused her of adultery, a crime in Korea until 2015. Sentenced to 8 months in jail, with no support from her family, she had to resign as a teacher and didn’t own a place to live. What was it like to be stamped an ill-reputed woman and shunned by 90’s Korean society?
Sea, Star, Woman
In an exploration of two different cities, we witness the multicultural landscapes of New York City and Seoul. Through delicious dishes that evoke comfort, we learn of the connection that brings two worlds together.
Tasting Two Worlds
Studies of post-prison rehab and of life on Anmado island
Anmado
During the Joseon Dynasty, hair that was black and rich, like mud, was a prerequisite for a beauty, while the hair of a woman who was short and stiff was described as negative and ugly. In 1920, the new woman was called Modan (毛斷). Short hair had a strong meaning for women to challenge the established system. Now in 2019, women also cut their hair. It is a movement that rejects the social definition of “feminine”, escaping “Corset” movement.
Escape the Corset
In the serene embrace of sacred nature, trivial thoughts dissolve away. A profound silence engulfs the mind, stifling even the breath. It is the rediscovery of a lost emotion—'awe,' flowing like a stream. A mother, mourning the loss of her only son, embarks on a daily ritual of mountain hikes. In the ascent, she seeks solace amidst the sacred silence that nature provides. For her, the journey becomes a poignant exploration of the profound and the mundane. A 70-year-old haenyeo (traditional female diver), wise from a life intertwined with the sea, asserts that materiality is both our everyday reality and our path to paradise. Their lives, like the ebb and flow of water, find meaning in the continuous stream. Following the currents, one discovers mountains beneath the sea, whereas within the mountains, the sea continues to flow. Ultimately, the boundaries of the world are revealed to be nonexistent, echoing the profound interconnectedness of all things.
No Boundaries
This is a record of people who face up to the big change.
Jeju Note
In April of last year, the mother of a child voluntarily reported child abuse to the police. Monitoring for over a year, a mother who confessed her wrongdoing, the film acts not as an investigative agency, but as a disinterested party which records the point where daily discipline turns into abuse.
The Child Next Door: A Yearlong Record After Self-reporting of Child Abuse
THORNAPPLE FIRE WATCHING 2022 LIVE CONCERT FILM
There are people in charge of managing someone’s front yard or the tomb, the branches of Han River, Seonyudo Park, and even restoring the damaged environment due to the forest fire in Goseong, Gangwon-do. They are landscape architects. Among those who offer a scenic and natural landscape to our life full of adversities, Jeong Yeong Seon, 82 years old, works today again as if she writes poetry on the ground for the next generation.
Poetry on Land
Departing from the traditional factory lines of production on the plastic plant manufacturing industry. From there, the film expands into the realm of synthetic nature, portraying a highly engineered landscape,developed by startups. The images appear to be bound together by a dark slime—an oily, recurrent presence as a connection to the strange and gory logics of petro capitalism and global territories of extraction.Petroleum, in both refined and unrefined forms, serves as a temporal vector: it is the raw material for plastic plants, Revealing the absurd techno-solutionist vision of the future.
Green Grey Black Brown
Okinawa, home to over 12% of the U.S. military presence in Japan, has recently experienced rapid military fortification under the so-called Nansei Shift (Southwest Shift). Although these bases are designated for Japan's Self-Defense Forces rather than the U.S. military, they pose an equal threat to the islanders, instilling fear of war and contributing to the destruction of their communities and way of life. In Okinawa, where parallels can be drawn to the THAAD system in Soseong-ri, South Korea, and the naval base in Gangjeong, Jeju Island, I met with individuals who are courageously speaking out against the prospect of war.
Side by side
First Defence
It shows Korea’s traditional colors and culture through the use of superimposing. It is an experimental film, which not only tries to show Korean traditional culture through the use of color, but also tries to show the modern history of Korea.
Color of Korea
Informally known as Baseco Compound, Port Area in Manila is the biggest urban poor community in the Philippines. Children living in the Baseco compound are left behind in abject poverty without proper care and education. WMC, the missionary community led by Shin Seung-cheol, goes to Baseco Compound and provide warm food and medical care while teaching children skills like baking. This documentary features their journey of hope and compassion.
Hope in Baseco
North Korean propaganda film about orchards that yield bigger crops after Kim Il-sung visits. The films was presented as a gift to friendly-minded countries in the world. And expected by the North Korean Culture Ministry to be displayed publicly. Sweden was one of the countries honored by receiving a copy of "Gwasu-ui nara / Country of Orchards".
Country of Orchards
The Power of Love
For the End of Time
Spanish choreographer Lali Ayguade is unable to enter Korea and to give scheduled performances due to the spread of COVID-19. In a situation where it is impossible to meet the dancers in person, Lali creates movements one by one with the dancers in Korea through online video conferences.
