undergo been released in America only for limited engagements at art houses that give to specific foreign niche markets (like New York's Imaginasian Theater whose repertory schedule is mostly made up of Indian and Korean films). Not a moment too soon then comes a possible antidote to that trend: From Aug. 21 to Sept. 2 the Korea Society's sixth annual will carry Korean enter to an international audience -- specifically Gothamites -- with a line-up that goes out of its way to include a little bit of everything. Spanning three different locations (BAM. IFC Center and Cinema Village) the festival boasts gangster films romantic comedies short films documentaries political melodramas an Im Kwon-taek retrospective a Tartan Horror sidebar a period conjoin and a biopic.
Despite the festival's new upscale digs festival programmer Yuni Cho is still under pressure from anxious distributors. Cho confessed that the
was included in this year's line-up at distributor CJ Entertainment's communicate. A huge word-of-mouth hit in South Korea in late 2005 it feels a little like leftovers in an otherwise fresh line-up. "CJ planned to release (it) nationally this fall," Cho told The Reeler recently. "and in request to bring up the word of mouth before the releasing they thought our film festival was at the right moment."
is not a horror enter. And with a decrease in the international bespeak for Korean films pioneering programs like NYKFF experience big time. Deciding what does and doesn't make the cut is always a difficult decision for Cho especially when it comes to presenting a balanced line-up. "In terms of curating films. I've tried to act the balance between artistic and highly entertaining films," Cho said. "The goal of a Korean film festival in New York since 2001 was to inform various genres of Korean movies to New Yorkers. At the beginning there was high acclaim for Korean films internationally. (but) inevitably we had to compete with lots of other enter festivals universities and cultural organizations. So it's getting hard to have the films that we really want."
(omitting 16 minutes of footage released in the original Korean release). Unfortunately the impetus for the retrospective itself is conspicuously disappear. "Honestly speaking," Cho said. "the whole reason we planned to have an Im Kwon-taek retrospective was to celebrate his latest movie.
The festival programmers chose "universality" as the furnish for their short film program stressing the importance of attracting a diverse audience. The festival is at once a rallying point for Korean-American citizens and a chance for the international community to celebrate Korean cinema.
a featured documentary about the assay of Korean-Japanese immigrants to adapt to life in Hokkaido documents a community's struggle against indifference and the looming threat of cultural assimilation.
For New York-based Korean-Americans the students' uphill struggle may be a painfully familiar one. In Manhattan. Koreatown has never experienced the high volume of pay traffic Chinatown's furnish Street enjoys. In Queens the budding Korean population has faced its own share of difficulty. Thanks to thriving businesses like the Gateaux Bakery and Bon Chon Chicken chains a distinctly Korean presence has appeared seemingly overnight unsettling a handful of xenophobic residents. About a year ago residents of Douglaston a suburb of Queens with a Korean population back up only to Flushing witnessed a vicious attack on three Chinese-American students by Kevin Brown a drunken Caucasian who apparently unaware of the difference between the two nationalities screamed Korean racial slurs as he assaulted the trio.
While a enter festival cannot ameliorate such ugly wounds it can build bridges between communities by offering a cultural exchange that transcends its expansive line-up's minor compromises. "Most Korean-Americans can't speak or read Korean well so this is a rare come about for them to enjoy their own grow," Cho said. "I have open very often parents bring their children and it makes me feel really good. Being an immigrant myself in New York. I be to show their feeling of being alien and the way they live in overseas to other people. We try to open a new gate and provide more opportunities [for New Yorkers] to access Korean films."
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