
We continue with our list of documentaries that you shouldn’t miss at the 13th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival which will take from September 9th – 16th, 2021 in Goyang City and Paju City, Gyeongii Province, Korea.
To see the first part of this article GO HERE
You can also see the short films we recommend GO HERE
– Selected Films –

Section: Korean Competition
Yoo Kyung-geun, who lost her daughter Ye-eun in the Sewol Ferry Disaster, sits down at the podcast production studio. It is to meet with the bereaved families of numerous social disasters before and after the Sewol Ferry Disaster. They are Hwang Myung-ae, the mother of Han Sang-im who died in the 2003 Daegu Subway Fire, Ko Seok, the father of Gahyun and Nahyun who died in the 1999 Sealand Youth Training Center Fire, and Bae Eunsim, the mother of Lee Hanyeol who died in 1987’s June Struggle. The bereaved families talk about “the life after” and their daily lives, and Yoo Kyung-geun learns to live without Ye-eun. (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 11th, 2021 | Saturday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 4 | 10:00 am
September 15th, 2021 | Wednesday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 4 | 16:30 pm

Section: Global Vision
When corrupt officials illegally sell villagers’ land, the villagers rise up in an unprecedented experiment in democracy. (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 9th, 2021 | Thursday | Megabox Baekseok 1 | 18:30 pm
September 16th, 2021 | Thursday | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 13:00 pm
Trailer:

Section: International Competition
Bay and Tam have been trying to maintain their connection to Vietnam for the past thirty years. Through Skype and other chatrooms they created their own version of Vietnam in their apartment in Germany. But the restrictions of this virtual bubble confronts them with the question whether Germany or Vietnam is their real home. Is home a place or a state of mind? My Vietnam is a vivid illustration of living in two places at once, and that duality’s consequences on marriage, family and a sense of belonging. (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 10th, 2021 | Friday | Megabox Baekseok 1 | 19:30 pm
September 14th, 2021 | Tuesday | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 10:30 am

Section: Korean Docs Showcase
When their peers were in middle school, they started working in factories. Even when Jeon Tae-il self-immolated, shouting, “We are not machines”, they went to work at 8 am and worked until 11 pm. After meeting the Cheonggye Clothing Labor Union and the workers’ night school, their lives changed. When the government forcibly closed workers’ schools to crack down on the labor unions, they fought against the wretched governmental authority. Despite being framed and threatened by “the commies”, they did not waver. The story of women workers at Pyeonghwa market in the 1970s that we do not know. (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 12th, 2021 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok 7 | 13:00 pm
September 14th, 2021 | Tuesday | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 16:00 pm
Trailer:

Section: International Competition
When the father passed away in 2009, only the mother and their daughter were left in Japan. The daughter, who lives in Tokyo, is worried about her aged mother living alone, so she visits her home in Osaka every month. One day, the mother suddenly tells her daughter that she experienced the Jeju uprising. The memories of her that she had buried deep in her heart without telling anyone came back to life. She begins to talk specifically about how she got involved in the Jeju uprising, as she asks her daughter never to tell her anyone… (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 11th, 2021 | Saturday | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 13:00 pm
September 14th, 2021 | Tuesday | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 13:00 pm

Section: Asian Competition
As a native Dayak of Borneo, Iber Djamal (77) has witnessed two decades of ecological disasters that have destroyed Borneo’s forest. With the time he has left in his life, he is fighting to obtain a legal title for the remaining customary forest surrounding his home. With the expansion of palm oil plantations, indigenous Dayak people like him are asked to sign an agreement for the companies to further encroach their forest. Iber insists on pursuing the only legal way to protect the forest by obtaining a legal customary forest title for the remaining forest in his area. (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 14th, 2021 | Tuesday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 13:30 pm
Trailer:

Section: Asian Competition
Li Bing is a Buddhist nun who has worked for years to set up schools for local children in ethnically-Tibetan regions. In September 2016, she helped set up the Songhe Mani Tent School and hired two teachers, Gan Ge and Lhamo. The local incarnate Buddhist Lama has problem with their behaviors. In March 2017, as the new semester starts, the villagers come up with all sorts of excuses to demand that Lhamo be removed as teacher at the school. As Lhamo is forced to leave, Li Bing decides to remove Gan Ge too, as well as all the tents that serve as the school’s dormitory. (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 13th, 2021 | Monday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 4 | 13:00 pm
September 16th, 2021 | Thursday | Megabox Baekseok 7 | 10:30 am

Section: Asian Competition
On the eve of Japan’s recent–and highly contentious–immigration reform efforts, the filmmaker eludes press embargoes the government has imposed on its immigration facilities, bringing viewers into immediate contact with the detainees, many of whom are refugees seeking asylum. Detainees are held indefinitely and subject to physically violent deportation attempts by Japanese authorities against a background of the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic and with the spectacle of the Tokyo Olympics looming on the immediate horizon.
Screening Dates:
September 12th, 2021 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 11:00 am
September 15th, 2021 | Wednesday | Megabox Baekseok 7 | 16:30 pm
Trailer:

Section: Asian Competition
CHI Chia-wei used to give away condoms during the 80s while dressing as Snow White, Jesus or the mummy. His activism received attention from the media and suffered discrimination from the general public. As a volunteer striving to make more people understand AIDS, he organized a press conference at which he came out, becoming the first person in Taiwan to do it. In 2017, a constitutional ruling made him a hero in the gay community. A 30-year struggle seemed to reach its final destination or a new starting point. (DMZ Docs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 12th, 2021 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 20:00 pm
September 16th, 2021 | Thursday | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 10:30 am

Section: Asian Competition
In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, emerges India’s only newspaper run by Dalit women. Armed with smartphones, Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions, be it on the frontlines of India’s biggest issues or within the confines of their homes, redefining what it means to be powerful. (DMZDocs 2021)
Screening Dates:
September 11th, 2021 | Saturday | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 13:00 pm
September 14th, 2021 | Tuesday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 16:30 pm
For more information please visit: https://dmzdocs.com/eng
About the festival:
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs) is a Korean film festival for documentaries, jointly presented by Paju and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province. The 13th DMZ Docs will take place on 9th-16th September 2021. It is the largest festival of its kind in Asia, aiming to introduce outstanding documentaries as well as to support talented filmmakers and promising projects to be discovered by a wider audience.
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