Director LEE Chang-jae | Starring Min-jae, Seon-woo, Sang-wook, Monk Yeong-woon | Genre Documentary | Running Time 104 Minutes | Rating All | Release Date May 23

 

  
Sang-wook graduated from a prestigious university in Korea and studied abroad.  Song-wook became a Buddhist monk after experiencing a Zen center. Monk Seon-woo became a Buddhist priest by karma as he was abandoned to a temple when he was a child. Min-jae is a new-generation Buddhist nun who came to the temple through her internet searches. Ven. Yeong-woon does not know the end of the road of self-discipline even though he has practiced Buddhism for 37 years. The documentary shows 300 days of a temple stay with Buddhist nuns at the Baekheum-am Training Center which opens to the pubic only twice a year.

 

 

Director LEE Chang-jae became curious about Buddhism after talking with an elderly monk whom he met at a Buddhist center. “I felt a human anguish and sympathy about the old monk,” LEE said. “What is the truth that the monk seeks? Does the truth really make people happy? What is the root of the heart that makes him ceaselessly devote himself?” LEE became curious about the lives of Buddhist nuns who devote themselves to Buddhism and decided to make a film about them.

 

The setting of this documentary is the Baekheum-am Buddhist Nun Training Center where people’s admissions and camera shootings are strictly controlled. The documentary depicts the lives of Buddhist nuns who entered Buddhism for various reasons. Director LEE Chang-jae stimulated people’s curiosity about exorcists through Between in 2006. The documentary set a record as the most commercially successful documentary of that year.

 

Between was honored with the Best Director Prize at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. LEE’s EDIT was picked as one of the 30 best documentaries by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and invited to many international film festivals including the Denver International Film Festival.

 

On the Road was finished seven years after Between. The film advanced into the final round of the Korean competition at the 13th Jeonju International Film Festival, was invited to the 38th Seoul Independent Film Festival and pick up the Butterfly Prize at the 6th Cinema Digital Seoul Festival. “Religious people have strong passions in order to embrace their tough situations. Such strong passion is impressive. Women are more interesting than men in terms of revealing such a point. This is because women are better at expressing their internal changes and conflicts compared to men.” This comment from the director makes us more curious about the film

 

 

 

 

     

  
Director KWON Hyo | Starring KWON Yoon-deok, SHIM Dal-yeon, SEIZO Tashima, HAMADA Keiko | Genre Documentary | Running Time 94 Minutes | Rating TBD | Release Date Aug. 15

 

  
In 2007, picture book writers in Korea, China and Japan decide to publish picture books about peace at the same time. KWON Yun-deok, a Korean picture book writer, made up her mind to deal with forced sex slaves of the Japanese military.  KWON started her work with strong support from other writers. But Kwon faced an unexpected situation as the pictures revealed forgotten scars of the past.

 

 

“Maybe, readers want to avoid this afflicting, shocking and inconvenient fact,” said KWON who wrote ‘Flower Grandma’, a picture book about forced sex slaves of the Japanese military in 2009. “But after knowing the fact, they will be able to reflect on themselves. The book I am thinking about is a sad but beautiful book. I will paint the sadness of elderly women who were forced to work as sex slaves as beautifully as possible. When I sketched the pictures, I almost cried. Each of the pictures is filled with my tears and theirs.”

 

The Big Picture is a documentary about the production of the picture book. The documentary ponders over how we should remember the sad history of forced sex slaves and what memories we should pass over to future generations. After watching this film, audiences wil  feel composed and resolute rather than angry and empathetic.

 

The key words of this work are “Forced sex slaves,” “History,” “Women” and “Peace.” Through these messages, this documentary tells the unknown stories of forced sex slaves and shares messages about the past, the present and the future with viewers. The Big Picture grasped people’s attention as the documentary was screened at the DMZ Korean International Documentary Festival, the Seoul Independent Film Festival in 2012, the Independent Documentary Festival, the Seoul Human Rights Festival and the Korea Independent Film and Video Maker's Forum in 2013.