The 4th Korean International Documentary Film Festival to showcase 115 nonfiction films from 36 countries


The annual Korean International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs) kicks off this month, featuring a total of 115 nonfiction films from 36 countries.

Celebrating the themes of peace, life and communication, the festival always takes place in Paju, a South Korean border city in Gyeonggi Province. The city is located near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, a line representing the peninsula’s state of armistice.

“We’ve prepared a lot of documentaries that can be enjoyed by all generations and people with many different interests,” said festival director and actor Cho Jae-hyun in a recent press meeting promoting the upcoming movie bash. This year’s festival shows off a diverse lineup that deals with different issues around the world, he said. 

The festival celebrates its fourth edition this year, and opens with British director Hugh Hartford’s “Ping Pong.” The film features the World Over-80s Table Tennis Championships in inner Mongolia, and its elderly competitors from all over the world. The characters include an 84-year-old who has only a week to live, and a 99-year-old widow who started playing the sport to survive her grief following the loss of her late husband.

This year, a total of 11 films have been selected for its international competition section. Some 550 films from 80 countries were submitted to be considered for the lineup.

The selected films include American directors Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright’s “Call Me Kuchu,” which features the struggles of the LGBT community in oppressive Uganda; Chinese director Wang Yang’s “China Gate,” which deals the lives of young men and women in China’s impoverished rural town ― who desperately try to move up in the social rankings by entering universities in the big cities; and Norwegian documentary “Solace,” which features the story of some 450 Norwegian nurses who worked for German field hospitals during the Nazi occupation of Norway. The 450 women were convicted for treason and imprisoned after the war, in spite of the strong protest from the international Red Cross.

A total of eight films were selected for this year’s Korean competition. The films include filmmaker Nam Kyeong-sun’s “Let Me Know Who I Am,” which features an educational institute that offers courses in humanities exclusively for the homeless; Go U-jung and Roh Eun-ji’s “Summer Days in Bloom,” which features the life of a gay couple who both have AIDS; and Baek Seung-hwa’s “Turn It Up to Eleven 2: Wild Days,” which captured the U.S. tour of Korea’s rock band “Galaxy Express.”

The top-prize winner of the international competition section will be given 15 million won ($13,300), while the winner of the Korean competition section will be given 10 million won.

The city of Paju is also home to some 260 Korean publishing houses. This year, the festival is offering a special ticket titled “G3 Art Pass,” which grants admission to other literary-themed festivals in Paju along with the DMZ Docs.

DMZ Docs runs from Sept. 21-27 in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. For tickets and this year’s full line-up, visit www.dmzdocs.com.  

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)