15 Short Films you shouldn’t miss at the 14th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival

By Asian Film Festival on September 17, 2022 • ( Leave a comment )

These are fifteen short films you shouldn’t miss at the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival which will take place from September 22 – 29, 2022 in Paju City and Goyang City, South Korea

– Short Films –

**Bad Father** by Park Yoonsung – Korea | 2022 – 24 minutes
**Section**: Youth Docs | World Premiere

“Unpaid child services are child abuse.” This is a phrase written on the Bad Fathers website. Child support is a duty all parents must fulfill. But some of them are facing issues with such simple obligation. We call these people non-payers or “bad fathers.” Park’s biological father also falls into the category as a “bad father.” To find a solution to his problem, Park starts talking to people. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Screening:
September 25, 2022 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok Comfort 4 | 10:30 am

**Between the Stars and Waves** by kek-Huat Lau – Taiwan, Malaysia | 2022 – 53 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition | International Premiere

One million people in Malaysia’s Sabah are stateless. 50,000 are children, who have been denied their right to public education and healthcare. They are learning to voice out for themselves. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**CITI-100** by Hwang Sunyoung – Korea | 2021 – 29 minutes
**Section**: Short Competition

One fall day when I was 18, I heard the news of my friend Kihyeon had died. He got into a car accident while doing a part-time delivery job at a chicken restaurant, but he was suddenly erased from the world without receiving any compensation as a minor or a worker. While reminiscing about the time I spent with Kihyeon, “I” comes across the news of another Kihyeon accident in 2009. I wander around that time, meeting my friend who disappeared like a ghost, the motorcycle culture, and the “Kihyeon’s” still floating on the road today. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**Do You Know Bechdel?** by Min Juhong – Korea | 2022 – 9 minutes
**Section**: Youth Docs | World Premiere

I ask people if they know what a Bechdel Test is. Then, I cook up their reactions. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Screening:
September 25, 2022 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok Comfort 4 | 10:30 am

**Finding Chae** by Park Ka-Young – South Korea | 2022 – 29 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition

Mayumi, a third-generation Korean Japanese, leaves for Korea, the country of her grandmother Chae. A few years ago, Chae passed away. Shortly before her death, she suddenly spoke only Korean, and all her family did not understand. Thinking of her unfamiliar grandmother, Mayumi recalls the words that she said that she wanted to visit her family’s grave in Gangjin, South Korea. There seems to be something important in Gangjin. Mayumi begins a journey with her friends. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**Holly Cowboys** by Varun Chopra – India, US, UK | 2021 – 24 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition | Korean Premiere

A Hindu teen and his friends tread the bizarre world of a ‘cow protection’ vigilante group to end consumption of beef, exploring what it means to be a savior of the holy cow in modern day India. The film takes a hybrid approach to cover a rare access into the world of Hindu nationalist’s influence on youth, and their brand of retributive justice in the name of the holy cow. All while the stray cattle forage the garbage dumps, on the streets of the same country that considers it sacred. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**How I like it** by Nida Mehboob – Pakistan | 2021 – 19 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition | Korean Premiere

A rare insight into the sexual exploits of Pakistani women, who share their secret intimate experiences as anonymous voices. In stark contrast, public life in a large Pakistani metropolis exposes how men act like kings in what they consider their terrain. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**I am not a Robot** by Kang Yesol – Korea | 2022 – 20 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition

A self-driving car accident occurred in an American city. And a 3D simulation expert is appointed to reconstruct the traffic accident. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**I am Trying to Remember** by Pegah Ahangarani – Czech Republic, Iran | 2021 – 16 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition

I asked: “Why have they erased you?” He said: “Maybe they are scared.” I said: “Whoever is scared, should erase themselves.” He said: “In that case, the faces of the living would all be gone and only the dead would remain.” (DMZ Docs 2022)

**If This is Love,** by Park Soeun – Korea | 2022 – 17 minutes
**Section**: Youth Docs | World Premiere

Most people will be familiar with the experience of fervently loving someone in their lives. There are people who devote all they have to the things they love. I seek to explore their lives as someone(or something)’s stans(mania or enthusiast) I will ask all about their stanning practices, how they started to be someone’s bias, why they stan for someone, and what that life means to them. If you can call it that, it is indeed, love. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Screening:
September 25, 2022 | Sunday | Megabox Baekseok Comfort 4 | 10:30 am

**Kathmandu Monsoon** by Ngima Gelu Sherpa – Nepal | 2022 – 18 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition | World Premiere

The film offers a fascinating and hypnotic ethnographic study of the filmmaker’s hometown, punctuated by the evolution of the approaching storm. Providing a commentary on climate change, as well as how life staggeringly must go on, even as the rain pours and the streets flood, the film is not only a portrait of place, but also of the resilience of people. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**Party Poster** by Rishi Chandna – India | 2021 – 20 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition | Korean Premiere

In suburban Mumbai, science, religion and politics comically collide amidst a raging pandemic, when a group of laundrymen set out to design a poster celebrating a hugely popular annual festival worshipping the deity Ganesha. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**Sun Dance** by Kim Hayon – Korea | 2022 – 38 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition | World Premiere

Olympic Apartments in Seoul are the only radially shaped residential complexes in Korea. It is both a place of residence and a place of remembrance. Can we see the Olympics and the Olympic Apartments at the same time? (DMZ Docs 2022)

**The Boys Club** by Yihwen Chen – Malaysia | 2021 – 23 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Competition

A Malaysian female filmmaker dreamt of making the first feature documentary for theatrical release in her country. After four years of struggles, her film premiered with glowing reviews. But soon after, she lost her job. This documentary reveals her deeply personal and harrowing filmmaking journey of enduring sexual harassment, bullying and misogyny. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**The House of Loss** by Jeon Jinkyu – Korea, Japan | 2022 – 9 minutes
**Section**: Shorts Compeititon

A main character works as a soldier in a nursing home for the elderly. He observed the old men who had their hair cut but could read their expressions. But at some point, he sees their faces… (DMZ Docs 2022)

For more information, please visit: https://dmzdocs.com/eng/