The 5th DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival kicked off on October 17th at Camp Greaves near the demilitarized zone. Under the theme of peace, life, and communication, the nation’s premier documentary film festival celebrated those universal values at a place that represents both conflict and possible reconciliation.

Korea’s demilitarized zone or DMZ is a buffer zone that stretches for about 250 kilometers and is four kilometers wide, two kilometers each on the south and north sides of the military demarcation line. With the signing of the armistice treaty in 1953, any military activities and facilities were banned from the area, and the DMZ became a de facto border separating South and North Korea and the symbol of division and decades-long grief. The story of the DMZ is illustrated in the official trailer of the film festival.

A silver-haired wife looks forlornly at the DMZ fenced off to human traffic. Her aged husband weeps as he watches his wife thinking of the son they left behind in North Korea.

The DMZ represents the indelible pain of a divided nation. This is why the DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival spoke of peace, life, communication, and co-existence. Marking its fifth year, the film festival sought a new change for 2013. Here’s Maeng Su-jin맹수진 of the festival’s organizing committee to tell us what that change is.



It’s more of an expansion than a change. The DMZ represents the value of life. I was amazed when I went to DMZ that the air was so clear and the ecosystem remained intact because of restricted human access. The DMZ was not a military space, but a space for life. But I don’t want to lighten the meaning of the DMZ. I want the identity of the DMZ International Film Festival to remain intact, but in addition to anti-war films, I wanted the festival to include other topics and areas of documentary films. That’s why there are more programs in this year’s festival.

Sixty-six films from 31 countries took part in the first festival, but now the number has grown to 119 works from 38 countries. Besides having doubled the initial scale, this year’s DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival marks another meaningful milestone – the 60th anniversary of armistice. Here’s Ms. Maeng Su-jin again.

This year’s festival covers a wide range of topics. Documentary filmmakers tend to inject themselves in events happening around the globe and deliver the stories of people involved in those events. The festival is a chance for people to see what is happening in other parts of the world and where they stand in it. Furthermore, this year marks Korea’s 60th anniversary of armistice. So, in celebration of the armistice, we planned special showings of films from the Middle East and South Africa, regions that were unfamiliar to most Koreans. We expanded the special section so that Koreans and festival participants would try to understand those living in other areas. We ended up delivering the voices of many different regions and nations.

In order to make this year’s festival bigger in scale and more varied in the range of topics than any in the past, the festival organizers invited a large number of both rising directors and established masters. Since this year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War armistice, a Korean documentary was chosen as the opening film. The film is titled “Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits” directed by Park Chan-kyong박찬경.

“Manshin” is an honorific moniker for a shaman. The documentary tells a story of spiritual medium Kim Geum-hwa, whose life mirrors Korea’s modern history marred with war and division. The film shows how Kim reconciled with her turbulent life as an intermediary between God and men and found healing and inner peace. Here’s Ms. Maeng Su-jin again.

The opening film “Manshin” is the life story of national shaman Kim Geum-hwa, set against the modern history of Korea. In this film the DMZ is almost obscure, only a part of the background. Kim was born in North Korea and had come down south during the Japanese occupation. She was very much persecuted because she was a shaman.

Kim was born in Hwanghae Province, North Korea in 1931. After she moved to South Korea, she became very ill for unknown reasons. The illness was a sign from the heavens for her to become a shaman. Ever since she accepted her fate, she was called to conduct shamanistic cleansing rituals for the most painful incidents in Korean history, such as the Korean War, the democratic uprising in Gwangju, and the sinking of the Cheonan destroyer. The documentary “Manshin” was made as an exorcism for the Korean people. Here’s Kim Geum-hwa, the star of “Manshin.”

I hope this movie will help the world see Korea’s culture of gut굿 or shamanistic ritual in a new light.

Although Korea hosts various film festivals, the DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival is the only one devoted to documentary films. It hopes to become Asia’s most well-known documentary film festival and has taken a step toward that goal by selecting two Asian directors to direct a documentary under the festival’s sponsorship. Their work will be presented in next year’s festival. This year the festival will sponsor the Philippine’s renowned documentary director Lav Diaz and Japan’s Naomi Kawase, executive director of the Nara International Film Festival. Here’s Ms. Maeng Su-jin to tell us more about the project.

