Makeup artist Seong Hee Park, who created looks for K-Pop’s Wonder Girls and TV star Yunjin Kim, explores how the traditional ideals of Korean beauty in the paintings of Chosŏn-era artist Shin Yun-bok influences today’s Korean female stars.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015 | 6 PM
6-6:35 PM | Talk
6:40-7 PM | Q & A
Explorer members and above: Free with registration
$5 Members / $10 Non-members
This program is generously sponsored by CJ.
Dinner and a movie– it’s a classic combination. Join us to watch the 2010 Korean film The Recipe (된장), which follows a television producer searching for the chef and recipe of a soybean paste stew (doenjang jjigae), while dining on doenjang jjigae! We’ll also demonstrate how to prepare the stew, so you can make this Korean comfort food throughout the cold winter.
The Dinner
Doenjang jjigae is a staple meal in Korean homes. The earthy flavor of soybean paste is fused with hearty vegetables like Korean radish and zucchini, and includes tofu. The taste of doenjang jjigae is dependent upon the quality of the soybean paste and the richness of the base broth.
Doenjang jjigae is being provided by Kunjip Restaurant.
The Movie
The Recipe is a 2010 South Korean film which mixes romance, a crime story, black comedy, and food to near-perfection. Directed by Anna Lee and starring Lee Dong-wook, Lee Yo-won, and Ryu Seung-ryong, the film is about a television producer who finds out many surprising truths while tracking down the recipe of a magical, mysterious soybean paste stew.
THE RECIPE will screen in Korean with English subtitles.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 | 6 – 8 PM
@ The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue
Advanced ticket purchase required for this event. Space is limited.
$10 Members / $25 Non-members
This program is generously sponsored by CJ and SK.
The Korea Society and The New York Film Academy will be hosting an exclusive Screening of Complete Works of Byung Hun Min at NYFA’s Union Square location beginning Monday, December 8 and will run through Friday, December 12. The 5-day event will screen 12 of the acclaimed Korean director’s films with a special Q&A session on Tuesday, December 9 that will follow the screening of his latest award-winning feature Love Never Fails.
With numerous awards under his belt throughout his career such as “Best Picture” and “Best Director” for films like Flight of the Bee, and Mask and Mirror, director Min has recently continued his success with the world premiere of Love Never Fails at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival. He received an overwhelming response where the sold out film left the audience wanting more as they remained in their seats well after the credits finished rolling.
Director Min is currently visiting New York to work on preproduction to the first part of his upcoming Essay trilogy with each film taking place in New York, Paris and Beijing respectively. Essay in New York will also be the first Korean feature length film to be shot in the U.S.
The New York Film Academy’s special screenings will be director Min’s U.S. debut and presents a unique opportunity for students of all backgrounds to learn and experience Korean film.
“We’re thrilled to host directors from all over the world, especially accomplished artists like Byung Hun Min,” said NYFA Senior Director David Klein. “We look forward to celebrating his works and his U.S. debut next week!”
Monday, December 8 – Friday December 12, 2014
FREE with RSVP at korea.rsvp@nyfa.edu
The Screening of Complete Works of Hun Min is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
The French have bouillabaisse, Italians have zuppa di pesce, and Koreans have maeuntang! Learn how to make this wonderful, spicy seafood stew in a hands-on workshop led by Chef Walter Rhee. He’ll complete the meal by demonstrating how to make the perfect accompanying appetizers, Korean seafood pancakes (pajeon) and candied anchovies (myul chi bokkum). Trained as a marine biologist before pursuing his culinary passions, Walter will also share tips on how to buy, cut, and make healthy seafood dishes. Korea is, after all, surrounded by water on three sides!
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 | 6 PM
Advanced ticket purchase required for this event. Space is limited.
$30 Members / $45 Non-members
Culinary programs are generously sponsored by SK.
