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​At 46 years old, she's been supporting her children and husband. Kyung-ah, a housewife who wants to be a woman instead of a mother! Ji-young, a Korean language instructor who has been naturally frail and sickly since she was a child! After meeting pole, she becomes a master pole dancer! Hwa-young, an actress who was most afraid of her talent at the audition! Pole dancing is now her specialty! For them, pole dancing is no longer just a hobby, but a way of life! Follow the ups and downs of the average 40-year-old pole dancers as they face the challenges of the 2021 PICK Pole Dance Competition!

Members of a queer dance team, all in their 30s and 40s, decide to come out. This unprecedented documentary presents the story of LGBT people in South Korea through spectacular rhythms, music, and moves.

This is a propaganda film made after the establishment of the wartime total mobilization system. The film includes various war efforts, including Gyeongseong Prefectural Association's offering of airplanes; prisoners' contribution of heavy machine guns; the inauguration of the Joseon Youth League for war support; a ceremony to celebrate the fall of Wuhan; a Chinese consul's visit to the Joseon Shrine; visits from Italian and Mongolian delegations to Joseon; and encouragement of bond purchases. The narration at the end is recorded in Korean in a heroic tone. The narration encourages everyone to faithfully pursue his or her livelihood, accelerate the implementation of national policies, and achieve the 'purpose of the Holy War.' It is the only extant film of the ‘news films in Korean language” produced by the Japanese Government-General of Joseon during the Japanese colonial period. Acquired in 1994.

PARK Hyun-sung was once a promising boxer but after he experienced deep frustration at Olympics for twice, he took a wrong turn. He joined a gang and tried to suicide, but miraculously survived and is now managing a small gym at Yeongdeungpo. PARK Ju-young who almost passed a civil service examination suddenly gave up on everything and restarted her life as a boxer. Two people who were living in completely different world met each other and made a unique story.

Kim's first moving-image work, made between 1971 and 1973 with an 8mm movie camera.

Uncut trees stand beyond the undergrowth of rustling leaves. The lush, diverse spectrum of green undulates, and through it, the man heads somewhere, wandering and searching.

“The Korean Dream” is about a migrant worker who sacrificed 18 years of his life in struggle to fulfill his influence in the Korean society. Likewise, the dreams of many migrant workers have ended with disappointments, the dream of main character. Therefore it’s an attempt to show how human rights have been dominated and exploited under the name of government. Furthermore, it’s about broken dreams of those migrant workers that were forced to be in exile or under detention.

Fischli & Weiss meets TikTok in this absurd, cyclical, never-ending film-game.

Yoon Han-bong, the last wanted man of the Gwangju May 18 Uprising, fled to the United States. Later, he formed an organization called “Young Korean United (YKU)” with people who gathered to honor the Gwangju May 18 Uprising throughout the country. They went out to the streets playing Pungmul to advocate for the democratization of their motherland. In solidarity with people worldwide, he also managed to organize “The Grand March for International Peace” in 1989 in North Korea.

During my 12 years of schooling, I often asked questions like, "Is this school rule necessary?" I thought that students should be respected enough to exercise their basic rights as human beings. However, society and schools seemed to say that students can only be guaranteed their human rights when they are decent students. From then on, I started finding ways to promote student human rights. And I found out. There is no "Student Human Rights Ordinance" in "Daegu" where I live. Why? Daegu students are no different from Seoul students!

At Deoksan elementary school under Woelaksan (Mt.), there are 15 children who have been in the same class for 6 years. They don't sit quietly in class like other school kids. After school, they gather at a hidden secret spot by the river, and they whisper, saying that the homeroom teacher is an adult who can't even control his emotions. Yoonjae, a new teacher who imagined that children would sit quietly in the classroom, is bewildered when he sees the children different from what he expected. The changing seasons with the children, and what will their sky be filled with?

A journey through loss, space and memory. The film commemorates the victims of the tragic Sewol ferry accident, in which 304 out of 476 passengers and crew members died in 2014.

An exposé on how millennials are changing North Korea, featuring interviews with defectors and footage shot in the country itself.

A long carnival parade. Spectators who couldn’t get into it. Their bodies and desires become fragmentary syllables, sounds.

Luke, Jane and their one-year-old daughter Julia perform again in Jecheon market today. Luke sings and plays the keyboard while Jane gives out flyers taking care of Julia. The foreign adoptee Luke met Jane who is also a foreign adoptee when he came to Korea to find his biological parents. The journey to find his parents, as a stranger in his own unfamiliar country, isn’t really going well…​

There are different kinds of sounds coming from an empty town where demolition is in progress.

Juyeon's grandmother has lived in the same house in Gwangju for over thirty years. She was living there at the time of the uprising on 18 May 1980. Three decades later, the bullet hole is still visible on the balcony. Juyeon decides to delve into her grandmother's past.

