Booklet: Movements on Screen

The topic of this year's(2018) project is Movements on Screen, and we have been able to include a number of ‘independent films’ in the volume for the first time. The independent film scene in Korea took root around the early 1980s, and underwent its development in close relation to the social reform movement, as well as the film movement, in Korea. The film production groups, which started as groups of film coteries or cine-clubs in colleges at first, captured issues of contemporary Korean society either in 8mm or 16mm film cameras, or in video cameras, and each from their own unique perspectives, which had hardly been seen before in the mainstream film industry.

The seven films selected for this year are: South River (dir. Jang Gil-su, 1980), Water Utilization Tax (dir. Hong Ki-seon, 1984), Sanggye- dong Olympic (dir. Kim Dong-won, 1988), Labor News No.1 (dir. Labor News Production, 1989), The Night Before Strike (dir. Jangsangonmae, 1990), Doomealee: A New School Is Opening (dir. Hong Hyung-sook, 1995), and My Own Breathing (dir. Byun Young-joo, 1999). It is such a shame not to be able to present more of the great independent films produced, but we believe that the films we have chosen for this year’s topic will be an appropriate guide to catch a good glimpse into the fierce scenes of ‘movement.’ Each of those films provides a comprehensive understanding of a specific issue, dealing as they do with development and the urban poor, rural areas and labor movements, the issues of local areas, or the bitter history of women during the era of colonization. Meanwhile the films have also not failed to present their own thoughts on the various big cinematic questions which anyone in the independent film scene would address, such as the boundary between the raw material of the field and direction, the distance between x-objects and director, the selection of media, the way of distribution, the ethics of representation, etc.

Maeng Su-jin 
Film Critic, Programmer of the Seoul Eco Film Festival
Kim Dong-hyeon
Director, Seoul Independent Film Festival
Shin Eun-sil
Executive Committe of Seoul Independent Documentary Film Festival
Bae Ju-yeon
Research Associate Professor at the Critical Global Studies Institute at Sogang University
Hwang Miyojoo
Film Study Researcher

Greetings 5
Introduction 147
South River / Sanggye-dong Olympic / Doomealee: A New School Is Opening 161
Water Utilization Tax / Labor News No.1 191
The Night BeforeStrike 223
My Own Breathing 243
References 273