DMZ International Documentary Festival

official poster for 2015

Up near the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, during September, there is a great little documentary festival that goes on.

It's about an hour out of Seoul to get to the first location of Baekseok and then a further 30-40min bus ride to get to Paju, the second location.
The split locations make for some logistical difficulties but they do provide a shuttle bus that leaves on the hour every hour and is comfortable and free.

2015 marks 70 years of the division of Korea and that topic was a special focus for the festival.
Time and logistics prevented me from seeing the lions share of the program, which is a shame because it attracts some very good documentarys.

This is its seventh year and this is what I saw.

The full program can be seen here

Aim High in Creation by Anna Broinowski

the Sydney cast in training for their film alla Kim Jong il style

Off to North Korea to learn the art of propaganda filmmaking from the master himself, though posthumously through his written manifesto.
Why? To stop fracking in her Sydney backyard of course.
It's a great premise for a film and it is a pretty wild ride with Anna getting great access to the North Korean film industry and some of its greatest exponants. Actors, Directors and Composers and they all contribute to her effort of making an anti fracking film that will stop the industry in it's tracks. The film is split between her fact finding efforts in Pyeongyang and her directorial efforts back in Sydney. The time in North Korea is by far the most interesting and entertaining part of this doco.
7 won out of 10

Holy Working Holiday by Lee Hee-won

the pain of harvesting onions in Gaton QLD

A Korean in Australia and her and her friends attempts to get an extension on their working visa by accumulating the hours working on farms in NSW and QLD. Sounds romantic....NOT! This is an autobipgraphical film, though the filmmaker hides behind the camera most of the time, of dreams smashed, hopes dashed and inspiration lost. It's just tough shitty work but it is a great insight into the Korean perspective of Australia compared to their reality back at home and what they want in life.
A little slow and messy at times but kinda interesting.
not too many won out of 10

B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin 1979-1989 
Directors: Klaus Maeck, Jörg A. Hoppe, Heiko Lange Story by Mark Reeder

another wild night in West Berlin, ah the life.

 This was a very entertaining insight into life in West Berlin at a pretty exciting musical point in history. It's more or less the memoirs of Mark Reeder and he has some pretty good memories. He transplanted himself from Manchester and got to hang out with some pretty cool musicians, managed a few bands and lived a pretty full life in a decadent time. Nick Cave was his room mate, he organised Joy Division's one and only tour of the city, knocked around with Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten and The Bad Seeds fame and generally got to indulge in his favourite pastime of getting around in military attire more or less unnoticed. Bowie & Iggy Pop were there, Christiane F was there, Kraftwork were there and the list goes on and on. This was a city of seething creatives who took no prisoners in their pursuits of Art for arts sake. The doco is heavily stylised and laden with cool music and sights. 
8 Deutsche Marks out of 10.

Bicycle City by Kong Mi-Yeun

cycling in Seoul

 A pretty in depth study into the city of Seoul from the perspective of how it's not a cycling city.
 I wont score it cause I didn't see it all but it was very interesting and went into topics of the high rise living in the city and the design of the motorways. People interviewed were bike frame manufacturers, bike couriers, recreational cyclists etc. Overall it was presenting a very interesting thesis but was taking a long time to make its points. However unlike the other three docos this was the only one that wasn't a personal retelling of a story, it let its people tell the story rather than the filmmaker narrating the events. A nice point of difference but not perfect at all.

The festival also has a DMZ Documentary Fund and I spent an afternoon watching the hopefuls pitching their projects. These come from not only Korea but also from greater Asia. Each filmmaker received post pitch feedback from the selection panel  and some pretty interesting projects were presented. The lucky ones will make up part of the program next year. It's a great initiative and also ensures plenty of fresh and vibrant films for the festival.

Documentary is an emerging sector of the South Korean Film Industry and festivals like this one are ensuring that it will continue to grow and strengthen. I only wish I had the time to fully immerse into this years program and get more of the gold. Maybe next year?

Filmmaking Legend or just Lav Diaz?

The power of networking and the generosity of filmmaking.
When I reviewed Lav Diaz's documentary Storm Children Vol#1 for Filmed in Ether not only was I startled by this amazing, passive observation of typhoon Yolanda's (Haiyan) carnage and the unflinching gaze upon the children in among it but questions kept coming up about the techniques used and the approach he used to dissect this disaster. What was the thinking behind this film, cause I found myself speculating endlessly. I've already seen a few of his narrative films like Norte, the End of History, From What is Before and a short I caught at BIFF, so I kinda know a little of his style but this was the first doco I'd seen.

A while ago I'd had the pleasure of interviewing Sigrid Andrea P Bernardo for a review on her fabulous film Anita's Last Cha Cha and I caught it on the big screen, along with her, at the Seoul Women's International Film Festival. It was from these meetings that I learnt that she had a close relationship with Lav Diaz and a lot of admiration for him too. She even cast him in her latest feature, Lorna (more of that latter). So it was with some apprehension that I asked her to pass on my details and a request to ask him some questions. She obliged and a bit later so did he.

