15 Short Films you shouldn’t miss at the 13th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival

By Asian Film Festival on September 3, 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

These are fifteen shorts 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.

You can read about our recommendation of feature docs HERE (Part 1) & HERE (Part 2)

– Selected Films –

**A Cat May Look at a King** by Cheng Chih-ming – Taiwan | 2020 – 24 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition

The graffiti of a cat is seen everywhere in Tamsui, Taiwan. An artist is a man always dressed in a volunteer firefighter uniform. Driving a van, he delivers gas cylinders to the residents while maintaining the vivid colors in the graffiti.

**Back to the Basics** by Kang Chaerin – Korea | 2021 – 21 minutes
**Section**: Youth Docs Showcase

I lost my passion for filmmaking after becoming a film major. However, I regain my passion by meeting my peers and a film director and listening to their stories.

Screening Dates:
September 12th, 2021 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 11:00 am

**Dance for Life** by Baby Ruth Villarama – Philippines | 2021 – 11 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

Angeli Salazar is on death row for murder. Twenty five years in prison and fearful of the reinstatement of the death penalty, she finds solace and freedom in the art of dance.

**Happyhappy Divorceparty** by Nam Soona – Korea | 2021 – 24 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

Why is there a wedding anniversary and no divorce anniversary? My parents divorced after 15 years of marriage. 2020 marks the 15th year since their divorce. The daughters want to throw their mother a fancy party to celebrate her 15th anniversary of divorce.

**Like a Student** by Lim Chaemin – Korea | 2021 – 19 minutes
**Section**: Youth Docs Showcase

During my 12 years of schooling, I often asked questions like, “Is this school rule necessary?” I thought that students should be respected enough to exercise their basic rights as human beings. However, society and schools seemed to say that students can only be guaranteed their human rights when they are decent students. From then on, I started finding ways to promote student human rights. And I found out. There is no “Student Human Rights Ordinance” in “Daegu” where I live. Why? Daegu students are no different from Seoul students!

Screening Dates:
September 12th, 2021 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 11:00 am

**Madame Lien’s Factory** by Nguyen Thu huong – Vietnam | 2020 – 32 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

For over 50 years, Madam Lien has taken care of her family’s shipyard all by herself. The shipyard produces traditional wooden ships. It’s the last of its kind and its days are numbered. While keeping an eye on her workers, she’s reflecting on her life through many changes in the times and the life of missed opportunities.

**Man Man Mia** by Lee Yong-gil – Korea | 2020 – 30 minutes
**Section**: Youth Docs Showcase

Hollywood musicals on a massive scale are pleasing to our eyes and ears. But the more I watch them, the more I wonder why there aren’t many musical films in Korea. This documentary goes to meet the directors who researched and made musical films in Korea, a wasteland of musical films, and also tells the story of a student who takes on the challenge of filming a musical from the perspective of young people, based on his research and interviews with those directors.

Screening Dates:
September 12th, 2021 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 11:00 am

**May•JEJU•Day** by Jude Kang – Korea | 2021 – 14 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

Immediately after liberation, an incident called ‘Jeju Uprising’ took place on Jeju Island, the Hawaii of Korea, under the control of the US military government. As a result, about one-tenth of the total population of the island at that time was sacrificed. The children who survived the massacre record the memories of that day in an animated film 70 years later.

**Melody** by Kim Younjeong – Korea | 2021 – 13 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

Trapped in a room and suffering from unknown noises and fears, I meet and talk with Goyuhan Seon and Violet J, who are suffering from schizophrenia, the same mental problems as me. These two were swimming in this world in their own way and at their own pace. Our stories drifted separately with our individual notes, but they encounter each other and are eventually completed as one melody.

**Pallae: Womanhood Story** by Park Sohyun – Korea | 2021 – 25 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

Choreographer Nam Jeongho’s Pallae: Womanhood Story premiered in 1993. Five female dancers spend the night washing clothes and bathing together at the wash place, which is the backdrop stage, for the performance of Pallae in 2021.

**Sad Film** by Vasili – Myanmar, Netherlands | 2021 – 12 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

A courageous autobiographical short documentary, made by an anonymous filmmaker, about living in fear under the military junta in Myanmar, and about making films, which has become virtually impossible since the country’s military coup on February 1st.

**Space Baedari** by Lim Kiwoong – Korea | 2020 – 42 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

KWAK Hyeon-sook, owner of the second-hand bookstore “Abel Bookstore” in Baedari village, Incheon, has been in business for over 30 years. Since 2007, she has been fighting against the construction of an industrial road that will run through the village. When the construction was stopped because of protests from residents, the village gradually turned into a nature space where we could enjoy the four seasons as grass and trees began to grow. In the meantime, various cultural and artistic events are held there, and various artists visit there. However, in 2019, the city again engages in several works to finish the construction in this space and creates friction with the residents.

**Strike with the Beat** by Sai Kyaw Khaing – Myanmar | 2021 – 25 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

It is a piece of witness of cool blood killing in Myanmar. In February 1, 2021, Burmese’s military seized power and detained State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint and elected government members. After the coup, Young Burmese called ‘Drum Revolution’ group came out on the street and protested the military junta. The junta brutally crack downed on peaceful protesters.

**The Geshema is Born** by Malati Rao – India, Nepal | 2020 – 56 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

For the Buddha, establishing a community of nuns was a radical experiment for its time. Over the centuries Buddhist religious life was available to women but the highest monastic qualifications were denied to them. The film traces the journey of an exceptional nun, Namdol Phuntsok, the first woman ever to be awarded the highest degree in Tibetan philosophy – the Geshema degree.

**The Long Hole** by Jeong Yeoreum – Korea | 2021 – 36 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

A detective is led by an accidental postcard to investigate an incident at USFK base Camp Long. Camp Long is in ruins with no one coming for twenty years. In the process of gathering, defragmenting, and arranging neglected information, the detective discovers that a strange geographic data value called Camp Long ATM occupies all space and time. However, there are no traces of any ATMs or banks at the scene, and only bright red bloodstains are disguised as evidence. The film is a mystery report of a detective trying to understand the legacy of time.

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.