30 Films you shouldn’t miss at the 14th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (Part 1)

By Asian Film Festival on September 18, 2022 • ( Leave a comment )

These are thirty 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

– Part 1 –

**A Guide to Love and Fighting Capitalism** by Basile Carré-Agostini – France | 2021 – 92 minutes
**Section**: International Competition | Asian Premiere

Monique and Michel Pinçon-Charlot are a couple of French sociologists, famous for their work on the uber-rich. They should have been enjoying a peaceful retirement in their lovely home in the Paris suburbs. How did they come out on the streets? Why are they shouting to fight against capitalism? The old couple tell us why. With the story of their love that they have cultivated over the past fifty years. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**A Marble Travelogue** by Sean Wang – Netherlands, Hong Kong, France, Greece | 2022 – 90 minutes
**Section**: Global Vision | Korean Premiere

A piece of white marble stone mined in Greece takes us on its Odyssey along the global consumption driven by the Chinese domestic market, to investigate the role of China as the “world’s buyer.” (DMZ Docs 2022)

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**A Mother Youngsoon** by Lee Changjun – Korea | 2022 – 85 minutes
**Section**: Korean Competition | World Premiere

Youngsoon defected from North Korea in 2007. Her husband killed himself and her eldest son is in North Korea. She does her best for her little son who came with her. But he thinks that his mother only loved his big brother in the North and resents her for having brought him to South Korea only to be stigamatised as North Korean defector. Youngsoon, who was born as the daughter of a South Korean prisoner of war detained in North Korea, was always poor and her only hope was her eldest son with exceptional talents. To her, her little son is more work than hope. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**All of Our Heartbeats are Connected Through Exploding Stars** by Jennifer Rainsford
Sweden | 2022 – 77 minutes – **Section**: Global Vision | Asian Premiere

On March 11, 2011 the largest earthquake in modern history hit Japan and then, thirty minutes later, dark tsunami waves roared in over the coast of North-Eastern Japan dragging cars, homes and lives out into the sea. In the film we meet Yasu who has done over 100 dives in search of his lost wife. Sachiko keeps writing letters to her husband that was taken by the wave. Satoko is a young woman who struggles with overcoming her trauma from the disaster. On the other side of the ocean, in the Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe, a group of volunteers are gathering to clean the beach from Japanese tsunam. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**And Still I Sing** by Fazila Amiri – Canada | 2022 – 90 minutes
**Section**: Opera Cinema | Korean Premiere

Controversial Afghan pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed mentors young hopefuls as they prepare to appear on a hit TV singing competition show. As the show’s female contestants Zahra Elham and Sadiqa Madadgar are on the verge of their dreams becoming reality, the Taliban returns to power. (DMZ Docs 2022)

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**Children of the Mist** by Hà Lệ Diễm – Vietnam | 2021 – 90 minutes
**Section**: International Competition | Korean Premiere

Di is a 13-year-old Homong girl living in a village lost in the mist of North Vietnamese mountains. Despite being the first generation to receive education, she cannot escape from the custom still remains in her tribe: the bride kid-napping. The film follows Di who is eventually kidnapped by a boy her age and captures the moment when a beautiful and precarious childhood disappears with the tension between traditional and modern ways of life. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**Delikado** by Karl Malakunas – US, Philippines, UK, Australia, Hong Kong | 2022 – 94 minutes
**Section**: Asian Competition | Korean Premiere

Palawan is famous for its wide sandy beaches and dense forests. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia, a treasure trove of ecology, and the home of several indigenous groups. As developers and illegal loggers who have colluded with the Duterte regime take control, however, three environmental crusaders start a battle to stop it. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**Eami** by Paz Encina – Paraguay, Argentina, Mexico, US, Germany, France, Netherlands | 2022
85 minutes – **Section**: International Competition | Asian Premiere

The Ayoreo Totoviegosode, an indigenous people in Paraguay. The people, who have been surrounded by trees and animals without contact with the outside world for centuries, are being deprived of their homes due to rapid deforestation. Director Paz Encina weaves the myth, history, and reality of the Ayoreo to create a story of a girl who wanders the ravaged plains, leaving her ruined villages and communities behind. Eami is the story of a girl whose name means forest and the world in the native language of Ayoero. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**Etilaat Roz** by Abbas Rezaie – Afghanistan | 2022 – 92 minutes
**Section**: Asian Competition | World Premiere

