Korea Inspired: Constructing the future of expat filmmaking

A group photograph of the Korea Inspired seminar participants and panelists.

In the past decade, the number of expat filmmakers actively working in Korea has increased. Starting with simple ideas, short films and some feature length films have come out of the filmmakers who, by day, teach or work other jobs. Some have even gone to work in the Korean film industry full time.

As I walk into the hall in Korean Film Council in Busan, quite a few unfamiliar faces turn to me and greet in a friendly way. Room 609, it is. Room 609, filled with filmmakers, film lovers. Room 609 glows with the energy of everything ‘film’. I glance through every face, saying hello, until I recognize one. Kevin Lambert, producer of Korea Indie and Expat Film Festival, (as the name suggests) an indie film festival run by expats in Seoul, welcomes me as I take my seat and absorb the verve of being in the company of people who breathe and live film.

Panelists Ms. Hyun-sook Kim, Kevin Lambert and Marco Tessiore (left to right)

As the clock hits 1.30, the seminar ‘Korea Inspired: The Growing Expatriate Film and Arts Movement and Why It Matters’ begins. The seminar at Busan International Film Festival, was presented by Korea Indie and Expat Film Festival and K-movie Love, a non-profit organization operated in Seoul which aims to share Korean cinema with foreigners.

We are introduced to all filmmakers who, in fact, being the first wave of expat filmmakers in Korea, paved the way for future and current filmmakers.

Ms. Hyun-sook Kim, founder of K-movie Love, starts with her introduction. She has worked as an art critic and a journalist for twenty years. She says, “When I became close friends with foreign filmmakers, I came to realize their love for Korean movies as well as their in-depth knowledge of them. However, I also got to know it is not easy for them to watch Korean films since theaters rarely provide English subtitles. I learned that they wish to watch movies on big screens instead of on their tiny laptop screens, and that they have a desire to show the movies that they have made to Korean filmmakers and audiences.” This became the reason of the foundation of K-movie Love, which holds screenings of Korean films, inviting filmmakers and film enthusiasts to gather and network.

Ms. Hyun-sook Kim speaks at the Korea Inspired seminar

Comparing the expat film community to the ‘Lost Generation’ of post-World War 1 Paris in 1920s, Ms. Kim said the situation is similar if we look at how artists from across the world are coming to Seoul and create art. Asking important questions like how expat films add to Korean cinema industry and how Koreans are portrayed in expat films, Ms. Kim discussed the potential options for the growth of expat film audience yet at the same time retaining their independence from Korean market. One of the issues is also how expat art is not covered by Korean media, mainly due to language issues and also because it is not aimed or marketed for Koreans, creating this distance between the expat community and Korean public. K-movie Love works to bridge that gap.

Producer and filmmaker Kevin Lambert talks about how Seoul is not Paris and we are not Hemingways or Fitzgeralds. But even then, like Paris, living and working conditions in Seoul are conducive to art. As a large number of expats gather in a city, we all can help each other make films and “get out of the crab barrel”.

Marco Tessiore, Tristan Vasquez (director of The Applicant, a short film), Yana Lekarska (Awakening), Anthony Jason Mills (Freewheeling.tv), David No (Battle of Wills) and a few other filmmakers talk about their journeys and how they went on to make films in Korea.

Tessiore travelled from Italy to Korea, with a couple detours in between, almost a decade ago. From screening his film at Busan International Film Festival in 2007 to teaching in media department in a university in Seoul to being invited to a Pyongyang International Film Festival in North Korea, Tessiore has gained a lot of experience. Currently, he is collaborating with Korean photographer Kim Jung Man on a documentary ‘EAST’ which aims to “portray the ancestral landscape of Asia.”

After the talks, short films made by various expat filmmakers were screened, followed by the question-and-answer session where Yana, Jennifer Waesher (who wrote, sang and acted in The Woman, directed by Ed Burgos), and others talked about their motivations and process of bringing the films to life.

The seminar comes to an end as the faces rejoiced at the thought of drinking at Haeundae in Busan. I bid goodbye to the massively talented people, grab the luggage and ride the KTX all the way back to Seoul, as, due to the new-found motivation, the thoughts of my future film projects populate my mind on the way.