In South Korea, women have been voicing out loud through activist movements such as #EscapeTheCorset, #MeToo, #MyLifeIsNotYourPorn, and 4B (or Four Nos – no romance, marriage, sex and childbirth). The first feminist political party, the Women's Party, has also been recently formed to fight for more influence in the development of the deeply patriarchal and conservative Korean society.
More prominent and realistic images of women have also appeared in Korean cinema. A growing number of women filmmakers are creating courageous and captivating works to make their views be seen and heard, and #SendingMySpirit also encourages people to buy tickets for films with greater female involvement. Proudly presented by the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival and the Seoul Independent Film Festival, the Women Direct. Korean Indies! – Korean Women Independent Film Series brings you on a journey to explore the recent wave of women independent cinema. Our selected works observe and delineate women's places and emotions in the Korean society with great intimacy and delicacy, and will show you a diversity of women's lives that you might not have experienced before.
Selected Shorts to Wow: Movements / Unpredictable Boy / Beginners' Class
31/7 (Fri) 7:30pm. With after-screening talk. Conducted in English.
Movements by Jeong Da-hee
South Korea｜2019｜10 mins｜DCP｜Colour｜In Korean with English subtitles
Director's Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival 2019
Short Films and Taiwanese Short Films Competition, Taichung International Animation Festival 2019
Some baobab trees in Africa grow 0.008mm in ten minutes. The fastest dog in the world, the greyhound, can run 12km. Earth travels 18,000km around the Sun. Movement is a 10-minute animated film which the director drew at a rate of two seconds of animation per day. We are all walking, seeing, working, running and stopping simultaneously.
Unpredictable Boy by Goong Yu-jeong
South Korea｜2019｜31 mins｜DCP｜Colour｜In Korean with English subtitles
Asiana International Short Film Festival 2019
Myung-hyun, an elementary school teacher, finds out that one of the students, Chang-jin, has not paid for the after-school classes. When confronted, he tells her that he has left the money on her desk. However, the money is nowhere to be found. Having found out that Chang-jin is from a poor family, Myung-hyun tries to help, but the boy wants something else…
Beginners' Class by Kim Hyun-jung
South Korea｜2019｜50 mins｜DCP｜Colour｜In Korean with English subtitles
Ga-yeong, commuting from a suburb to Seoul for a scriptwriting class, wants to get closer to her classmates.
The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin by Kim Dong-ryung, Park Kyoung-tae
South Korea｜2019｜115 mins｜DCP｜Colour｜In Korean with English subtitles
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020
East Asian Experimental Competition (Terayama Shuji Prize), Image Forum Festival (Japan) 2020
Asian Vision Competition, Taiwan International Documentary Festival 2020
Busan International Film Festival 2019
Park In-sun has become an orphan during the Korean War, and has been sold as a prostitute for the US soldiers. She has been living in a village next to the US military base for more than 40 years. Never given the chance to learn how to read and write, In-sun has been drawing pictures on waste paper all her life, chronicling her painful and mysterious world of traumas. On a winter night, she finds out that her colleague has passed away and follows her silent funeral. The Death Messengers show up and spot In-sun. When they make up stories for their targets to lead them to afterlife, In-sun refuses to give in and creates her own story. The desire of fiction resides in resistance, and not staying as a victim.
Co-directors Kim Dong-ryung and Park Kyoung-tae have been making shorts and documentaries on the US Military Camp Town since the 2000s. Their previous film, Tour of Duty, won Special Prize at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and Best Independent Film at the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.
