The Jeonju Digital Project 2009 omnibus will premiere at JIFF which runs this year April 30 - May 8.
Japanese director Naomi Kawase, whose The Mourning Forest won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2007, commented her film Koma was inspired by 'an image from [the ancient Korean nation] Goguryo that I saw at a Japanese temple.'
Set in a small Japanese village with terraced rice patties, the film tells the story of the decades-old ties between two families that bring a current-day ethnic-Korean woman and man together.
Best known for his lengthy features such as the 9-hour Venice entry Death In The Land Of Encantos, Filipino director Lav Diaz has cut a 40-minute short called Butterflies Have No Memories for the omnibus (but also admitted he had a 59-minute director'scut).
The film is set in a polluted island in the Philippines where fortunes declined drastically after the pull-out of a Canadian gold-mining company. The story follows three local men in their frustrations and what happens when a Canadian woman born in the town comes to visit.
Diaz said, 'This is an actual place where the sand is white on the surface but if you stick a finger in it comes out black. The company that pulled out still stations armed guards around the mining site and factories, so we literally had to go guerilla to shoot some of our footage there.'
Well-known Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo's segment is called Lost In The Mountains - previously titled Disappointment in an early announcement made in December.
The film is a characteristically nuanced drama that follows two men and two women in Jeonju city.
Every year, JIFF gives three directors KW50m each to make 30 minute short films for an omnibus.
This year's directors and their projects were presented at a press conference today in Seoul.
No comments yet