Sydney Stages ‘Off-Mainstream’ Contemporary Korean Cinema Spotlight
Jun 13, 2016
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by Pierce Conran
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Tony Rayns Curates ‘Korea on the Verge: Social Faultlines in Korean Cinema’ Program
For its 63rd edition, which kicked on June 8th, the Sydney International Film Festival is staging a ‘Korea on the Verge: Social Faultlines in Korean Cinema’ program, curated by guest programmer Tony Rayns, the London-based Asian film expert and programmer for the Vancouver International Film Festival. The spotlight will include five features from “off-mainstream” contemporary Korean cinema.
PARK Hong-min’s 3D arthouse feature A Fish, a mystery noir which features shamans on an island, debuted at BIFF in 2012. PARK’s new film ALONE also debuted there last year.
Finally, the program will also feature KIM Kyung-mook’s Stateless Things, examining the lives of a North Korean defector and a queer youth, which debuted at the Venice International Film Festival in 2011.
The Australia-Korea Foundation is supporting the program, which will also feature a talk by Rayns on the interpretation of Korean indie cinema on June 15th in Sydney. According to Rayns, “Korean cinema remains in many ways the liveliest in East Asia, but the program has gone a little off-mainstream.”
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