The Korean Film Archive (KOFA), which is the primary body for collecting and preserving prints and other materials from Korea's film history, has moved into a new building as of June 1.
Formerly located in Seocho-dong in the Seoul Arts Center, KOFA's 18 billion won ($19 million) new center is located in the Digital Media City in Sangam-dong, close to Seoul's World Cup Stadium. The building, which is four floors high with two additional underground floors, will house three cinematheque screening rooms as well as a film museum, a library/multimedia viewing center, offices, and state-of-the-art facilities for the preservation and restoration of films.
The first facility to be open to the public is the library/multimedia viewing center. As well as printed materials, the library is equipped with multiple 26-inch LCD TVs where visitors can watch local or foreign DVDs for free. Additionally, a small room seating 10 people with a 63-inch PDP display and 5.1 channel sound is available by reservation. By the end of 2007, KOFA also plans to introduce a new service whereby 900 Korean classic films and 700 independent films and documentaries will be available for viewing on demand via digital files. The service will also cover 2600 original sound tracks and 10,000 screeplays.
Meanwhile, the "Cinematheque KOFA" is currently in prepatory stages and is scheduled to receive an official opening in April 2008, together with the film museum. The cinematheque will contain three screening rooms of 307 seats, 150 seats, and 80 seats respectively. The venue will screen not only classic Korean films but also foreign titles and other special screenings. Admission to the cinematheque will be free for its first year of operation.
Together with the move KOFA is also instituting a new push towards digital archiving of various kinds of film, video, user generated contents, etc. More details about KOFA's new services will be released in the future.
KOFA, like the Korean Film Council, is a government supported, independently administered body that was created in 1974. More information can be found at KOFA's website at Open the link.
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