Early Experimental Screens in South Korea

In this screening and discussion, we will view five early South Korean experimental films from the late 1960s and 1970s, with brief introductions to the films' historical backgrounds and contexts. Among the earliest surviving experimental films, The Meaning of 1/24 Second (1969), emerged from the cross-genre experimental art practices of the time in Korea and was a collaboration between artists from different genres, with Kim Ku-lim as the director. Showing everyday moments and streets in Seoul under rapid industrialization and urbanization, the film interweaves everyday things, urban landscapes, and the boredom of contemporary society in its fragmentary shots. What follows is a series of films by Han Ok-hee, one of the few female filmmakers in Korea in the 1970s and a member of the Korean feminist experimental film group Khaidu (1974-77): The Hole (1974), The Middle Dog’s Day (1974), Color of Korea (1976), and Untitled 77-A (1977). The all-female film group Khaidu, which explicitly proposed "women's experimental film" to criticize and reject the patriarchal film and art scene in Korea, produced films and organized film festivals that blurred the boundaries or hierarchy between different roles in filmmaking and between reality and film. Han Ok-hee's works, some of which were screened at Khaidu's film festivals, show the demolition of boundaries by focusing on objects such as ropes and filmstrips as a medium.