 New Korean Independent Documentaies
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One of the misconceptions about the independent films is that they are minor league players who lack something to play in the big leagues. If that’s the case, and if viewers have to be more lenient when watching the films, than independent films are not needed at all. There are always good major league players around. But that’s not true especially when it comes to the field of independent documentaries. They are totally different ball players compared to the big league ones with unique qualities of their own, which makes them so precious. The problem is the standard in which these films prove their own qualities. Therefore it all comes down to one single question. What really is a movie with quality?
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When we regard the movie as a food, than the question would change to what really is a delicious food. There are people who have delicate tastes and people don’t but they all have their own standard to evaluate the food. No matter what others say, their own tongues come first when it comes to decision making. Food that was sold in grand quantity doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s tasty and there are too many kinds of food to apply just one standard for evaluation. So the question ‘what really is a good food?’ can’t be an appropriate question. To that, a food cooked with fresh ingredient using appropriate recipe could be the best and the most principle answer one can expect. Of course there could be couple of other principle answers. But when it comes to the details, many other people would be lined up to disagree and fierce debate could be eminent. Sometimes, majority of people could actually agree that a certain kind of food tastes really good. So the problem of ‘well made’ isn’t really an important factor here. Just another secondary one.
At Sidof 2008 New Domestic Film category, out of 63 independent documentary films, 13 were chosen to be screened. 3 of them have running time less than 40 minutes and 10of them last longer than 60 minutes. 4 board members of domestic program have unanimously agreed on all 13 films. Some were easy to pick and others made our work hard. Film festival is something that of reality and we are sorry to say that we couldn’t satisfy everyone’s wishes.
It’s obvious that when faced with the word documentary, people conjure up the images from TV broadcasting. That’s why we decided to exclude films following the footsteps of TV documentaries. We’ve also excluded ones with interesting subjects but with no attractions. TV documentaries are produced to be shown to general viewers in limited time so they tend to give out easy answers to the problems. We don’t think it’s necessary for this film festival to be asking for easy answers, whether they be good ones or bad ones.
Rather than suggesting any answers, documentary films are expected to show that ‘something’ to the viewers. If the method used to ‘show’ is different from the conventional methods, than it’s another welcoming news. But not all fresh new methods are on their track to success. It’s another matter when it comes to deciding whether that method is appropriate or not, making it much harder for the filmmakers to try something new and succeed at the same time. Not all of the 13 films have chosen to take different paths but when you see <Leaving us to answer hunger with an open hand> and <Island Being>, you’ll be able to notice that they stand on a different ground compared to the films of the past. <The Road> which was selected as the opening movie, <Way Home> and <Grandmother's Flower> may share common methods with conventional films yet they allow us to feel the difference between suggesting an answer or just showing ‘something’. It’s already been 8 years since the launch of SIDOF in 2001 and it’s obvious that the status of independent documentary films have changed as well. It’s time to take another leap and head on to the next level, expecting films to share their focus on the contents and methods as well as the subjects.
SIDOF Programmer Kyungman KIM |
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SIDOF2008
독립영화전용관