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네이버 공유 카카오 공유 트위터 공유 페이스북 공유

Turning the Spotlight on Korean Film

This was the first North American Korean film festival dedicated to both Republic of Korea (ROK) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) contemporary films. The event showcased ROK and DPRK feature films which have never before been shown in North America. Additionally, the lineup included a ary by Korean-American scholars dealing with Korean immigrants living in the former Soviet Union. To contextualize the event, lectures and panel discussions delivered by distinguished film directors and scholars from prestigious academic institutions, from both sides of the Pacific, rounded out the program.



University of California, San Diego (UCSD) hosted an extremely successful event. “Korea, North and South: A Cinematic Perspective,” a three-day event (January 25-27, 2008), was made possible by funding from the Korea Foundation; Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles; the UCSD Libraries; Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS); the Korea-Pacific Program (KPP); Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC); UCSD Center for the Humanities; the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2); and Lowell and April Blankfort.

The KNS event was the result of a cooperative effort between the UCSD Libraries and its campus partners, the KPP, IGCC, IR/PS School, and Calit2. It took us more than two years to work with the North Korean side, which was responsible for selecting and adding English subtitles to seven of what have been officially considered as the most representative contemporary films of the DPRK. In 2007, we formed the Korean Film Festival Event Committee, whose members included Jim Cheng (Chair), Prof. Stephan Haggard, Prof. Susan Shirk, Prof. Jong-Sung You, Prof. Jin-Kyung Lee, Maria Reinalda Adams (Coordinator), and Taeho Yu (President of the IR/PS Student Group: Mannam). The committee selected five DPRK films (out of the seven films we received): “Hong Gil Dong” (,1985), “O My Love” (사랑, 사랑, 내사랑,1984), “Our Lifeline” (우리의 생명, 2002), “Our Fragrance” (우리의 향기, 2003), “Blood-Stained Woodblock” (피묻은 략패, 2004), five ROK films: “To the Starry Island” (그 섬에 가고 싶다, 1994), “Peppermint Candy” (박하사탕, 2000), “Welcome to Dongmakgol” (웰컴 투 동막골, 2005), “Woman on the Beach” (해변의 여인, 2006), “May 18” (화려한 휴가, 2007), and one ary film made by Korean-American scholars: “Koryo Saram: The Unreliable People”(2007).
Seven distinguished film directors and scholars were invited to give the lectures and lead the panel discussion: Prof. and Director Park Kwang Su (Korean National University of Arts), Prof. and Director Y. David Chung (University of Michigan), Prof. David E. James (University of Southern California), Prof. Kyung Hyun Kim (University of California, Irvine), Prof. Steven Chung (Princeton University), Prof. Takashi Fujitani (UCSD), and Prof. Jong-Sung You (UCSD).
We were especially honored to have Ambassador Byung-hyo Choi, the ROK Consul General in Los Angeles, and Minister Kim Myong Gil, the DPRK Representative to the U.S. and Mission to the United Nations, as attendees at our event. Both Ambassador Choi and Minister Kim attended the Opening Night Reception of the event on the evening of January 25. They sat at the same table with UCSD University Librarian Brian E.C. Schottlaender; Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of the IR/PS Graduate School Peter F. Cowhey; IGCC Director Susan Shirk; and KPP Director Stephan Haggard. A nine-course traditional Korean dinner was catered by Korea House (a prominent Korean restaurant in San Diego), for more than 190 invited guests. After delivering their remarks, Ambassador Choi and Minister Kim enjoyed the night’s feature film from the ROK, “Welcome to Dongmakgol”.
More than 2,000 people attended the various lectures and films of the three-day program schedule, including students and faculty from UCSD and other regional academic institutions. While many regional visitors from the communities of San Diego and Los Angeles were in attendance, visitors flew in specifically to attend and report on the event from as far away as Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C. The uniqueness and historical timeliness of the event drew heavy media coverage that (at the local/regional level) included, The Korea Daily San Diego, NPR/KPBS, The Korean Times Los Angeles, Asia Week, and Chinese Daily News. At the national level, Voice of America, Yahoo Korea, and Radio Free Asia, and, (at the international level), SBS, Busan Ilbo, Kukminilbo/Kukinews, Naver News, KBS News, Yonhap News, and JoongAng Ilbo were present.
During the event, some American audience members expressed their surprise in finding a sense of normalcy and beauty in the daily family lives depicted in the DPRK film, “Our Fragrance”, while others found the DPRK films “Hong Gil Dong” and “O My Love” quite entertaining. There were enthusiastic and “heated” discourses during the lectures and open panel discussion concerning subjects, such as the state of film censorship in Korea, overseas Korean identity issues in foreign countries, the role of the U.S. during the Korean War, the Gwangju uprising and Korea’s democratization process, the audience reaction to the film May 18, and Korean film characters and film makers during the colonial period.
As one of the participants commented, the event was both “entertaining and intellectually stimulating.” Others wanted more information on how to access the Libraries’ copies of these films to share with their children, especially the North Korean films which were, for the first time, viewed with English subtitles. The event had a clear impact on the audiences that inspired curiosity, affirmation of personal identity, bonding with other audience members (whether of Korean heritage or not), and a sense of global connectedness.
As the immediate result of the event, Minister Kim Myong Gil agreed to help the UCSD Libraries to collect more DPRK films and the UCSD Libraries agreed to purchase all five ROK films shown during the event so that they could be presented to Minister Kim, as a gift.
To date, this event represents the most ambitious UCSD Libraries’ public offering of this scale and with wide-reaching historical implications. Along with our previous experiences with film expositions in this genre, (the Chinese Underground Film Festival in 2003, and the Japanese Film Symposium in 2004), we are organically developing our own brand of academically critical East Asian film festivals.
Since our initial foray into implementing this special method (of both showcasing the Libraries collection and sharing it with the community at large with academic presentations/lectures), these events have garnered respect and attention for the University and the films in our collection. It is at once a vehicle of community outreach as well as education.
International studies has been promoted by UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox as a major emphasis of the UCSD curriculum. In support of this mission, we, at the UCSD Libraries, strive to continually develop the best research resources in this area, including Korean Studies, in support of our faculty and students preparing to be 21st century leaders. Understanding the full scope of the Korean experience is critical to the success of this leadership.
Finally, as the UCSD University Librarian Brian E.C. Schottlaender stated in his remarks during the Opening Night Reception: “Another important goal of hosting this event, besides promoting UCSDs Korean Studies Program, is to showcase the UCSD Libraries’ Korean Collection. This events films are part of its foundation. We now intend to aggressively develop this collection into an internationally recognized resource to meet the needs of our students and faculty as well as the regional and global academic communities. This endeavor will require both internal and external resources to meet these demands. The success of this event is a good first step in this direction.”

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