The term master refers to a person who is remarkably outstanding in one field. However, in the film industry, the mistake of evaluating the value of films and individuals solely based on fame and numbers is often made. Although the social standard that takes enlargement as the only measure of success has been eased, there is a cautious atmosphere about what criteria and values should be put forward when introducing a new master. The JEONJU International Film Festival invites those who deserve to be called masters who have created their own cinematic world to this section. Hopefully the audiences will discover films by masters that have productive values in creating culture in this section.
First, it will introduce three documentaries crafted from a personal perspective. Ricardo and Painting is a work that Barbet SCHROEDER created departed from traditional large-scale film production methods and his own refined cinematic language. The director took a simple and pure approach to revealing the life and values of the painter Ricardo Cavallo with respect for the subject.
The latest work of Travis WILKERSON, Through the Graves the Wind is Blowing, was called the political conscience of American cinema by the UK film magazine Sight and Sound. The film exposes a society invaded by fascism by putting a detective who is teased as a lazy bureaucratic parasite in Croatia. Ruth BECKERMANN, who has been asking questions about Austria’s past and present rests her gaze on a school. Favoriten is a classical documentary, but it shows the present age of global immigrant life through classroom interaction between students and teachers.
There are also familiar names to the JEONJU IFF audiences. There is Pedro COSTA’s music film The Daughters of Fire, and there are also new feature films by Martín REJTMAN and Denis CÔTÉ. Martín REJTMAN, who was introduced through a retrospective at the 16th JEONJU IFF, is a representative figure of the New Argentina Cinema. In The Practice, the film draws the people practicing relationships and life through yoga. Director Denis CÔTÉ, most uniquely distinctive in contemporary Canadian cinema, depicts a mysterious woman living in a strange space where time seems to flow differently from the world in Mademoiselle Kenopsia.
Three experimental films are also prepared. Peter METTLER is one of the most original voices in documentary film. His new work, While the Green Grass Grows, transforms most personal stories into a philosophical movie, offering the audience a rich experience of visual beauty and reflection on life. In Front of Guernica (Director’s Cut) is a new work by Yervant GIANIKIAN and Angela Ricci LUCCHI, who have directed documentaries and experimental films since 1975. Yervant GIANIKIAN still refers to this work as co-directing, with the heart of working together even after Angela Ricci LUCCHI’s passing. In a dark era when war seems to have overspread the world, the directors question human violence and its history in front of Picasso’s Guernica.
In Architecton, thoughts begin with an Italian architect’s landscape project, progress through ancient architecture, and culminate in the story of an environment where life can thrive. The work experimentally and poetically describes the relationship between architecture and human society.
There are also early works by two late masters, Chantal AKERMAN and Raúl RUIZ. The short film Chantal Akerman: Her First Look Behind the Camera was created by Chantal AKERMAN at the age of 17 to enter film school. Socialist Realism (1973–2023) was created by the legendary Chilean film director Raúl RUIZ. Socialist Realism satirically sketches President Salvador Allende's public unity process before the 1973 Chilean coup d’état. The final edited version was finally released decades later. The film tells the story of collisions between the working class and a group of bourgeoisie intellectual elite.
The films in this year’s Masters section lead the viewers to be collaborative partners who will actively participate in reflection and ongoing discussion rather than helpless and passive audiences. Hopefully, these works can provide opportunities to observe other people’s lives and experience different forms of speaking, and, at the same time, become a source of power to think for oneself rather than extremely advocating in a chaotic world.
Programmer Sung MOON
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