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Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Frederick Wiseman's complete works to tour Korea in landmark retrospective
Five-year restoration project brings 45 films to venues across Korea through 2026 The 17th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs) announced Thursday a complete touring showcase of Frederick Wiseman's 45-film catalog, set to launch this September and continuing through July 2026. The 95-year-old Boston native, often called America's greatest living documentarian, has spent nearly six decades creating what he terms "reality fictions" -- observational studies of American life through the lens of its institutions: schools, hospitals, welfare offices, courts and military bases -- systems of power and control that shape the individual experience. His films range from his controversial debut "Titicut Follies" (1967), an expose of conditions at a state hospital for the criminally insane, to recent works like "City Hall" (2020), which tracks Boston's municipal operations from mayoral meetings to homeless outreach programs. Other highlights include "Welfare" (1978), a sprawling portrait of New York's social services system; "La Danse" (2009), which captures the Paris Opera Ballet in rehearsal and performance; "Ex Libris: The New York Public Library" (2017), exploring the public library's role as both a repository and a community hub; and "A Couple" (2022), an intimate study of Leo Tolstoy and his wife through their correspondence. The retrospective follows an ambitious restoration effort that has made Wiseman's works newly accessible to viewers worldwide. Thirty-three films shot between 1967 and 2006 have been restored in 4K from their original 16mm negatives, a five-year project involving the Library of Congress, Harvard Film Archive, and restoration labs DuArt and Goldcrest Post. Wiseman personally reviewed and approved each restoration. DMZ Docs will screen 20 titles during its Sept. 11–17 run in Goyang and Paju, Gyeonggi Province. The full 45-film program will then move to Seoul Art Cinema and Busan Cinema Center, with selected works touring cinematheques and arthouses across the country — including stops in cities such as Gwangju, Gangneung and Jeonju — through next summer. 'This retrospective offers a comprehensive look at Wiseman's lifelong investigation of how we live together -- how institutions mediate human behavior, and how people shape and are shaped by the systems they inhabit,' said DMZ Docs senior programmer Jang Byung-won. The festival will also host symposiums and screenings featuring scholars, critics and filmmakers from Korea and abroad, alongside the publication of a comprehensive catalog documenting Wiseman's complete body of work.
Korea Herald
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
DMZ Docs, Seoul Art Cinema to present 1960s-70s docu retrospective
Joint program revisits Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite through landmark works The DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs) announced Tuesday it is teaming up with Seoul Art Cinema to present "Museum of Reality: Innovations in Documentary of the 1960s-70s," a special screening series running Friday to May 4. Held on weekends at Seoul Art Cinema in Jung-gu, Seoul, the three-week program will feature 10 feature-length documentaries rooted in direct cinema and cinema verite — landmark movements that helped reshape the genre through their emphasis on spontaneity and everyday realism. Among the list are Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin's "Chronicle of a Summer" (1961), widely credited with pioneering interview techniques central to modern documentary, and Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's "The Lovely Month of May" (1963). American entries include Robert Drew's seminal works "Primary" (1960) and "Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment" (1963), renowned for bringing journalistic immediacy to political subjects. The lineup also features works from Drew Associates, a documentary collective founded by Robert Drew that championed Direct Cinema in the US. Highlights include Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker's "1 P.M." (1971), which grew out of an unfinished collaboration with Jean-Luc Godard, Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" (1967), and the Maysles brothers' "Salesman" (1969) and "Grey Gardens" (1976). Barbara Kopple's Oscar-winning "Harlan County U.S.A." (1976) follows a coal miners' strike in Kentucky, while "Acadia, Acadia?!?" (1971) by Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault explores questions of identity and cultural autonomy in Canada's Acadian region. 'In an era marked by war and deepening social divides, the creative force of documentary filmmaking feels more relevant than ever. Documentaries of the 1960s and '70s can serve as a vital compass for understanding the world we live in,' said Kang Jin-seok, programmer at DMZ Docs. The program includes four post-screening discussions after "Acadia, Acadia?!?" Saturday, "Harlan County U.S.A." Sunday and both "Chronicle of a Summer" and "1 P.M." April 27.
Korea Herald
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
DMZ Docs showcases Park Soo-nam's unflinching lens
Zainichi filmmaker's lifetime documenting Japanese wartime atrocities takes center stage The DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs) will mark the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule with a retrospective of Zainichi Korean filmmaker Park Soo-nam's complete works. This first-ever comprehensive showcase runs online Feb. 28-March 28 and will make all five of her documentaries freely accessible via the docuVoDA platform. A second-generation Korean Japanese, or Zainichi, Park has devoted her career to chronicling the forgotten victims of Japanese wartime atrocities. Born in 1935 in Mie Prefecture and raised in Yokohama, she made her directorial debut in the 1980s, focusing on the narratives of Korean survivors of the atomic bombs, military sex slavery and forced labor. "In 2025, the 80th anniversary of liberation, we continue standing with the comfort women who suffered as sex slaves, and we remain outraged by the exploitation of forced laborers," said DMZ Docs Programmer Kang Jin-seok. "Yet we often overlook how these histories survive through documentation. Park's five films powerfully demonstrate how records create memory." Featured films at the retrospective include: Park's debut work "The Other Hiroshima: Korean A-bomb Victims Tell Their Story" (1986), which captures testimonies of Korean atomic bomb victims; "Song of Arirang – Voices from Okinawa" (1991), which documents the Koreans forced into military service and sexual slavery during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa; "Nuchigafu" (2012), which unearths war memories previously kept silent; and "The Silence" (2016), winner of the White Goose Award at the 8th DMZ Docs. "The Silence" documents the survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery during World War II, including Bae Bong-gi, who first brought the issue to public attention in the 1980s, and Lee Ok-sun, who was imprisoned at age 17 in a Manchurian "comfort station." The documentary resonated deeply in both Korea and Japan for moving beyond mere documentation to examine the power structures that silenced the victims. Park's latest work, "Voices of the Silenced" (2024), created with her daughter Park Ma-ui, revisits 30,000 meters of 16mm footage Park has accumulated throughout her career. The Korean Independent Film Association named it last year's top independent film. The 17th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival runs Sept. 11-17, 2025, in Goyang and Paju in Gyeonggi Province. The festival, established in 2009 and situated less than 20 kilometers away from the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, focuses on documentaries promoting "peace, coexistence and reconciliation." Filmmakers can submit entries until April 30 for the International Competition and May 23 for the Korean Competition, with various categories offering prizes ranging from 3 million won ($2,100) to 15 million won ($10,500).
