Withstanding and Existing

No Name Stars

May 2011 •Korean

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Democratization Movement. Though the country commemorates the event as the official historical records, it does not include any 'real' accounts of the people who experienced it firsthand. The students who were part of the movement; the female vendors who made rice balls for the students; the female high school students cooked at the government building; now, past their middle age, they live as ordinary citizens in Gwangju city. How is the event remembered by these people?

Good Light, Good Air

April 2021 •Korean

The title Good Light, Good Air is oddly paradoxical. Keenly working at the point where his artistic identity and persistent attention on modern Korean history meet, director Im in this film focused on where the history of oppression and struggle intersect between Gwangju and Buenos Aires. In both cities, a great number of people who fought against the dictatorship were slaughtered and disappeared. The people of both societies still live with that trauma. When the testimonies of the victims of the two cities cross over, the film gives us chills as the eerie history of the two is very similar. Through Good Light, Good Air, director Im asks us how we will remember the past from where we stand right now.

Gwangcheon-dong, Mr.Kim

May 2024 •Korean

Gwangju is known as a key city of democracy in Korea. Kim Hwan-gyung, a young media artist, begins to live in a typical slum, Gwangcheon-dong. The residents share stories about the lives of the early urban poor, the first Gwangju democracy movement, and concerns about rapid redevelopment. Gwangcheon-dong is scheduled to be demolished and disappear entirely by 2024.

D-Day, Friday

May 2024 •Korean

Eunju, a teenage girl, wants to go to a high school baseball game where the boy she has a crush on will be playing.

A Taxi Driver

August 2017 •Korean

May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.

May 18

July 2007 •Korean

The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.

A Petal

April 1996 •Korean

A young girl is caught up in the 1980 Gwangju massacre, where Korean soldiers killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters who opposed the country's takeover by the military the year before. Flashbacks show the girl seeing her mother shot to death in the massacre. The film spurred the Korean public to demand the truth behind the incident, and their government eventually opened previously classified files on the massacre.

Le Grand Chef

October 2007 •Korean

A disgraced chef tries to restore his name by competing in a culinary contest to win the knife of Korea's last royal chef.

Scout

November 2007 •Korean

1980, Kwang-ju is fired up about a genius pitcher, a senior in high school. Ho-chang takes confident strides across the field making his way by cutting through the sand dust. He’s a university scouter on a mission. His task is to scout the genius pitcher, SUN Dong-yeul, a master of baseball who may be scouted to a rival university. But he is no where to be seen. But Ho-chang is determined to not let down his reputation as a successful scouter, and his scouting mission of 10 days begin! An original story of a scouter on a 10 day mission full of undisclosed history will now unfold!

Nameless Stars

October 1959 •Korean

The son of a freedom fighter, Sang-hun is a member of an anti-Japanese resistance group called "Seongjinhoe," composed of students who share a dedication to the cause of liberation. Their spiritual guide is a teacher named Song Un-in. One day, Yeong-ae, whose brother is a detective in the Japanese police force charged with monitoring independence movements, joins their group. Following a series of sporadic incidents, the students gather one night to resolve on an uprising, but are discovered by the police. Young-ae is wrongfully accused of betraying their plans, but she risks her life in order to allow the group members to escape. The morning after, the students of Gwangju rise up against the Japanese government.

Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi Battle

January 2010 •Korean

"Le Grand Chef 2" begins with the Korean president visiting the Japanese Prime Minister and becoming involved in a heated debate over the origins of kimchi. The Japanese Prime Minister makes the bold claim that kimchi is an original Japanese dish which sets off the Korean president. Upon the Korean's president return home he sets upon a globalization plan for kimchi, which includes a nationwide "Kimchi Contest". Then, a lady named Jang-eun (Kim Jung-Eun) and her step-brother Sung-Chan (Jin Goo) compete in the Kimchi dish contest, with both siblings using their mother's kimchi recipe.

The March for the Lost

May 2018 •Korean

This is the story of a father who died mysteriously in May of 1980, a mother who lives in the shadows with a bullet in her head and not being able to forget May 18th and their daughter, and the nation's greatest comedian, Hee-soo.

26 Years

November 2012 •Korean

26 years ago, state troops were ordered to open fire on civilians in the city of Gwangju who were demonstrating as apart of a democratic movement. Thousands of civilians were killed. Now, a shooter from the national team, a gang member, a policeman, CEO from a large company and director of a private security outfit get involved in a plan to convict the person responsible for the massacre.

Half Sour

April 2014 •English

A group of young skateboarders find direction in their lives when they move to New York and start a pickle business.

The Conquest Of The Ruins

August 2020 •Spanish

Quarry workers and construction sites. Private neighborhoods. Paleontological digs. The earth unites and separates all of them, and everyone has an interpretation of how this world should be inhabited. The documentary follows their interests to build a story about the expansion of the city and its consequences.

Genie Français – Les Fortresses de Vauban

February 2020 •German

Chambord: The Leonardo Da Vinci Mystery

November 2018 •French

A building lost in the midst of a 5 000 hectare park, that's the equivalent of the surface of Paris, Chambord is the castle of all superlatives. Having required nearly 220,000 tonnes of stone to build, the Chateau de Chambord, in the Loir-et-Cher department, is an architectural gem. 156 metres of facade, it has more than 70 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms. The castle commissioned by Francis 1st in the 16th century is also the most mysterious. The majestic monument has its share of mysteries: identity of its architect, influence of the Florentine painter Leonardo da Vinci in its design, location in the middle of marshes in the heart of the forest and even longevity because it has survived through time without being damaged since the beginning of its construction in September 1519.

Live Aid Against All Odds

June 2005 •English

Documentary which traces the story of Live Aid from its humble beginnings, a pop tune cobbled together in the back seat of a taxi, to the eve of the biggest televised event ever. Artists from the time tell the story of the day that music rocked the world. Organiser Bob Geldof recalls how after 12 weeks of manic preparation, the big day finally arrived.

Kelvin and His Friends

August 1988 •English

A closely observed portrait of a single man in his 40's who lives in St. Kilda. Although he has none of the trappings of conventional existence, Kelvin's obsessive interest in born again Christianity, physical culture and recent German/Jewish history has given him a way of making sense of the world and led him to a number of people, friends through whom we see something of his life and beliefs.

The Last Day's Work

August 1987 •English

Work is becoming more service oriented and more and more services rely upon us doing harm to each other. In most people's lives, work operates as a degrading and debilitating force. It disables people's critical and perception capacities. Unless workers assume responsibility for evaluating the meaning and implications of the work they do, there will never be the capacity to redirect the modern work institutions from their courses of violence and exploitation. Built in seven parts which correspond to each day of the week, this film studies the relationship between work being done and the nature of the people that are doing it.