Joey, extroverted with a capital “P,” is a friend who always opens up new worlds and is anything but ordinary. Having long claimed to see things others cannot, he finally declares that he will leave behind the path of a civil servant to become a shaman.

“You’re looking For me in the demonstration Well I have already lost patience You might find me sitting by On the pavement” (“I Saw Her in the Anti-War Demonstration” by Jens Lekman)

A man searches for memories of his family's past, alternating between Geomeunyeo, Buseok Temple, and his grandmother's house, all of which are located along a straight line on the map. Geomeunyeo is a rock located in the reclaimed area of Buseok, Seosan, South Korea. It was originally a reef that was exposed above sea level, but is now above ground. The name of Buseok, which means floating rock, is said to be derived from Geomeunyeo.

We discard our trash every day, but do we really understand where it goes? In bustling metropolitan areas, tens of thousands of pieces of waste are discarded every day, yet most of us are unaware of how these materials are handled. While some waste is carefully sorted and recycled, the vast majority is incinerated or ends up in landfills. This film delves into the hidden processes of waste management that lie beneath the surface of modern society, shedding light on the intricacies of a process that often goes unnoticed.

A documentary about the 10 years of the Hyegwang Blind Orchestra, composed of visually impaired people, founded in 2011. Unlike many films about the disabled which mainly focus on topics of survival and human rights, the documentary focuses more on art and how it brings change to life. The self-esteem and the possibility of communication with the outside world of persons with disability in a tight-knit environment, under the gaze of prejudice gained from encountering music that changed their lives. Rather than focusing on the difficulties of life for people with disabilities, the film narrows the gap between the disabled and non-disabled communities and focuses on the growth of both disabled and non-disabled people through musical exchanges. Music is a great bridge that connects two worlds, and the process of understanding each other's world through art in different physical situations is sometimes solemn and sometimes beautiful.

‘Chanel’ in Myeong-dong in the 1970s was the secret hideout for Butches and Femmes. In 1996, young lesbians opened Korea’s first lesbian bar, Lesbos. In the early 2000s, queer teens looking for a community gathered in a small park in Sinchon. Myung-woo, who ran ‘Lesbos’ nearby, was still guarding the place 20 years later. As the coronavirus crisis hit, the bar has lost its customers. Will she able to protect the place this time?​

In this documentary, you can see a different side of Kim Dong-won having been deeply influenced by progressive Catholicism, and as most of his documentaries are, this one was also planned by the Korean Catholic Church to be used for didatic material.

How do these people live, how do they endure the confinement and pain of the country's borders ? Under the splendor of the landscapes we can feel the constant threat of a cold war In the heart of Caucasus. The villagers have learned to live with the sound of reports, while knowing that the next bullet may be for them. Scenes from ordinary life, in a country where the threat of war may never be forgotten: yet a feeling of life prevails: resident forever, forever. This film talk about the current state of the world and humanity with respect to imposed violence, in a set of border areas.

We stand at the edge of the world each day. After the world ends, a new day and world begin. The days lost their connections long ago—there is no tomorrow or yesterday, only fragmented todays. What lies at the end of the path through these fragments?

A fire burns in the dark. This film follows four voices speaking of their connection to nature. From different lands, they meet online to share memories and sensations. Amid urban birds, smog, clichéd forests, and landscapes of development, the film traces the feeling called 'connection' and the layers of fantasy around it.

“I laugh out of life’s void” Korea’s very first hippie, Han Dae Soo, bursts out a laughter. Some musicians talk about love or hope, Han Dae Soo’s music roots in pain. His songs are about freedom even in the most oppressive circumstances. He prepares to release his last album in 2020. A master’s recording session is full of improvisation and energy. As a man of over 70 years old, his voice has gotten deeper and stronger with age. His is a husband and a father and a human dwelling upon the possibility of death approaching. As a youngster he exerted sharp criticism towards society, but on his last album it leans more towards reflection and regret rather than anger. Han Dae Soo tells us his last story strolling through the streets of Manhattan and Namdaemun. The aged hippie’s laughter still resonates with joy.

This documentary sheds light on the lives of North Korean defectors in Europe. North Korean defectors who crossed the ideological boundary over to South Korea are often called forth to bear witness to the plight of North Korean society. Rather than creating a discourse about the recovery of divided culture, the focus has been very much on the conflict of ideology. The increasing number of North Korean defectors is a sign of victory. However, the film testifies that a growing number of people are leaving both Koreas behind.

With widening wealth disparities between Asian countries and increase in migrant labor, a new social conflict has emerged. The injustices and harsh conditions faced by those who crossed borders to overcome their poverty are now being passed on to their children. They are in Taiwan, in the Philippines, in Thailand, in Malaysia, in Indonesia, somewhere else, but nowhere else. This film is about undocumented immigrant children, a second generation of undocumented immigrants who are living like shadows.​

In 2012, the cleaning ladies working at the Korea National University of Arts got organised. Their working conditions are deteriorating, and it is time for them to make their voices heard.