They Answer Our Own Gaze
From 18-year-olds to pre-teens, ten boys are living together at the 'Family' group home. From 2002 to 2013, the boys, who were around ten years old, escaped North Korea and were separated from their families. They are living with the caretaker, Tae-hoon, who dedicates his life to the boys. The film documents an average and special one year of their lives. It doesn't overstress their situation as the defectors from NK, while cheers their new challenges as teens in South Korea. Also, it shows Tae-hoon being estranged from and reconciled with his own family, who is now supporting him and boys.
Our Family
Reframing the farmers’ movement in Jeon-Nam Province with a reconstruction of interviews and events.
Surise
In the third year of the Yoon Sukyeol administration, the nation was already at a boiling point. A move to end democracy backfired, opening the plaza. This records the accidental Namtaeryeong plaza on a winter solstice night and the struggle to carry its spirit into everyday life.
The Longest Night: Namtaeryeong
The landscape of a town somewhere emerges on the screen—the riverside, a street, a clothing store, a barbershop, an amusement park, an ally, a graveyard, a cafe—as a woman with a camera appears in the frame, filming.
Afternoon Landscape
Oryu Market
Koreans have long sought their identity through food. Despite rapid economic growth and modernization, there has been a persistent yearning for what is considered truly "Korean." This film reflects on the desires and aspirations of the Korean people, as mirrored in their tastes, from the era of chronic post-war hunger to the global rise of K-food.
Making of Korean Food
On the evening of November 16, 2019, they were accidentally trapped in a black wave of demonstrators around central Paris. In Korea in 2020, they rewrote the memory and rearranged the movements and sounds to organize other forms of protest. People begin to gather, and smoke rises. Sometimes it is necessary to sense the subjects of “the process of being someone else” rather than just us who are united. To recall beings, such as shadows and echoes, who were endowed with individuality even in the waves of the masses. The attempt itself was intended to be made into a video form again.
‘How to riot’ tips and tactics
Planet A is a metaphor for human arrogance, in which humans destroy nature and other beings, justify their behavior as "development", evaluate themselves as "good"(A), and are flattered to be on top of Earth. An experimental musical documentary project, presented as an omnibus of 15 music videos, was created with the goal of challenging the status quo and revealing the truth that lies behind what is happening on this "fantastic" planet right now, along with fighting against all discrimination within it.
Planet A
Noriko Setsuko 2
Reviving Land
An installation work by Minha Park, shot in 16mm.
Time Paradox
The United States, a country born from war, became the world's unipolar hegemony through war. Addicted to war, the U.S. committed numerous invasions and massacres around the world. In 2023, a great transformation has begun in world history. The struggle of the people around the world against the imperialist ruling order is fiercely taking place. The rise of countries began to overthrow the US's unipolar hegemony and create a world order of multipolar coexistence and co-prosperity. We are witnessing in real-time the decline of the fastest declining empire in history.
WARmerica's Fate
Whereas Minki’s older brother benefits from the social stability provided by marrying his girlfriend, Mingi and his partner run into legal hurdles regarding marriage and visas, prompting them to endless search for alternatives. Simultaneously, the documentary explores a gay man’s worries about coming out and marriage through the experiences of straight family members who are coming to terms with what it means to have a queer family member.
I Smell Wedding Bells
2023 Sim Gyu-seon Solo Concert: The World Before Us
Goddess Era
Living Euljiro traces the neglected losses of those living within a centuries-old district of maze-like alleys at the heart of Seoul. Through intimate encounters and textured observation, it creates a mosaic of perspectives exploring memory, identity, and resistance—revealing the human cost of a relentless urban Masterplan beyond a binary narrative of gentrification.
Living Euljiro
Joh Sung-yong, a veteran architect, wins a design competition to redevelop an apartment complex with his architectural philosophy of preserving the old and trees, but struggles to defend his plans amid opposition from developers and Korean society obsessed with the new and fast.
Weathering Architect
In 2022, Jean-Marie Straub passed away, reuniting with her creative partner and lover, Danièle Huillet, who had died in 2006. Inspired by their films, I embarked on a climb up a hill near my neighborhood. Though it's a trail I walk daily, it somehow echoes the spaces in their works. While this act isn’t enough to truly know them, it's better than giving up entirely.
The Encounter of Theirs
In November 2020, the Senate and House of Representative elections took place along with the Presidential election in the United States. Five Korean Americans of vastly diverse backgrounds with competing political views ran for the House election. David Kim is the only underdog with limited resources vying to be the first Korean American representative from Koreatown in Los Angeles.
Chosen
A family of lions and a family of cheetahs struggle to survive the consequences of climate change in the Serengeti.
