While many new Korean films are premiering in Korea this fall, spicing up domestic theaters, several events introducing Korean films to US audiences are being held across the United States, drawing attention from many.
At the top of the list is the Korean Film Festival in Los Angeles (KOFFLA), to be held 15 – 18 November. The event is co-supported by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) LA office and Korean Cinematheque under the title, "It's Alive: Korean Film Genre Hybrids and Hollywood Remakes". Out of 13 films to be shown are such highlights as "Barking Dogs Never Bites", the first feature from director Bong Joon-ho.
The film festival will be held at the Fairfax 3 theater in Los Angeles. The curtain raiser will be "Driving With My Wife's Lover" by director Kim Tae-sik, a film invited to this year's Sundance Film Festival. The Festival will close with director Han Jae-rim's "The Show Must Go on". Both works will be LA premieres and will be screened in the presence of the directors.
On November 15th, the day of the opening, a panel discussion themed "Korean Films Ready for Hollywood Remake and Co-Production" will be held. Producers from Korea and the United States will take part in this discussion, seeking out new possibilities for cooperation between the two countries' film industries. Among its participants are Jonathan Kim, representative of Dyne Film which produced Korean blockbuster "Silmido", and Zak Kadison from Fox Atomic and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment as the American representatives.
Next on the list of promotional events is the Circulating Screening Program of Korean Films in North America, which was implemented by KOFIC as a new project in 2007.
The Project aims to discover potential American viewers of Korean Films, the numbers for which are still relatively low in the States, so that Korean Films can continuously make progress in the American markets. KOFIC is selecting the finest Korean Films to produce prints with English subtitles and provide support so that these films may be shown in major theaters in the country as well as at university campuses.
As the Project is being implemented under the title, 'Diversity of Korean Films', KOFIC is providing 10 varied works from 1954's "Flower in Hell" by director Shin Sang-ok, to Lee Joon-ik's "The King and the Clown" of 2006, covering a wide spectrum of classic, documentary, art films, independent films and commercial films.
The first screening event of the project was held to fervent responses from local viewers on November 1st through the 4th at Chicago University, providing organizations sponsoring related events with copyright-cleared prints with English subtitles, images, reviews, and other materials in need. 7 films were screened including "Flower in Hell", and from November 8th, the films were also shown at the 2007 San Francisco Korean American Film Festival. Much praise was heaped on the event for the quality of works chosen, and viewers were able to experience the history and power of Korean films by coming into contact with classical Korean movies which are hard to see normally. In the future, taking into consideration the conservative stance American viewers have towards foreign-language movies, KOFIC intends to energetically discover potential Korean movie lovers through organizing high level screening events with well-educated viewers as targets.
At the moment, negotiations are under way to host screening events in Los Angeles in February of next year, and at various locations on the East Coast during the first half of the year. Already, many requests and inquiries have been recieved from many universities and organizations.
For the project, KOFIC is planning to do its best to have more Korean Films ready so that more American viewers will get to know about Korean Films at a larger variety of places.
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