Saturday, April 23, 2011
19 University Place (between 8th St and Waverly Place)
Film program: starts at 1:45 PM
Note: these screenings immediately follow the CRISIS NOW IN KOREA panel which starts at 12 Noon.
Film Line up:
Grandmother’s Flower (2008, 89 minutes)
by Jeong-hyun Mun
When director Mun accidentally discovered the diaries of his late granduncle, who was mentally ill, he unexpectedly learned about his family’s secret history. The small mountain village in South Jeolla Province where Mun’s family lived, was nursing the wounds from conflicts of class, ideology as well as from the displacement of family members in South and North Korea, and even in Japan. It turned out that the history of his family contained all the tragedies of modern Korean history, a history he had only known through textbooks. This interesting documentary investigates a complex history linking the repercussions of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War to the director’s family memories.
A Third World Newsreel presentation.
Click here for more information and to see the trailer.
4 PM
Tiger Spirit (2008, 78 minutes )
by Min Sook Lee
Korean-Canadian director Min Sook Lee’s search for both the real and symbolic “Tiger Spirit” of Korea leads her on an amazing journey along the Koreas’ border where she encounters a wild-eyed tiger hunter, a courageous woman who defected from the North years ago, a young bus guide whose job it is to shuttle workers across the DMZ border everyday, and many hopeful families dreaming of the day they can once again see their lost loved ones. With unprecedented access and never before seen footage of North Korea’s industrial zone and state-sanctioned reunification centers, Lee brings us an emotion-charged journey into Korea’s broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary families.
A Women Make Movies Presentation
Click here for more information and to see the trailer.
The film screenings are followed immediately by the Exhibition Talk and Reception for STILL PRESENT PASTS: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War” at 41-51 East 11th Street, 7th floor at 6 PM.