Big Cats of the Serengeti
I found myself at an impasse, consumed by the question: "Can I truly continue making films and art?" As an artist who must also survive within society, these were deep, existential concerns. This crisis led me to Song Jong-won (90), a master stone craftsman famous for sculpting Dolhareubang (Jeju's iconic stone guardians). When I first encountered him, my primary question was simple: "What is his enduring motivation to keep creating these stone figures?" I began visiting his workshop every week. I discovered that Mr. Song, despite growing up in an era when finishing middle school was difficult, had gone on to major in English literature and become a teacher. Yet, he eventually became so absorbed in stone craft that he quit his formal career. For six months, my camera captured Mr. Song Jong-won as he meticulously completed a single Dolhareubang.
Chisel and Hammer
The housing market in South Korea is tight, and animator Sunghwan Lee moves from one semi-basement to another temporary home. This situation, combined with his difficult childhood, got him thinking. What is a home? What makes a house a home?
Ihyangjeong: Carving with Memories
Wild Boar Hunting
When the Pomegranate Flowers Bloom
9 Days in the Summer
Last May, 100,000 South Americans at a BTS(K-pop superstar group)'s concert in Sao Paulo passionately sang along to the songs in Korean. In opposite parts of the world though the number is smaller, there are musicians in Korea who share a passion for Brazilian music and sing in Portugese. Now begins the story of these Korean Brazilian musicians.
Sambistas
This year is the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Democratization Movement. Though the country commemorates the event as the official historical records, it does not include any 'real' accounts of the people who experienced it firsthand. The students who were part of the movement; the female vendors who made rice balls for the students; the female high school students cooked at the government building; now, past their middle age, they live as ordinary citizens in Gwangju city. How is the event remembered by these people?
No Name Stars
There is a story circulating among Zen Buddhist monks about two types of monks. First ones are settled and spend all their life in a monastery, they are identified with the blue mountains, while others are like white clouds – constantly traveling from one place to another. In the film, the filmmaker and Won Bo Sunim, a Lithuanian woman who decided to go to South Korea more than 20 years ago and become a Zen monk, embark on a journey in the mountains of South Korea.
Blue Mountain. White Cloud
In December 2017, Gilho Lee, a colleague of director Eunju Jang, who had been making the film with her, took his own life. The documentary Sinsi asks Okja Lee, a female shaman, to mourn for his death and to wish him good luck on his new film.
Sinsi
There is one principle in the world on screen. It is the principle of construction. Unfinished or abandoned buildings are regarded errors and starts to debug for maintenance of order. However, there is a movement to deviate from the principles of construction-universe. The images start to blend the time and space of the abandoned building and the information of the space under construction. Eventually, the combined data causes errors, and those combined images and sounds attempts to leap out of the flat world of the screen.
Some Errors of the Construction-universe
You Don't Know 1
While the warm 3 o'clock ray poking through the artist’s studio is slow in contrast to the serene rural scenery, there is a strong positive energy. Having lost both his parents in his early childhood, Kim Duk-ki did not forgo his pursuit of becoming an artist and thus reveals his passion and will. The Artist follows the format of a road movie, which portrays Kim Duk-ki, who was able to transform his tragic upbringings to art through positive energy.
The Artist
The film consists of four young men at the end of their 20s. Joo-dae, who is preparing to study abroad in Germany, hopes to see his three other friends before his departure. However, Seong-woo seems unreachable. One spring day, having gathered at Kyeong-hwan's for lunch, Joo-dae suggests paying a visit to Seong-woo's place, but the other two disagree. The entangled times from their hasty lives are full of anxiety. Where are they headed to?
Found What I Wanted Now
The climate crisis threatens apple cultivation on the Korean Peninsula, pushing farmers to adapt or perish. In Andong, Gyeongbuk Province, a farmer's preparations for a final harvest are underway as orchards face extinction. Contrastingly, in Gangwon Province, young farmer Boran embraces innovative techniques to sustain apple production. In Paju, a dedicated farmer named Jeon Hwan-sik tends to apple trees, preserving a legacy for over two decades. These three farmers, each representing a different approach to apple cultivation, stand at a crossroads. As they confront the harsh realities of climate change, they must make crucial decisions about their future and relationship with the land.
Apple Trees
손님노동자
"Was it the President who ordered the rivers to be six meters deep?" In 2008, under President Lee Myung-bak's administration, South Korea's Four Major Rivers Restoration Project turned the country's beautiful rivers into scenes of devastation. What were once pristine first-grade waters became lifeless rivers, choked with toxic green algae emitting foul odors. Crops irrigated with this contaminated water are now served on the table of Korean people. The government disguised a grand canal project as river restoration, and the media turned a blind eye — together enabling one of the greatest environmental destructions in Korean history. The consequences of this deception will be borne by future generations. To ensure that future generations can once again run freely along the rivers, we must act—now. We must make Korea's rivers flow again.