WHITE LIGHT CINEMA
In Collaboration with the Gene
Siskel Film Center
PRESENTS
THE NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE OF
VISITORS (JEONJU DIGITAL PROJECTS 2009)
Short films by Hong Sang-soo, Naomi Kawase, and Lav Diaz
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 - 8:30pm
At the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State St.)
Butterflies Have No Memories
Three of Asia's most accomplished filmmakers are featured in this program of
haunting and beautiful works on loss and memory. In Hong's LOST IN THE MOUNTAINS,
a young woman visits a friend and discovers a romantic betrayal. Kawase's KOMA
is the touching story of a man who visits a small village to honor his late
grandfather. BUTTERFLIES HAVE NO MEMORIES is Diaz's realist portrait of unemployed
Filipino mine workers whose lives of drink and idleness are confused when a
young woman returns from Canada to visit her hometown. Works commissioned by
the Jeonju International Film Festival for their annual Digital Projects showcase.
In Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, and English with English subtitles. Various formats.
2009, 123 mins. total.
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Text from the Jeonju International Film Festival (excluding quotation):
Butterflies Have No Memories
Lav Diaz, 2009, 58 mins. (director's cut), Korea/Philippines, Mini-DV
On an island far from the main land of the Philippines, islanders who used to
be wealthy go through economic difficulties when a goldmine company withdraws
from the area. Ferding, Santos and Willy only drink in despair. One day, a Canadian
woman's visit changes everything.... Through the expression of the contradictory
nature of the prosperity development brings and the environmental destruction
it causes, the pain Philippine society experiences is fully captured.
Lav Diaz
Born in 1958. Lav Diaz studied Economics at the University of Notre Dame and
studied in the Film Institute in Mowelfund, Manila. Having started his career
with The Criminal of Marrio Concepcion (1998), he gained international
reputation through his Philippines Trilogy: Batang West Side, Evolution
of a Filipino Family, and Heremias. Death in the Land of Encantos
(2007); running time 9-hrs was picked as Special Mention, and his latest film
Melancholia (2008); running time 8-hrs, won Venice Horizons Award at
Venice International Film Festival.
Koma
Naomi Kawase, 2009, 34 mins., Korea/Japan, Digibeta
70 years ago, a man visits a quiet village named Koma. He accidentally saves
a boy's life and by way of thanks the boy's father gives him a hanging scroll.
Time passes, and now that man’s grandchild visits Koma in order to re-enact
the passing of the hanging scroll... Kawase Naomi explores the Korean-Japanese
relationship and the inheritance of tradition as a result of the sympathy between
the third generation of a Korean-Japanese man and a Japanese woman.
Kawase Naomi
Born in 1969 in Nara, Japan. Graduated from the School of Visual Arts Osaka
in 1989 and she has begun making films since her college days. In 1997, she
became the youngest winner of the Camera d'Or Award in the history of Cannes
Film Festival for her first feature Suzaku. In 2007, she won the Grand
Prix of the Cannes Film Festival for The Mourning Forest.
Lost in the
Mountains
Hong Sang-soo, 2009, 31 mins., Korea, Digibeta
"Hong Sang-soo's Lost in The Mountains is a delight, wryly funny and brilliantly
crafted." (Shelly Kraicer, Cinema Scope)
Misook is on her way to Jeonju city to see her friend Jin-Young, riding her
used car given newly as a gift by her brother in-law. However, Jin-Young is
unable to stay longer hanging out with Misook, so Misook spends the night with
Sangoak, her teacher and her ex-boyfriend. Next day, at Jin-Young’s place,
Misook accidentally finds out the relationship going on between Sangoak and
Jin-Young by looking at Sangoak's stuff at Jin-Young's place and she feels betrayed.
With an agony she calls Myungwoo into Jeonju city...
Hong Sang-soo
Born in 1961. While studying Film Studies at Chung-Ang University in 1980, he
went to the U.S., graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, and got
his master's degree in Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was awarded the
best award, Tiger Award for this debut work The Day a Pig Fell into the
Well at Rotterdam International Film Festival and later competed at Cannes
Film Festival for his works The Power of Kangwon Province, Woman
Is the Future of Man, and Tale of Cinema.
This program screens Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 8:30pm at The Gene
Siskel Film Center (164 N. State St.).
Admission: $10 general; $7 students; $5 Film Center members