서울국제여성영화제

This section screens recent female-themed films directed by female directors from around the world, which will be a chance to observe the current trend of women’s films.
 

This Year, films that revisit women's history and film history by collecting and rearranging footage materials such as home videos, Internet archives, CCTV, and old movies stand out. Collected and rearranged, the images in these films are dislocated from their original contexts to create new questions about history and representation. Terra Femme collects and rearranges amateur female travelling films during the 1920s and 40s, and There will be No More Night is based on the images captured on night vision cameras stationed in war zones. A series of short films compiled under the name of Monographs, produced by the Asian Film Archive in Singapore, also revisit the film history using archive materials. The footage from the Sisters with Transistors is also enchanting.
 

Films that highlight female artists and writers are also impressive. Sargnagel, a “comedy/experiment/documentary” about an eccentric Austrian poet Stephanie Sargnagel, is a work that giggles over but seriously asks the problem between media and reality. Tove, the opening film of this festival, is also a non-traditional biopic piece focusing on the artist's bodily movements and facial vitality. Shirley is a sort of biopic which focuses on the emotions of the female artist. In Unfulfilled Dreams, Hou Hsiao-hsien's longtime screenwriter Chu Tien-wen tells the story of her mother and father, who were also prominent Taiwanese writers. Padauk: Myanmar Spring is an important film, which gives us a precious moment to look at how the young generation of Myanmar reflect on their movement and think about the future of Myanmar.
 

Meanwhile, films that directly or indirectly reflect the pandemic era are also impressive. Recovery and 2 Lizards are sort of satirical and philosophical time capsules with the year 2021 sealed. And there are feature films, directed by welcome directors who had a relationship with SIWFF: The Day I Died: Unclosed Case of Park Ji-wan who won the Best Short Film Award at the 10th SIWFF; Pallae: Womanhood Story of Park Sohyun, the first awardee of the Best Korean Feature Film at the 22nd SIWFF; and Please Don’t Save Me of Jung Yeon-kyung, the winner of the 8th Pitch&Catch Project at the 19th SIWFF.
Lastly, Shiva Baby, Miss Juneteenth, and First Cow, which has been one of the hottest films among the recent film festival circuit, I believe, already catch the audience’s attention. Ito is a new film of Yokohama Satoko who has been praised from critics as a “filmic genius,” and Another Day in Paradise is a series of shorts directed by Ang Priscilla who injects new energy into Singaporean film industry. [HWANG Miyojo]