On August 15, 2021, Kabul is captured by the Taliban, and journalists of Etilaat Roz, a daily newspaper of Afghanistan are faced with choices. Should they escape, or should they accuse the Taliban of its atrocities? In the end, the head of the newspaper decides to cover the protests against the Taliban, but faces a severe ordeal. Five journalists are arrested and two are horribly tortured. The film exposes the false promises of the Taliban and the bitter reality of Afghanistan. (DMZ Docs 2022)

**Everything will be OK** by Rithy Panh – France, Cambodia | 2022 – 98 minutes
**Section**: Masters | Korean Premiere

“If animals were in power, would they base their behavior on humans? Would they practice excessive, unfettered consumption to the point of destroying their environment? Would they adopt human flaws? Would they have the same thirst for power;the same cruelty?

Would they choose to govern through demagoguery, terror, or totalitarianism? What would images mean? Art and cinema,or surveillance and questionable doings?Would they get along with the “ancients”- meaning the humans, or would theyenslave them?

Would they have the desire and strength to resist evil tendencies and inclinations? Would they have empathy for their fellow creatures and all the living beings with whom they share the planet?” (DMZ Docs 2022)

Clip:

**Girl Gang** by Susanne Regina Meures – Switzerland | 2022 – 98 minutes
**Section**: Global Vision | Asian Premiere

Fourteen-year-old Leonie is a successful teen influencer who lives on the outskirts of Berlin. Millions of followers are at her feet, and companies shower her with products. When Leonie’s parents recognise the enormous economic potential of their daughter’s online activities, they quickly take over her management. They want Leonie to have a better life than they had. But Leonie’s life dictated by brands and pressure to produce content, slowly turns into a prison. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**Green Jail** by Huang Yin-Yu – Taiwan, Japan, France | 2021 – 101 minutes
**Section**: Asian Competition | Korean Premiere

Iriomote Island, is where the miners from Taiwan and Korea were forcibly conscripted during the Japanese Colonial Period. A 90-year-old grandmother, Hashima, still lives in this island, is one of the few survivors who knows the full story of the mining town known as the “Green Jail.” The camera captures the daily life of Hashima living in an old house, portraying the secrets of her family. Her memories of guilt, pain and anger are the undocumented voices of the colonial history. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**Home Ground** by Kwon Aram – Korea | 2022 – 74 minutes
**Section**: Korean Premiere | World Premiere

‘Chanel’ in Myeong-dong in the 1970s was the secret hideout for Butches and Femmes. In 1996, young lesbians opened Korea’s first lesbian bar, Lesbos. In the early 2000s, queer teens looking for a community gathered in a small park in Sinchon. Myung-woo, who ran ‘Lesbos’ nearby, was still guarding the place 20 years later. As the coronavirus crisis hit, the bar has lost its customers. Will she able to protect the place this time? (DMZ Docs 2022)

**Matter out of Place** by Nikolaus Geyrhalter – Austria | 2022 – 105 minutes
**Section**: Global Vision | Korean Premiere

The film shows how garbage is collected and shredded, how it floats in the ocean, and what nations and humans must do to dispose of it. The constantly moving camera tracks people who clean up the polluted planet: an Indian janitor cleaning a huge city, garbage disposal units at ski resorts, divers scooping up trash that have fallen into the sea, and people collecting waste after a rave in the desert. The camera follows them for a long time from a distance. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer:

**Midwives** by Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing – Myanmar, Germany, Canada | 2022 – 91 minutes
**Section**: Asian Competition | Korean Premiere

Two women open a makeshift clinic in Rakhine State in western Myanmar. It is to help deliveries of Rohingya women who are suffering persecution as an ethnic minority in Myanmar. The two midwives, a Buddhist and a Muslim, spend five years together. The film documents the reality of Myanmar’s society, where political chaos and racism intensify during that time, and a portrait of two women who struggle for coexistence despite having different backgrounds and never give upon their hopes and dreams. (DMZ Docs 2022)

Trailer: