The recent political history of South Korea is interwoven with the family life of filmmaker Arum Nam, whose parents are part of the proud 386 generation, which played a significant role in achieving democratisation. Eager to pass on a better world to their children, Arum’s father became a public servant, and her mother a feminist … [Read More]
Category: Screenings
Squid Game Season 2: preview screening
Three years after the huge global success of Squid Game we are delighted to unveil the first episode of the second series following a screening of Series 1’s gripping finale ‘One Lucky Day’. Player 456 remains determined to find the people behind the game and put an end to their vicious sport. Using this fortune … [Read More]
Two Koryo Saram documentary screenings
In collaboration with Misha Zakharov, a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick and curator at Screening Rights Film Festival, and Goethe-Institut UK, the London Migration Film Festival is hosting a special event on Koryo Saram (or Koryoin), the (post-)Soviet Koreans. In 1937, Koryo Saram were forcibly displaced from the Far East of Soviet Russia to Central … [Read More]
The Human Comedy – the cinema of Hong Sangsoo, at the ICA
Since the last UK retrospective of his work in 2010, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo has made an astonishing twenty-two feature films and several shorts. With his incisive and humorous explorations of infidelity, artistic endeavour, and communication (or lack thereof), Hong’s narratively concise and formally radical work has marked him out as not only contemporary … [Read More]
From Escape to Hope: Escape in Search of a United Korea
Spend an afternoon exploring the courageous journeys of North Koreans as they escape in search of one united Korea. “One Korea: Escape in Search of a United Korea” will take you through personal stories of struggle and hope, giving voice to the resilience of the North Korean people. The event features the screening of Dotori, … [Read More]
Documentary screening: The Last of the Sea Women
In The Last of the Sea Women, an extraordinary band of feisty grandmother warriors wage a spirited battle against vast oceanic threats. Often called real-life mermaids, the haenyeo divers of South Korea’s Jeju Island are renowned for centuries of diving to the ocean floor – without oxygen – to harvest seafood for their livelihood. Today, … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival Announces 2024 Programme
Here’s the official press release for this year’s London Korean Film Festival, released today. Some good things here! Korean Cultural Centre UK announces London Korean Film Festival 2024 Programme Opening Gala Film: Park Beom-su’s VICTORY Closing Gala Film: E.oni’s LOVE IN THE BIG CITY Special Screening: Choi Dong-hoon’s ALIENOID: RETURN TO THE FUTURE London, 1 … [Read More]
London East Asia Film Festival 2024
LEAFF is back for its 9th edition. Bringing the best of East Asian cinema to the heart of London, the 9th London East Asia Film Festival is back from 23rd October to 3rd November 2024. Kicking off LEAFF with a pulse-pounding Opening Gala, Escape is a high-stakes Korean action thriller that vividly portrays the harrowing … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival 2024 – detailed schedule
Ranging from new releases to independents to special strands, the London Korean Film Festival is the largest Korean film festival outside of Korea. To complement the BFI’s Echoes in Time season, the festival will present two strands of films that will screen at BFI Southbank, Cine Lumiere and ICA – Women’s Voices, showcasing 15 years … [Read More]
BFI Film Season: Echoes in Time — Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema
The BFI Southbank programme for late October and November 2024 begins with Echoes in Time: Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema, a major new season running from 28 October to 31 December. Programmed by Young Jin Eric Choi and Goran Topalovic, Echoes in Time will focus on two groundbreaking periods in the … [Read More]
Hong Sangsoo’s latest to screen at the BFI London Film Festival
Isabelle Huppert is reunited with Korean maestro Hong Sangsoo in an irresistibly enigmatic comic vignette about language, poetry, exile and the art of communication. In her third collaboration with South Korea’s super-prolific auteur, Isabelle Huppert – here at her most slyly mischievous – plays Iris, a Frenchwoman in Korea who offers language classes using her … [Read More]
Made in Korea K-pop reality show screens on BBC1
Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience is a music experiment like no other. A collaboration between Moon&Back Media, SM Entertainment, and SM & Kakao Entertainment America, the six-part series will follow Blaise, Dexter, James, Oliver and Reese as they are put through the K-pop training process with the goal of launching Dear Alice, a new … [Read More]
Short film screenings: Chorus, + Q&A
A programme of six short films inspired by the legacy of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. This presentation starts with Cha’s Vidéoème before leading into a selection of contemporary artists’ films, placing them in dialogue while celebrating a diversity of voices. Though the architecture of the programme is conceptually framed as a palindrome in three dialectic … [Read More]
Screening: Voices of the Silenced (UK Premiere)
This film delves into the historical experiences of Park Soo-nam, born in colonial-era Japan, retracing the journey and the history of Zainichi Koreans in Japan. Through the lens of two 16mm documentary films shot since 1985 and the restoration of unreleased footage, spanning 100,000 feet, it resurrects the testimonies of witnesses. The film raises questions … [Read More]
Screening: Love Death Dog + Baek-gu (UK Premieres)
Love Death Dog | 러브 데스 도그 Directed by Gwon Dong-hyun and Kwon Sea-jung 19 min | 2023 | Korea | colour and b&w Korean with Eng Subs | Print source: Gwon Dong-hyun, Kwon Sea-jung Gwon Dong-hyun and Kwon Sea-jung have been collaborating on a long-term research project titled Love Death Dog City since 2020, … [Read More]
Activism and Post-Activism: Korean Documentary Cinema: 1981-2022, A lecture by Prof. Kim Jihoon
This lecture presents an overview of Activism and Post-Activism: Korean Documentary Cinema: 1981-2022 (Oxford University Press, 2024), the first-ever English-language monograph on Korean non-fiction film and video practices in the non-governmental and non-corporate sectors from their foundational period (early 1980s) to the present. Making tripartite connections between the socio-political history of Korea (from the 1980s … [Read More]