Director Lav Diaz is the godfather of Filipino independent films and winner of the grand prize at the 65th Venice International Film Festival. His film “Norte, the End of History” was also shown at the Cannes International Film Festival this year, one of the top five works picked as critics’ favorite. He is perhaps the busiest film director in the world today. He certainly earned his place under the spotlight at this year’s DMZ film festival. We have invited him to make a documentary, with our support, on behalf of the documentary film festival. He will work on the film for one year and the result will be world-premiered in next year’s DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival.

In the local front the festival chose four directors each for the new documentary filmmakers fund and the feature documentary fund. These assistance programs are certain to raise our expectations for better documentary films next year. The truth of the matter is that documentary filmmakers and their works rarely receive the exposure and accolades their counterparts in the commercial film industry have enjoyed, because of a lack of support and public awareness. But the DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival provided them with production support and venues to showcase their works. So it’s not surprising that they are grateful for the opportunity. Here are documentary film directors Cho Se-young조세영 and Kim Young-jo김영조.

(Cho, female) What’s best about this film festival is that it’s the first international documentary film festival hosted in Korea. As a filmmaker, I want to see as many great films as possible, but since we don’t have the adequate means to travel overseas very much, we are grateful for this chance to see and learn from so many films.
(Kim, male) I thank them for coming to the festival and showing their films. Seeing so many great works is what makes this festival so wonderful. This year’s DMZ film festival is packed with experimental films.

Thanks to the DMZ Docs Project in which investment and distribution opportunities are provided to selected filmmakers, Director Kim Young-jo was able to show two of his films at this year’s DMZ film festival – “My Family Portrait” and “The Hunt.”

“My Family Portrait” made people think about what family is. It was made more poignant because the film was based on the director’s own story.

The film is about my family. I learn from my mother one day that my father is still alive and the film portrays my search for him. The search is not a heavy-hearted one, but had a rather amusing start. I was starting to go bald and I wondered whether my father was bald, too. It was made in 2007, but shown only abroad, because my father didn’t want his story shown to the domestic audience. He had a new family to worry about and he made me promise not to show the film in Korea. But he passed away two years ago so now I can finally show the film.



Jo Se-young was also one of the most noteworthy directors in this year’s DMZ documentary film festival. Her work “Let’s Dance” offered a realistic look at Korea’s abortion issue and won the White Goose Award in the festival’s international competition category.

Abortion has been traditionally commonplace in Korea, but it was never discussed in a public forum and even when it was talked about it was usually in the religious or pro-life contexts. There were three more filmmakers for this documentary, beside myself. The four of us worked on this film for two years and seven months. I wanted to make the film from a woman’s perspective. I wanted to show how abortion has been used historically as a means to oppress women and control women’s bodies. The term “dance” refers to the women’s movement to break the shackles of abortion and seek freedom.

The title “Let’s Dance” illustrated women’s desire to break free from the oppressing reality. The movie was made even more heartbreaking for featuring women who had undergone abortion procedures. This was the only Korean film to be entered in the international competition category and seats sold out every day.

The filmmaking process for “Let’s Dance” was extremely agonizing, but the very act of interviewing the women and putting their stories together provided the women and filmmakers with some sort of comfort and healing. Such sincerity and a sense of peace are what make documentaries so addictive. People get a chance to look back on their own experiences and gain a new perspective on the world and issues. Providing such opportunities is one of the key roles of the DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival.

(Woman 1) I liked the candor, showing things as they really are without embellishing them.
(Man 1) I saw a film from the youth competition category. It was a short film titled “A Cold.” It was only 13 minutes long, but I was very satisfied with it.
(Woman 2) Since documentaries are based on the stories around us, being a college student, I was more interested in the films dealing with jobs or school issues.

The DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival was more than just a celebration of documentary cinema, but a festivity reveling in cultural diversity. Screening 119 films from 38 nations, the festival demonstrated the explosive potential of documentary films. Just as the DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival promoted peace, life, and communication, we hope the demilitarized zone, which used to represent tension, grief, and division, will one day be a place of true peace.