Women’s Voices Shorts + Q&A with director Arum Nam
The festival features four short films in the Women’s Voices strand, curated by programmer Son Sinae. Director Arum Nam (Teleporting), will be attending a Q&A session.
Bug
Hana (Jung Yi-ju), who works as a labourer in a food processing plant, toils hard in keeping with the company’s motto: “Just keep working.” After finishing a gruelling day’s work, she returns home to the small apartment where her grandmother is sleeping. Even though the house is cramped and dark and has mould growing on the walls, it seems to be the only thing that matters to Hana. Bug is a short film that examines the harsh economic reality facing the younger generation of today and uses fantasy as a device to comment on their circumstances.
The Lee Families
The story of the Lee families begins with the issue of an inheritance following the death of the family patriarch. Sook-hyun (Jeong Ae-hwa) finds it difficult to accept that her deceased father passed on his only inheritance, a house in the countryside, to his grandchildren instead of to his daughters. She wants to put a stop to the situation. The Lee Families is a black comedy full of pointing fingers, aching heads, shouting, and misbehaviour, which uses its comedic framework to encourage viewers to grapple with the legacy of patriarchy.
Hansel: Two School Skirts
Han Seul (Hong Jung-min)’s everyday life is a little more difficult than that of her peers. Her thoughts often wander for no reason, and she finds herself creating caves for herself within her mind. She hates being the centre of attention, but her teacher makes her sing in front of the class as a punishment for even tiny infractions. Hansel: Two School Skirts is a short film that examines a moment in the life of Han Seul, who rarely expresses how she truly feels inside.
Teleporting
“We’re connected to each other.” Kitty and Tommy, who live in Korea, and Mia and Emma, who live in Japan, meet and talk in an online space. With national borders closed due to COVID-19 and physical barriers solidified between their real-world lives, these four, who are among “the first generation whose playgrounds are online,” seek new places to meet and have endless conversations about the way they each move through the world. The ground they stand on is connected by their shared experiences of discrimination and oppression as women born and raised in East Asia, but when they walk and talk with each other’s avatars, there is also a sense of the power of friendship and laughter to overcome depression and anxiety. Teleporting shows the ways that people can hold each other’s hands and cross any boundary.
