From: | Natasha |
Sent on: | Saturday, February 16, 2013, 5:47 AM |
Hey Everyone,
Rather than try to explain in the individual movie announcements, I figure I'll explain the festival in a separate email. The Korean Film Festival is put on by the Freer & Sackler Museums of Art, which is the part of the Smithsonian Institution that deals with Asian Art. Each year has a theme and includes post-film discussions with the featured directors. This year the theme is the films of Park Chan Wook, famous for the Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance) and features the premier of his first English Language film, Stoker. Seven of his films will be shown including the Vengeance Trilogy as well as the selections for the New Korean Cinema section. That section comprises of films from 2012 that includes 11 feature length movies, 3 short 3D movies, & selections from the 2012 Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul.
The festival runs March 1 - April 21 this year and most of the films have multiple showings at different venues. For those that have other times, I'll include them at the bottom; that way you can still see the film if another date/time fits your schedule better. Films at the Meyer Auditorium are free; at the AFI Theater, $11.50; and at the Angelika Center, $13. All of the locations are metro accessible with the Angelika Center being the furthest at 5 blocks from Dunn Loring (AFI is 2 blocks from Silver Spring station & Meyer is across the street from the Smithsonian station). FYI, the Meyer location does NOT have anyplace good to eat near by so I would recommend eating dinner before hand. The mall area of DC pretty much shuts down by 5:30.
-Natasha
Here is the overview of the festival from the official site:
If 2012 was the year Korean pop music conquered the world with “Gangnam Style,” 2013 is shaping up to be the year that Korean filmmakers make their mark on Hollywood. Kim Jee-woon (The Good, the Bad, the Weird) already brought us Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Last Stand. Later this year, Bong Joon-ho (The Host) releases his highly anticipated sci-fi adventure Snowpiercer. The Korean Film Festival DC is honored to host the local premiere of Park Chan-wook’s American debut feature Stoker, followed by a retrospective of his impressive body of work.
The growing prominence of these veteran directors proves what followers of Korean cinema have known for years: The country is bursting with talented filmmakers whose work is increasingly catching the attention of critics and film festival juries worldwide. This year’s festival features a host of award-winners, including O Muel's Jiseul, honored at the Sundance Film Festival; Kang Yik-wan’s tender drama Juvenile Offender, the surprise winner of multiple awards at the Tokyo International Film Festival; and Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta, which took home the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. We also present a panorama of the innovative, genre-blending popular films that Korea has become known for, including last year’s box-office sensation A Werewolf Boy. To top it off, the Freer debuts its brand-new 3D technology with a screening of the fantasy omnibus Weird Business.
This year’s Korean Film Festival DC features a new venue, the Angelika Film Center, and a new sponsor, the Korean Cultural Center DC, Embassy of the Republic of Korea. We look forward to working with these partners to bring treasures of Korean cinema to the Washington area for years to come.
Tom Vick
Curator of Film
Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution