One of the many attractions of the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) is an omnibus film specially made for the event by three separate international directors. The three filmmakers chosen for this year's project revealed yesterday the outline of their contribution at the sixth festival in April.
"First, I am glad and honored that I can participate in the project", said Song Il-gon, local filmmaker who is one of the directors in the short film project "Short Digital Films by Three Filmmakers" at JIFF, in a news conference held Monday at Sejong Hotel in Seoul. "Different from other commercial movies I've made, I feel much more freedom in terms of financial support and pressure for commercial success".
His film "Magician(s) (working title)" ("Magician(s).php">The Magician(s)") is about a music band who decide to break up, said Song, well known for his works such as "The Picnic (Sopung)" and "Spider Forest (Komisup)".
Along with the Korean director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand and Shinya Tsukamoto from Japan will each contribute an approximately 30 minute long digital film for the project.
Apichatpong's "Worldly Desires" is a story about a group of people who encounter a series of mysterious phenomenon in a jungle while Tsukamoto's film is about a man trying to escape a room of a concrete building.
"There are many ideas for my movies going around in my head", Tsukamoto said. "So I find this a good opportunity to express one of them without worrying much about such issues as financial support".
Although he has never made a digital film before, he believes that his first trial in the new medium will lead him to create a new style.
"We find these three directors right for the project", said Jung Soo-wan, programmer at JIFF, "given their international reputation and potential to present a quality movie".
The organizing committee has tried to provide them with as much freedom as possible, and there is no regulation about topics, genres and styles, Jung said.
Since its first inception in 2000, JIFF has gradually expanded its scope and scale devoting itself as a festival of independent and digital films. Kicking off on April 28, however, the festival will reduce the number of movies from 286 last year to about 100 works, the screening days from 10 to nine days and venues.
"Now we will focus on increasing the quality of movies and thinking of convenience for visitors", Min Bung-lock, director of the event, explained.
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