Note the entire schedule is listed at the bottom of this article. -- Ed.
 
This year the Jeju Women’s Association is holding the 12th Women’s Film Festival in Jeju from Sept. 22 to 25 at the Sulmundae Women’s Center, behind the Jeju Jungang Middle School in Jeju City.

The theme for this year’s festival is “Women, the exploding power that turns the tables.” The films are divided into four sections: Hot Explosion, Familiar Strangeness, Looking at the World Through the Eyes of the Minority and War and Women.

This year, 33 feature-length films, animations, and documentaries will be screened over the span of the four day festival. Twenty-four will be available in English with either English dialogue or subtitles.

There will be activities throughout the festival, including a natural cloth dyeing program on Sept. 24 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the first floor of the center. Also a flea market called the “Market of Hope” to support the Jeju Women’s Festival Development Fund will be held on the first floor throughout the four days of the festival.

For more information, call An Hye Kyoung at 016-690-0040. Sulmundae Women's Center. 324-10, Yeon-dong, Jeju City.

Film Line-up

Section 1: Hot Explosion

“Confession”
Korean movie with English subtitles
Mrs. Park, a devout Christian, returns to an empty home on a hot summer day. As there is no one there to answer her, she tries to jump over the wall to get in, but her son’s friend Young Bae jumps over and opens the main gate for her.

Young Bae suddenly says he is troubled and would like to confess to her something embarrassing. After Mrs.Park considers Young Bae’s confession, she realizes a dangerous desire that could potentially bring trouble. She realizes that her son and her son’s friend are not naive children and she is forced to face the desire that she withheld herself for many years.

Section 2: Familiar Strangeness

“100!”
Swedish documentary with English subtitles
A documentary about aging told through a succession of 100 interviews and footage of people from 0 years old to 100.

“(The Importance of) Hair”
Swedish documentary with English subtitles
What would happen to you if you suddenly lost your outer appearance? The film examines that question, and look at the fear and sadness of those who lost their hair and their identity.

“Mistranslation”
Korean with English subtitles
This short documentary shows Korean elementary school students who have learned English and follows them as they try to fulfil their dreams, hopes, as well as experience despair, success, failure, confidence, and anxiety. By showing the relations between the Korean and English languages, the documentary questions the values and ambitions of Korean society.

“Thicker than Water”
Israeli movie with English subtitles
Ruth is living in isolation to protect herself from something new. One day, two of her brothers visit her, which reminds her of painful memories, shaking her to life.

“My Fancy High Heels”
Taiwanese documentary with English subtitles
How much does it take to make a single pair of high heels? This documentary covers the inconvenient truth behind the making of high heels, taking the viewer back from the fashionable young woman of New York, to the manager of manufacturing factory and the workers.
*This movie contains a butchery scene.

(Text below from the Seoul International Film Festival Web site)

“The Story of Namildang in Yongsan”
Korean documentary with English subtitles
The tragedy and violence at the demolition site in Yongsan district 4 happened on January 20, 2009. Rather than focusing on the deaths in Namildang, the documentary follows a group of elderly women who despite the loss of their homes from the demolition, made friends and learned how to rally together to fight for a place to live.

“Kopi Luwak”
Korean animation with English subtitles
Ye-mi and Gang-bo, who used to play together in a band, stand at a crossroads in their life as they start their final year in high school. Ye-mi is frustrated with Kang-bo who says he will concentrate on studying so as to enter college. However, Kang-bo is going through hard times as well. Some adolescents give up on their dreams in order to enjoy “Kopi Luwak every weekend,” while others pursue their dreams will worrying about the uncertainties that lie ahead. This film is a song of praise dedicated to unstable youth and the adults they are close to.

“My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts”
English animation with Korean subtitles (Canada, Norway)
The Grandmother of the director often told her stories; one in particular revolved around ironing shirts for the King of Norway. The director weaves a story like a fabric from this personal story and historical events of the grandmother.

“Man Makes History”
English animation with Korean subtitles (Australia)
This is a parody of the 1950s style of educational animation. The narrator bluffs that only men made great discoveries and women appeared in history only when they were needed to cook with man’s discovery of fire.

“The Witches”
English animation with Korean subtitles (U.K.)
Set in Scotland in the year 159, three fishwives, Margaret, Ina and Sandra set about devising a plan to save themselves from the fearful witch hunt. The film tells the story of three women trying to devise a plan to save themselves from the fearful witch-hunt by the King James VI of Scotland in 1590.

