14 Documentaries you cannot miss at the Seoul Independent Documentary Film Festival 2019

By Asian Film Festival on March 20, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

We present a list of fourteen documentaries you shouldn’t miss at the Seoul Independent Documentary Film Festival 2019 which will take place from March 21st – 28th in Seoul, South Korea.

12 AND 24 by Namsuk Kim – Korea | 2018 – 102 min.

Quite and mysterious, Xin Seha is an emerging indie musician in South Korea. While his band gradually gets attention from the public, Xin goes through an ordeal: his mother is sick. Xin, however, bravely looks at his pain and expresses his feeling through his voice. 12 AND 24 portrays Xin Seha and his surrounding people, and shows how they grow together as artists and human beings.

A Corner Shop by Sukgyung Lee – Korea | 2018 – 72 min.

Picnic Cat is a social enterprise that makes and delivers lunchbox meals. It was set up eight years ago by resource-strapped youngsters and grownups to help young people who have opted out of the basic education system. From a small shop making monthly revenues of less than 10 million Korean Won in the spring of 2014, the business grew its revenue to more than 50 million Won in three years. What was happening to the folks working in Picnic Cat in those years? A Corner Shop is the story of how the individuals working in Picnic Cat oscillated between livelihood and humanhood as their shop grew up with them.

A landscape between past and future by MInwook Oh – Korea | 2015 – 21 min.

1.Origin of water in the valley. The surface of the water and small creatures under the water. Static forests and rocks. Break through the two-lane road in the landscape. The Geochang Massacre Memorial Park is located at the end of the two-lan road. A desolate landscape.
2. Forgetting the present by the past. The future filled with the obvious hope. Uncombined the past and the present. Advancing the future. A desolate landscape.

A War of Memories by Bora Leekil – Korea | 2018 – 88 min.

During the Vietnam War, the Korean army massacred an entire village. A few survivors spoke out, revealing what really happened that day but their statement still hangs in the air, unrecognized officially. The memory of the war becomes a war of memories.

Courtesy by Soonhyeon Kwon – Korea | 2018 – 26 min.

It has been a year since the crane collapsed. A short documentary film about a memorial place where 6 pair of boiler suits and 31 pairs of work boots are only remained.

Finally Endless by Ahram Choi – Korea | 2018 – 32 min.

When liberated from the Japanese colony the first thing that Koreans in Japan do was establish a Korean schools. In 1948, however, the Japanese government ordered the shutdown of Korean schools. The Korean schools across the country vigorously resisted and even reached death. Seventy years later, the Korean schools are fighting another battle with the Japanese government. The Japanese government has exclusively excluded the ‘high school diploma system’, which makes tuition fees for all high schools including foreign schools free, only the Korean schools. Therefore, students and parents of Korean schools are filing lawsuits with the Japanese government, saying they are unfair discrimination. Osaka Korean school, which won the first trial, is now facing the second trial.

Garden, Zoological by Mincheol Wang – Korea | 2018 – 97 min.

The animals in the zoo, although some may haven’t completely lost their innate instincts, are unlikely to survive if released back to the wild. Ultimately, the zoo may well be the new habitat where they must adapt themselves to live. (Hot Docs 2019)

HAMMERING by Seoyoon Choi – Korea | 2018 – 34 min.

I and my friends had some trouble with landlords. That’s why I get angry when I hear the story of bad landlords. The news that a son of the owner of building, rapper, had called a female renter to ‘AJUMMA’ and the other day wrote sexual harassment lyrics made me furious. It drove me to rap. A rap about mangwon ‘CHAMPLOO’ and seochon ‘GUNGJUNG-JOKBAL’.

Invisiable Child by Aori – Korea | 2018 – 31 min.

Eunkyeong who escaped from North Korea through Laos when she was 13, Seungjin who almost got shot at the border of China when he was 19, Seunghee who was born in China but followed her mom to Korea when she was 11, they are all living in Korea.

My dream by Haeun Yoo – Korea | 2019 – 22 min.

I’m a sophomore at Ganghwa Girls’ High School. I dream of becoming a movie director. However, I am currently attending a general high school, not an art high school, and I live in a dormitory. I can’t study movies on weekdays because I study at school until 1 am. Even friends with similar career paths are hard in their respective situations. Still, we look for ways to do it, such as going to an academy in Seoul that is two hours away or shooting a movie during club time. So we do what we can now.

Night of collapse by Junyong Lee – Korea | 2018 – 20 min.

He said the night was comfortable. Unlike daytime, there is no compulsory execution at night. This is the story of Cho Han-jeong, the last resident of Jangwi newtown (Northern Seoul).

On the Edge of 75 metres by Hyunjung Kim – Korea | 2018 – 30 min.

Since 2006, five workers have been protesting against the company Starflex and its previous owner. They are demanding the company keep its promise but the company refuses to negotiate with them. They choose extreme methods to let the public know about this. Protesting more than 10 years, they are on the edge of life.

Pink-Femi by Arum Nam – Korea | 2018 – 23 min.

Since my mother was working at the women’s rights group, the field of feminism movement was my playground. I grew up as a little feminist who cut her hair short and refused to wear skirts. However, as I got older I experienced things that made me run away from feminism. Eventually, I decided to be a princess rather than a feminist, and started to stick to pink as a survival strategy. Could a person like me can be a feminist again?

Re-sound by Ilgeon Jeong – Korea | 2018 – 120 min.

Marking its 40th anniversary, ‘Meari’ is a folk song that started in the late 1970s and resists dictatorship in the 1980s, and a singing club at Seoul National University that has produced and sung band music since the 90s. The 40 years between graduates who have dedicated their lives to folk and singing movements and the band club Meari, which sings youth as a college student, are also the history of Korea’s modern and progressive music movement.