Celebrate Korea’s handicrafts and artistic traditions with adoptive parents Debbi Kent and Joan Suwalsky in a talk about their new book, 100 Thimbles in a Box: The Spirit and Beauty of Korean Handicrafts . The authors will share their experiences in researching and writing this beautiful book of nearly 500 photographs illustrating 44 traditional arts, including ceramics, fiber arts, paper, inlay, metal, wood, and painting, which they wrote to help introduce the relatively little-known crafts of Korea to Western audiences.
A holiday Korean craft fair follows, featuring beautiful and unique handicrafts and art work from local Korean artists working in many of the traditional arts depicted in 100 Thimbles in a Box.Purchase the perfect holiday gift or simply admire how today’s artists are working in traditional art forms with innovative and contemporary results.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014 | 6:30 PM
Members: Free
Nonmembers: $10
Featured Artists:
Karen Ahn, Maedeup Artist
Karen Ahn was born in Seoul, Korea. She studied Maedeup and other Korean folk art in college before coming to the U.S. to get her masters in graphic design at Pratt Institute. She worked in New York as a graphic designer and, for the past 20 years, has been creating Maedeup. She has taught the art of Maedeup in workshops at the Philadelphia Museum, Korean Cultural Service, Dong Hwa Korean Culture Center, Flushing Town Hall, Wave Hill, and Public Libraries throughout NYC. She has also exhibited her pieces at the Korean Cultural Service, Longwood Art Gallery, and Lee Young Hee Hanbok Museum.
Seongmin Ahn, Painter
Seongmin Ahn graduated from Seoul National University and Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work takes Asian traditional painting as a starting point and transforms it into something experimental with her own interpretation, bridging tradition and modern, as well as East and West.
She received a grant from Pollock Krasner Foundation and a first prize from AHL Foundation. She has been reviewed in the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, NY Arts magazine, Baltimore Sun and Plain Dealer. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Queens College Art Center, and Hello Museum.
Sungho Choi, Painter and Mixed Media Artist
Born in Seoul, Korea, Sung Ho Choi has lived and worked in New York City and Bergen County of New Jersey since 1981. He earned his master of Fine Art degree from Pratt Institute, New York City in 1984. Over 35 years, his works have been shown at numerous exhibitions in the North and Central America, Asia and Europe. In 1993, Choi was commissioned by the Percent for Art program in NYC to create two permanent murals, My America and American Pie (completed 1996) for Intermediate School 5 in Elmhurst, New York City. The models of My America and American Pie have been traveling nationwide since 2011 through the exhibition titled, Infinite Mirror: Images of American Identity. In 2004, he completed another permanent public art project, Quiltroad, for the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Seattle, WA, commissioned by U.S. General Services Administration, Washington, DC. Awards that he has received include the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1995, the Artists’ Project Grant from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. in 1996.
Eunjeon Kim, Ceramic Artist
Eunjeon Kim was born in Korea and received her BFA from the School of Arts at Hong-Ik University. She is currently a studio artist based in Virginia and has had numerous group and solo exhibitions around the country, including recent group exhibitions at Glenview Mansion Art Gallery in Rockville, Maryland and Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia. Over the last decade, she has also had over 30 exhibitions in the Washington, D.C. area. She is currently the president of Han-Mee Artist Association and was previously vice president of the Korean American Artist Association and a director of the Hong-Ik Art Studio.
Jong S. Kim, Hanji Artist
Jong S. Kim has dedicated herself to teaching traditional Korean paper arts and crafts for decades. She is the director of Kim Jong Sook Hanji Arts and Craft Institute, the chairperson of the Korean Artist Society of America., and a Hanji craft instructor at Joeun School, Korea-American Association of New Jersey.
Kim has received numerous awards and prizes for her work, including “Outstanding Artist Award” at the National Crafts Exhibition in 2003 and the Seoul Traditional Art Crafts Competition Winner also in 2003.
Yanghee Kim-Lee, Jewelry Artist
Born in Deagu, Korea, Yanghee Kim-Lee received her BFA from the School of Arts at Hong-Ik University. She currently resides in Washington, D.C. and designs Korean-style brooches and other accessories using beads and metal. Her designs have been displayed in many group and solo exhibitions, primarily in the Washington, D.C. area. She is currently a director at the Hongik Art Studio.