“The Lady with Nine Husbands”
Korean animation with English subtitles
A grandmother tells her granddaughter a story of a lady who devours her nine husbands one by one.

“Flawed”
English animation with Korean subtitles (Canada)
A male plastic surgeon and a female artist exchange their daily lives by writing postcards to each other. The film skilfully tells the story by showing the storyboards being illustrated one by one with the director’s narrating voice. It is also amazing to see how it invites the audience to share the story.

Section 3: Looking at world through the eyes of the minority

“Nima”
Korean movie with English subtitles
Nima is an illegal immigrant worker from Mongolia and does chores at a motel in Seoul. Her Korean friend Jung-eun, who suffers because of her violent husband, keeps a distance to her at first. But soon they become friends as they share their own experiences as social minors.

“Now He Is a She”
Taiwanese documentary with English subtitles
The combined identity of separated couple, teachers, family members, and transgender can’t silence the two people. Now He is a She tells their unique and touching story, and they choose to replace disgrace by understanding. Twenty years of life has passed, but their story is not finished yet.

“Lesbian Factory”
Taiwanese documentary with English subtitles
Lesbian Factory is a love story as well as a documentary about a social movement. The director gets to help a labor dispute of female migrant workers from the Philippines, in jeopardy of losing their jobs due to the factory closure and embezzlement by their boss, with those activists from the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA). The situation is that the workers haven’t been paid for three months and are about to lose their jobs. The TIWA begins organizing them in group protests.

“My Mother’s Coat”
English animation/documentary (U.K.)
This film is about my Italian mother and her confessions about her life in the 70s living in Athens following her Greek husband.

“Here and There”
English animation (Canada)
Childhood can be a chaotic time, especially if you’re bouncing back and forth between two continents.

“Birth”
English animation (US)
Amina, a 17 year old girl, is pregnant and afraid to give birth. For consolation and advice she goes to older women.

“Thembi’s Diary”
Korean documentary with English subtitles
Thembi, a 17 year old girl, from South Africa records an audio documentary, a part of which is made into animation.

“The Beloved Ones”
English animation/documentary (U.K., Uganda, Netherlands)
The Beloved Ones tells true stories of two African women living with the repercussions of HIV/AIDS in a compelling and intimate portrait.

“Tying Your Own Shoes”
English animation documentary (Canada)
Tying Your Own Shoes is an intimate glimpse into the exceptional mindsets and emotional lives of four adult artists with Down syndrome. This documentary explores the thoughts, imaginations, lifestyles, friends, love, disability, future and ambition of these artists and talks about their art world.

Section 4: War and Women

“I was a Child of Holocaust Survivors”
English animation documentary (Canada)
“I was a Child of Holocaust Survivors” is an animated adaptation of Bernice Einsentein’s critically acclaimed illustrated memoir. This film deals with a second-hand trauma of a child, who is aware of the fact that her parents are holocaust survivors and yet cannot empathize with their painful experience.

“The Woman, The Orphan and The Tiger”
English documentary (US and Canada) - contains occasional Danish dialogue
International adoptees and Korean women diaspora looks back to their 20s and 30s and observe on the trauma that came down from the generation above them, following them like a ghost. The documentary follows how the military and patriarchal violence affected the negotiations between Korea, Japan and US by exploring the comfort women, sexual slaves used by the Japanese military in WWI and WWII.

Closing Movie

“When Night is Falling”
English movie (Canada)
An uptight and conservative woman, working on tenure as a literacy professor at a large urban university, finds herself strangely attracted to a free-spirited, liberal woman who works at a local carnival which comes to town. (Description from IMDB.com)

“Living Along the Fenceline”
English Documentary (US)
Documentary on seven women from Texas, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam, Philippines, Korea and Okinawa where their life is affected by the presence of the US army in their backyard. Each of their own brave and strong journeys brings them to living around the US army and unveils many communities who pay for the tragic expenses of their land, culture and soul.

Note:
The documentary will be screened in two different rooms, one with Korean subtitles and the other for English subtitles. Those who need English subtitles will have to go to a room on second floor. If asked, the volunteers will show you the way.
There will be a dialogue with the director of “Living Along the Fenceline” by the co-producer and co-director Gwyn Kirk on Sept 25 at 7 p.m. after the documentary is finished.
Those who opt for the English subtitle version will have to return to the main screen room on the first floor if they wish to participate in a dialogue with the director.
 

Note: The film titles in bold indicate English-language or English subtitled films.  <Jeju Weekly>

<Oh Ji Su  editor@jejuweekly.comⓒ Jeju Weekly All rights reserved>