Next Stop Seoulywood

KOFFIA is upon us again, how lucky are we?
Once a year The Korean Film Festival in Australia tours our east coast.
Starting in Brisbane (14-18th Aug), sailing through Sydney (21-29th Aug) and ending in Melbourne (5-11th Sept). This years theme is the many faces of Korean Cinema.

Not only is  it packed with South Korean Cinematic yumminess (check the program) but for the second year running they are running a short film competition.
There are some good prizes up for grabs and they will be decided by an illustrious jury that always includes a guest filmmaker from South Korea. This year we welcome Moon Byoung-gon.
Ten films are short listed from the entries and screened in Sydney (the home of the festival and of the Artistic Director Kieran Tully). This year you can catch them at the Event Cinemas in George Street on Sunday 25th August, starting at midday.
In 2012 I entered an ode to my favourite Korean director Hong Sangsoo but the feedback I got was that a lot of people didn't 'get it'. It relied on not only knowing this director's film work but specifically knowing the trailer for one of his films. This year I approached the competition in similar fashion to last years entry The Way He Arrived, short, sharp, sweet, with the minimum of fuss but I opened up the subject matter to a wider audience.
It's a little story about an audition. Ian Dixon plays the role of a Director who wants to break into the Korean film market with his next film and he is casting for a Korean speaking woman (Joanne Tran) to fill one of the roles, problem being he can't speak Korean, oh and she's not Korean!
So what appears to be a very spooky scenario around the casting couch quickly gets subverted with the woman fully taking advantage of the director's ignorance and prejudice. It even features Google Eyes or Google Glasses and everyones most accurate language aid Google Translate.
She gets what she wants and he is left happily in his blissfully ignorant world.

This films satisfies a lot of wants, I got to play with language, dubbing, actors and I got to use some music from Nylon Pink, The New Black, an original not one of their K-POP covers.
I didn't make it to the screening last year but this year I'm going to blitz Sydney for the day and check out all the other films in the screening.
And the bonus this year???? There is always a bonus with KOFFIA
This year they the session will also include a special screening of Jury 주리, the acclaimed directing debut of Kim Dong-ho, former Festival Director of Busan International Film Festival.
I saw this short at MIFF 2013 and it's one of the best shorts I've seen for a long time. 
Should be a lotta fun.

 

And as for the rest of the festival? I'll catch it when it's in Melbourne. See you there?