London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Documentary screening: Factory Complex

The final screening in the Living Memories season won the Silver Lion at the 2015 Venice Biennale Arte

Living Memories season: Factory Complex (위로공단)

Dir: Im Heung-soon (2014, 94 mins)
Date: Thursday 25 August 2022, 6:30PM
Venue:
Birkbeck Cinema | 43 Gordon Square | Bloomsbury | London WC1H 0PD | [Map]

Tickets: Free | Register here
Factory Complex

Drawing parallels across several decades, Factory Complex engages with the struggles and suffering of women workers in various industries across Korea and beyond. Beginning with Korean textile workers in the 1960s before taking us inside the textile industry in Cambodia today, the film confronts audiences, drawing on archival footage and testimonies of those who were present in the factories at the time. It takes us through their trials both within their workspaces and outside in strike action and organisation to make change, in contrast to the current situation in Cambodia.

Following on from director Im Heung-soon’s Jeju Prayer (2012), Factory Complex continues the director’s work with memories of overlooked trauma as a way of presenting alternative narratives of the injustice done to ordinary people. Im Heung-Soon’s mastery of providing a voice to the marginalised with careful, poetic handling of the presentation of these memories is truly realised in this piece.

Robyn Minshall

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