Wonju Seo, Textile Mixed Media Artist
Wonju Seo is a a Korean-American textile artist. She was born in South Korea where she received her B.F.A in Fine Arts Painting from Hongik University and currently lives in New Jersey. She has been working primarily with textiles, especially silk, for over 12 years. Her work has been deeply inspired by Korean antique bojagi. She received the Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the NJ State Council on the Arts in 2012, the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Recognition Award (Collector’s Choice) from the Visions Art Museum, San Diego, CA in 2012, and an Honorable Mention from the Smithtown Township Arts Council in 2011. Her work, Inspiration of Blue, was reviewed in the New York Times article entitled Seeing Asian Cultures Through an Indigo Lens in 2014. Her Wearable Pojagi is in the Newark Museum as part of its permanent collection.
Sungsook Setton, Painter and Calligrapher
Sungsook Setton is a Korean-American artist and calligrapher. Besides her training in brush painting and calligraphy under Chinese and Korean masters, she has also studied Western art in Germany, the UK, and the United States, obtaining her BA in Studio Art at Stony Brook University and MFA in interdisciplinary art at Goddard College. Setton’s work has been widely exhibited in Canada, the UK, Taiwan, Korea, and the United States. She has received two dozen awards for her work, including Best of Show at the National Juried Exhibition by the Sumi-e Society of America. She serves on the faculty of Westchester Community College and the Art League of Long Island. Her work has been deeply influenced by artistic traditions in the East and West, drawing from art training in Europe, the US, and her native South Korea.
Seasonal Teas and Korean Sweets will be provided by Haelin Lee
Haelin Lee is an accomplished Korean chef who learned the art of traditional Korean cooking in the Blue House where she assisted with meal preparations for the President of South Korea and his guests as an assistant to Master Chef Jungyoung Sun. Princess Julia Lee, the daughter-in-law of Prince Yeong of the Empire (the last Korean Prince of the early 20th century), mentored Ms. Lee on traditional Korean food presentation and taste based on her experience in Naksunjae Palace. For the past five years, Ms. Lee’s private catering business, Art of Eating, has provided homemade traditional Korean food to a growing clientele.
The Beauty of Korean Arts and Crafts is generously sponsored by Asiana Airlines.
What Subway Cinema started in 2001 with When Korean Cinema Attacks! – New York Korean Film Festival, and what has known many incarnations and iterations since then, is back in the funky and freaky curatorial hands of the festival’s original creators, now joining forces with BAMCinematek and The Korea Society to bring you the freshest crop of the record-breaking blockbusters and the must-see recent works of the peninsula’s internationally celebrated auteurs and mavericks. The new New York Korean Film Festival wants to serve as your road map for the best in contemporary Korean cinema.
All films in Korean with English subtitles.
THURSDAY – SUNDAY,
NOVEMBER 20-NOVEMBER 23, 2014
BAM Rose Cinema
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
(718) 636-4100 x 1
BAM
| Thursday, November 20 | 7:15 PM GYEONGJU | with Q&A with director Zhang Lu | |
| Friday, November 21 | 7:00 PM THE ATTORNEY | 9:30 PM A HARD DAY | |
| Saturday, November 22 | 7:00 PM THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS | 9:30 PM MAN ON HIGH HEELS | |
| Sunday, November 23 | 5:00 PM THE PIRATES | 8:00 PM FUTURELESS THINGS | |
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20 @ 7:15 PM
US Premiere
Director Zhang Lu will be in attendance.