The village under the Himalaya, Lukla. From here, you can only climb the Himalayas with your own two feet. Many tourists come here to admire the beautiful scenery of nature. It is a beautiful path with romantic memories for the tourists. But for some people, the same path could be somewhere with a burden of life, carrying heavy loads for someone else. Nepalese porters climb the Himalayas wit)h the heavy loads of the tourists. The amount of the loads is more than the one that the porters might not even use all to their grave. Thirteen-year-old Sonam also climbs the Himalayas instead of going to school because of the difficult family situation.

HAHN Dae-Soo is a singer whose song 'Give Me Water', expressed his generation's thirst for freedom during the political turmoil of the 70s. After 20 years of inactivity due to political reasons, he returned to Korea on May 2001 for a concert. This film reveals his vision of music and his lonely life as a bohemian. He tells us the meaning of eternal loneliness, confessing that, 'Life is fragile, and I am just glad to be alive'.

At nineteen, they left their homes for an unfamiliar land, its name unknown to them. UN soldiers from across the globe boarded ships bound for the Korean Peninsula's battlefields. Filled with youthful adventure, they soon witnessed horrors in the Korean War that no young person should ever experience. Now in their nineties, these veterans, nearing the end of their lives, recall the unforgettable highlands of the Korean Peninsula. Over these hills, where the beautiful landscapes of spring, summer, fall, and winter pass by, what did they witness, and what did they lose?

There is an astronaut who believes she is an alien. The illusion repeats itself. The repeated figure in her dream breaks down and scatters, and she feels devastated. The dead star becomes cosmic dust, and soon it becomes a new born star. The broken pieces stick together again.

Masarap Na Kanta begins like an impressionist painting. A man sits at a table outdoors, which makes the scene look like another uneventful day in the suburbs.

Yunseon's day begins with taking food to the cat feeding station in the mountains behind her neighborhood. Her husband, Yunjae, is displeased with Yunseon, who prioritizes the cat's food over her own but pretends to be indifferent and helps her behind the scenes. The two decide to build a house on the empty lot behind the house. The lot is already a hideout for the neighborhood cats. Can they build their house without harming the cats' habitat? Is it possible for humans and animals to build a home together?

In Korean society, divorce and families without fathers are a sign of failure. A daughter and her single mother talk about this type of societal pressure and their desire to rise above it all.

The story obscured by the banner: "Erasing 70 years of disgrace! Full-scale demolition of the red-light district!"

THORNAPPLE 'Fire Watching' 10th Anniversary Documentary

At a humble middle school in the countryside of South Korea, a youth archery team tries to excel in the inter-school championship. Although archery remains an unpopular sport in the country, in the school system the hobby is associated with a certain prestige, and each school strives to be the best in the championship. But things are not easy for these small competitors, as their school is one of the most humble in the circuit. If they want to win, they will have to give more than 100% of their effort.

The "bleared eyes of blue glass" in the title of this experimental short expand on a verbal image from Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves, considered the most experimental among the 20th-century British writer's literary works, from which the young filmmaker took inspiration for his film, borrowing passages and visions to explain his own understanding of what cinema is. A film that plays with water - precisely - and light, and yet in a very dark b&w lit up by rare flashes of colour, making a journey in the night in which the shadow of a man gradually acquires substance.

A small but sturdy farmer called Sanghee Ahn and passionate young farmers surrounded me, farming. When even I am having a hard time here, will the farmers be able to protect the seeds and take care of the small plant lives?

Footage from the making/screening of Kim Gok & Kim Sun's Capitalist Manifesto

A popular science film, which captures historical places scattered across the Gyeongju, the capital of the ancient Korean state of Silla, with local field shootings.

Japan is a close but distant country. The film tells the past and present of Zainichi Koreans and pro-North Korean schools in Japan. Through the close-down order, protests, and withdrawal of the order, the schools remained steady for 70 years. The film doesn't focus only on the past, but calmy depicts the lives of Zainichi Koreans. What is different today compared to 70 years ago? ​

Three women connected by fragile memories and vague associations. Director Noh spins her poetic family story between Korea and Japan, beyond the historical scope of the war.

In 1974, Cho Yeon-ho, a young Korean nurse sent to West Germany, arrives in Leverkusen and begins a life far from home. There she meets Charlotte Ballus, an elderly German woman shaped by war and its aftermath. Over more than twenty years, Yeon-ho cares for Ballus, and their relationship grows into one marked by trust, dependence, and responsibility. When Ballus names Yeon-ho her sole heir, traces of hierarchy and unspoken prejudice surface beneath their intimacy. The Quiet Inheritance explores care, inheritance, and the fragile ethics of a relationship shaped by affection and imbalance.