These are ten Korean docs you should not miss at the 12th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival which takes place from September 17th – 24th, in Goyang and Paju (South Korea).

About the festival:
The DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, as one of leading international documentary film festivals in Asia, aims to provide opportunities for growing Korean and Asian documentary filmmakers to have a field that cineastes and audience together celebrate the festival through documentaries for promoting ‘peace’, ‘life’ and ‘communication’ with DMZ.

Selected Films:

In the summer of 1996, college students tried to hold a pan-national rally Unification Festival at Yonsei University, fiercely confronts the government. After 20 years, a video from that time was posted online, urging mixed reactions of retrospect, reflection, shock, and criticism. This film records the student society in the space where the protest occurred, and tries to show today in relation to the past.

Schedule:
September 18th, 2020 (Friday) | Megabox Baekseok 1 | 16:00 pm
September 21st, 2020 (Monday) | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 20:30 pm

Since the mass layoffs of 1,500 tollgate attendants, the laborers have put up a fierce fight involving high-altitude sit-in demonstrations, occupation of the headquarter office, and hunger strikes. Most of them are women in their 50s, people with disabilities and North Korean defectors suffer from low wages for many years. How have they managed to bring hope to other temporary employees?

Schedule:
September 18th, 2020 (Friday) | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 19:00 pm
September 23rd, 2020 (Wednesday) | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 17:00 pm

In eastern Seoul, an apartment complex is soon to be demolished. The residents wanted new homes and left without hesitation when the reconstruction plan was passed. The abandoned complex belonged to cats for a short time. There was only peace and quiet. Meanwhile, residents worried about the cats that remain there gather together and seek ways to keep them happy.

Schedule:
September 19th, 2020 (Saturday) | Megabox Baekseok 1 | 20:00 pm
September 22nd, 2020 (Tuesday) | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 14:00 pm

Known as ‘Yankee Princess’ and ‘UN Madame’, women who were sexual laborers for the US military Camptowns, filed a lawsuit against Korean government and called themselves ‘US military comfort women’. Chasing forgotten voices and erased traces, this film tells you a story about comfort women system in Korea, which have lasted since World War II.​

Schedule:
September 18th, 2020 (Friday) | Megabox Baekseok 1 | 13:30 pm
September 22nd, 2020 (Tuesday) | Megabox Baekseok 7 | 19:30 pm

Kim Soonak was a survivor of sexual slavery by the Japanese military. After the war, her life was yet another battle. She drifted into the red-light district, engaged in sex trade around the US military camp town, and peddled goods from the US military. Then she raised her two children by working as a live-in maid. The film reconstructs the life of the late Ms. Kim through interviews, archival footage, animation.

Schedule:
September 19th, 2020 (Saturday) | Megabox Baekseok Comport 6 | 17:30 pm
September 23rd, 2020 (Wednesday) | Megabox Baekseok 7 | 14:30 pm

A different approach to borders is traced through the Korean shamanic myth of the abandoned Princess Bari. The shamanic blurring of boundaries resonates with the film’s fusion of past and present. Filmed in Jeju Island, the DMZ, North Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan, etc. it is a feminist, diasporic, and multi-vocal film about the Korean War and division.​

Schedule:
September 19th, 2020 (Saturday) | Megabox Baekseok 8 | 17:00 pm
September 23rd, 2020 (Wednesday) | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 14:00 pm

At dusk, the streets become abuzz with the sound of an electronic wheelchair. The wheelchair belongs to Nayoung, a “cat mom” who looks after stray cats in the neighborhood. Her disability and deteriorating health makes it difficult for her to prepare her own meals. However, despite what people say, she continues to care for stray cats. Here is a woman on the lowest rung of society who professes herself to be a companion to cats.

Schedule:
September 18th, 2020 (Friday) | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 20:00 pm
September 22nd, 2020 (Tuesday) | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 11:30 am

The child is upset about ____________.

Schedule:
September 20th, 2020 (Sunday) | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 11:00 am
September 23rd, 2020 (Wednesday) | Megabox Baekseok 3 | 14:30 pm

Ko Eun-young, a thirty, non-naitive Jeju Island woman with no experience in politics, runs for Jeju governor in the 2018 local elections. The bumpy ride Ko and her colleagues undergo during the election campaign moves and changes them. Above all, as their voices unexpectedly cause quite a stir among the electorate, they begin to discover new sides of themselves.

Schedule:
September 20th, 2020 (Sunday) | Megabox Baekseok 1 | 17:30 pm
September 23rd, 2020 (Wednesday) | Megabox Baekseok 1 | 14:00 pm

How have we dealt with the five years that have passed since the Sewol ferry disaster? The protagonists recall that fateful day five years ago and share the scars that have remained in them. Perhaps we will be able to face the trauma of Sewol and write a new story.

Schedule:
September 18th, 2020 (Friday) | Megabox Baekseok 2 | 17:00 pm
September 20th, 2020 (Sunday) | Megabox Baekseok 7 | 20:00 pm
September 23rd, 2020 (Wednesday) | Megabox Baekseok 7 | 17:00 pm

For more information about the festival and the programme please visit the official website here: http://dmzdocs.com/