Jeonju, a city about three hours southwest of Seoul, is known for its welcoming citizenry, its signature dish bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetables with gochujang, red pepper paste) and some of Korea's loveliest surviving pre-modern architecture and folk culture.
In Korea's beautiful springtime, the city with the heart of a small town gets more cosmopolitan as it hosts the Jeonju International Film Festival, commonly known as JIFF.
The festival has made its name by sticking to its principle of focusing on promising digital, independent and experimental films, whereas most international film festivals usually boast their number of world or national premieres.
The festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
The 10th Jeonju International Film Festival will be held from Apr. 30 through May 8, featuring 200 films from 42 countries.
The festival will open with "
Short! Short! Short! 2009", a digital omnibus film about Korean society being obsessed with money.
The film, which intersperses humor with satire, was created by 10 up-and-coming Korean directors, including
Kim Young-nam (previous work "
Don't Look Back"),
Choi Ik-hwan ("
Life is Cool"), and "
Yoon Seong-ho ("
Milky Way Liberation Front").
The closing film will be the comedy "Machan", directed by Italian director Uberto Pasolini, one of the producers of "The Full Monty" (1997).
The film is about a Sri Lankan handball team in a ghetto town, which aspires to become a national handball team in a scheme to get visas to Europe.
JIFF has become known for discovering new directors.
In order to specifically mark the 10th anniversary, the program "New Directors Discovered by JIFF" section will feature eight films by directors who debuted at the festival and later gained international recognition.
Films include "Hazy Life" by Nobuhiro Yamashita, "
Barking Dogs Never Bite" by
Bong Joon-ho and "Die Bad" by
Ryoo Seung-wan.
Meanwhile, the festival's core program "Digital Project" (
"Visitors"), which focuses on the future of digital movies, will feature three noted filmmakers from Asia: Korea's
Hong Sang-soo, Japan's
Naomi Kawase and the Philippines'
Lav Diaz.
The project was launched in 2000 to help promising filmmakers to make digital films.
Selected directors get 50 million won (about US $38,000) to produce a 30-minute digital film in advance and their works are then premiered at the festival.
Hong Sang-soo's "Lost in the Mountains" follows Mi-sook, who visits Jeonju to discover that her close friend and ex-flame share a shocking secret.
Naomi Kawase, the youngest winner of the Golden Camera Award at the Cannes International Film Festival for "Suzaku" in 1997, will introduce "Koma", a tale with a heavy Korean influence.
Lav Diaz, who won the Orizzonti Grand Prize at the Venice International Film Festival with his film "Melancholia" in 2008, will present "Butterflies Have No Memories" about environmental degradation in the Philippines'.
There is something else not to be missed.
Namely, a retrospective of works by acclaimed Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski.
After 17 years' absence, Skolimowski recently shot the highly praised "Four Nights with Anna", a story about a loner obsessed with a nurse.
Nine of his 22 films will be screened and Skolimowski himself will be present at the festival.
Also, as part of efforts to bring to prominence the work of those who are not categorized as mainstream, there will be a special section focusing on Sri Lankan cinema.
Twelve films will be introduced, including six features by master filmmaker Dharmasena Pathiraja and two each by Prasanna Vithanage and Asoka Handagama.
Although most of the sections are non-competitive, there is indeed an international competition section, made up of 13 films including
Bradley Rust Gray's "The Exploding Girl" from the United States.
You can make online reservations (
Open the link) from 2 p.m. April 14 onwards for the opening and closing ceremonies, and from 11 a.m. April 16 onwards for general screenings.
Tickets cost 10,000 won for the opening or closing ceremonies and 5,000 won for general screenings.
You can also buy tickets during the festival from May 1 onwards at JIFF Space and JIFF Service Center on Cinema Street, an arcade in downtown Jeonju set up for the festival.
For further information, call (063)-288-5433 or visit the festival's official website at
Open the link
By Han Aran
Korea.net Staff Writer
