서울국제여성영화제

Discovery is a competition section of SIWFF that showcases the first or second feature films of women filmmakers from Korea and abroad. This year, documentary films hold a large majority among the submitted films, and many of them show a tendency to focus on personal roots, the origin of their wounds, or interpersonal relationships, rather than targeting social structure or system.

Among the total 163 submitted films, twelve feature films have been selected and all the chosen films manifest rookie filmmakers’ ambition, convey a clear message and entertain the audience with cinematic wit. The omnibus documentary, #AfterMeToo, which will be screened as a World premiere, proposes to rethink how to sustain the #MeToo movement today as the movement seems to have lost its initial vitality. Outcry and Whisper documents the political situation of today’s People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong and lets us witness the power of activism documentary film. Through the filmmaker’s prudent perspective, Coming to You presents both the LGBTQ+’s and their parents’ lives and seeks to find a way to understand and empathize with others. Instruction for Survivor captures a trans woman’s life in Georgia and her method of survival, pushing forward how deeply the documentary film can delve into the subject’s life. The documentary film recording a few postnatal months, Short Years, Eternal Days approaches the life of women who are suffering from childbirth and rearing as well as captures the filmmaker’s own change through filmmaking, which will be shown as World premiere. The Good Woman of Sichuan illuminates the topic of variability in existence through limited frames, restrained takes, and a method of literary adaptation. As an outstanding experimental drama, documentary, and essay film, the film takes audiences on its trip to ever-changing boundaries. 

On the other hand, the fictional feature films in this section focus on the relationships between women. Under the genre convention of psychological thriller, Between Us from Ukraine is rather a morality play keenly illustrating two women’s solidarity and hierarchy between them. Cecily and Lydia at the Waypoint is on the verge of fiction and experimental film. The simple storyline that two strange women meet and become friends offers deep insight into life itself. Schoolgirls illustrates a puberty girl’s intense emotion as she meets a new friend and investigates herself. Destello Bravio is set in a village where time stands still and reveals raw desires, which itself is a strikingly enticing spectacle. Kim Min-young of the Report Card explores new high school graduate women’s growth and friendship and presents an emergent vision to overcome destructive relationships. Portraying the births and divisions of teenage women’s microcosm, Snowball exquisitely visualizes their heterogeneous and ambiguous emotional status, which almost looks like a blue and blazing flame. These twelve selected films will compete for SIWFF Best Feature, SIWFF Special Jury, SIWFF Best Director Awards. [KIM Hyunmin]