Wow, what a great thing to do cause his answers to my questions were fascinating and it just fleshed out the film in a quite perfect way. I just love the generosity of filmmakers in a situation like this. Thank you Lav and Thank You Sigrid.
Here's the review here

East Meets West and Other Such Long Distance Lov'n Things

Jazz in Love
Long distance, cross cultural love affairs aren't 100% new as documentary subjects but when it is a homosexual relationship and we're talking marriage between a German and a Filipino man then we are in new and interesting territory. The real trump for this observational, linear journey is Jazz, the young, handsome and charismatic Filipino man. He is very watchable and fun to be with. He is in Love!

This is a very earnest and honest documentary directed by Baby Ruth Villarama and it opened the 2013 Cinemalaya Festival earlier this year, quite an honour. Her initial idea was to document Pinoy brides marrying German men, which is an interesting phenomena but really has been done to death (Asian bride weds Western man) and the idea spawned whilst she was taking German language lessons (preparing for her time at the 3rd Documentary Workshop conducted by the Goeth Institut).

But something else kept happening, Jazz, Ernesto Tigaldao Jr, kept popping up in the background for he too was studying German as a visa prerequisite to moving to Germany and marrying his beau, Theo (something not allowed in the Phillippines). Slowly it dawned that this was the subject for the documentary, the stakes were higher and he was more compelling. Plus gay marriage rights is a very now issue.
I love this about doco making, you are pursuing one thread but there is another that constantly shows up and is infinitely more interesting. It takes a brave and insightful filmmaker to throw away the original idea in order to take up the alternative, even with a lot of film already in the can.


Baby Ruth did exactly this, which says a lot about her as filmmaker, documentarian and person.
No doubt her years of experience, in drama and documentary had a lot to do with it as did her being surrounded by good people at Voyage Studios, like Nani Naguit, who did sound/composing and her husband Chuck Gutierrez, who was producer and editor.

Baby Ruth, Ms Cho (translator), Nani & Chuck doing the Q&A thing at BIFF 2013

We pick up the story with Theo arriving from Germany and it is a story of two men very much in love. They hang out together and go to their favourite places, reminiscing about their last time together here. The guys met online and that is where they have spent the majority of time, this being Theo's 2nd visit to the Philippines. Jazz's family have organised a large family celebration in the form of a luncheon BBQ and it looks like everyone has turned out to feast and fiesta.
But this is where we start to see that things aren't all rosy in paradise. Theo seems slightly overwhelmed and somewhat withdrawn at the party, maybe one too many aunts have implored him to look after Jazz when he's in Germany, "he has no one over there"

During a lengthy, though poignant karaoke session Theo sits watching quietly as we the audience start to read doubt on his face, Jazz seems oblivious, totally comfortable amongst his family.
There is one thing that Jazz has requested of Theo, he must ask his parents for permission to wed his son. It is part of the romance that makes up Jazz and seems to be a perfectly reasonable request but for Theo it becomes a sticking point. He seems sure that Jazz's father will say no and doesn't see the point. The party goes on and we wait for the moment and the tension builds.
What people will do for love is a central theme of this documentary with the added twist of two cultures and the tyranny of distance.

Although shot in a very respectful, non interventional, fly on the wall way, one does wonder if the camera plays a role in the outcome of this film, would the end result be different in its' absence? Are the characters playing up to the camera or is three becoming a crowd? This is a further tension that plays out in the film in the later half.

Though Baby Ruth just followed these two lovers wherever they chose to go and recorded whatever they chose to do she has still put her mark on this film in the form of subtle metaphor. My favourite being the sunrise Theo has to see, because everyone has been raving to him about it. It's a special location and he makes a special trip and when he gets there what he sees is fully a reflection of where he is at as a person. It's a great moment and quite inspired filmmaking.
Another is the use of timelapse panoramas in the beginnings of the film, it's a metaphor for things really moving but toward the end of the film such shots are now in real time. These devices are subtle but they are there and they help drive the story of these two men in love.
 

Jazz & Theo, getting amongst the lillys

Jazz in Love is gentle yet poignant, subtle but profound and a great insight into cross cultural, long distance love affairs and the nuances that come into play. 
A very beautiful portrait of two trying to be one

The Search for Onada

This is a fascinating story and here is an opportunity to hear it from the horses mouth.
Hiroo Onoda surrendered on a small island in the Philippines 30 years after his country surrendered to the USA to end the second world war. 
The mind boggles when you imagine the scenario.
But this doco is more than just looking at this aspect.
Here is a chance to hear from the islanders who were impacted by his secret campaign of guerrilla warfare, his fight for survival, driven by his loyalty to the emperor. 
It wasn't just 30 years of a monk in a cave, this was a soldier who performed his duty and continued his war. Mia Viaña Stewart has access to the people who lived on the island through her family and this presents a unique insider's/islanders view on the story.
The third intriguing element to this story is the question of why did the Japanese post Onoda on this island, what was the purpose, what was the strategic advantage of such posting? and this is where some conspiracy/myth elements can enter the story. Was there really a stash of gold to guard? or was it something else?
To find out the documentary needs to be completed and this is where you can help as Mia is running a modest pozible crowdfunder. This will be a love job but it still needs funds to complete