2014, 145 min. DCP
Directed by Zhang Lu
Cast: Park Hae-Il, Shin Min-A, Yoon Jin-Seo, Kim Tae-Hoon, Shin So-Yul, Baek Hyun-Jin, Ryoo Seung-Wan
An “existential ghost story” (Variety) and a poetic, sentimental journey in the vein of Hong Sang-soo’s best films, Zhang Lu’s new film follows the wanderings of Peking University professor Choi-Hyun (WAR OF ARROWS’ Park Hae-Il) as he returns to the city of Gyeongju to attend a friend’s funeral. Spurred by the memory of an obscene picture he saw seven years ago on the wall of a teahouse, he proceeds to go on a strangely aimless quest, fumbling between tantalizing possibilities of erotic satisfaction or perhaps something of a more spiritual nature.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 @ 7:00 PM
2013, 127 min, DCP
Director: Yang Woo-Seok
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Kim Young-Ae, Oh Dal-Su, Kwak Do-Won, Siwan 2013, 127 min, Blu-ray
Based on the life of former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, THE ATTORNEY was this year’s most controversial box office hit, with over 10 million admissions. Set during the days of the military dictatorship, it follows the moral transformation of a pragmatic, mercenary and a tad shady attorney-at-law Song Woo-Seok (star Song Kang-Ho), who only got into the legal profession for the money. But everything changes one day, when he decides to take on the country’s National Security Law by accepting as his client the student activist Jin-Woo (Lim Si-wan), who has been unfairly arrested and tortured by the government.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 @ 9:30 PM
2014, 111 min, DCP
Directed by Kim Seong-hun
Cast: Lee Sun-Kyun, Cho Jin-Woong, Jeong Man-Sik, Shin Jung-Keun, Kim Dong-Young, Joo Suk-Tae
A selection of the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes film festival, A HARD DAY is a slick police thriller that follows detective Ko Gun-Soo (Lee Sun-Kyun, both a Hong Sang-Soo regular and a blockbuster frequent flyer) on a lung-bursting race against karma and all sorts of odds and (deadly) ends, as he runs over a stranger on an otherwise deserted, dark highway. Hastily shoving the dead body in his trunk in a moment of wild panic, the detective has just bought himself a world of trouble. What follows is a super-charged mixture of bone-crushing action, chases, black humor, and social satire, proving once again that no one makes smart genre films the way Korea does.
THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS
(명량 – 회오리 바다다) 2014
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 7:00 PM
2014, 128 min, DCP
Directed by Kim Han-Min
Cast: Choi Min-Sik, Ryoo Seung-Ryong, Cho Jin-Woong, Jin Goo, Lee Jung-Hyun
World Premiere of World Wide Version
The blockbuster to sink all blockbusters (17.6 million admissions and counting), THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS is a massive sea epic that depicts the 1597 Battle of Myeongryang, when a formidable Japanese fleet threatened the very existence of the peaceful peninsula. In a desperate, defiant last stand, Korea’s most celebrated historical hero, Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, portrayed by Choi Min-sik (Besson’s LUCY, Park Chan Wook’s OLDBOY) tries to save his homeland from a dire fate, with only a dozen ships at his command and his fierce determination not to go down without a good fight.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 9:30 PM
2014, 125 min, Digibeta
Directed by Jang Jin
Cast: Cha Seung-won, Oh Jeong-se, Esom, Ko Kyeong-pyo, Ahn Kil-kang, Lee Eon-jeong
After a three-year hiatus, Jang Jin (WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL), one of Korea’s most inventive writer-directors, is back to subvert the tough-guy detective genre and established notions of Korean masculinity. Detective Ji-wook (Cha Seung-won) is the most bad-ass cop in town, never missing an opportunity to beat the crap out of the bad guys. But deep inside, despite his uber masculine good looks, Ji-wook is tired of being a tough boy. Tortured by the unavowable desire to be a woman, he decides to get a sex change. Things get messy when a gang that Ji-wook had busted starts hurting people close to him: time to prove that, even in high heels, he can still kick some ass.
THE PIRATES (해적: 바다로 간 산적) 2014
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23 @ 5:30 PM
2014, 130 min, DCP
Directed by Lee Suk-Hoon
Cast: Kim Nam-Gil, Son Ye-Jin, Yu Hae-Jin, Lee Kyoung-Young, Kim Tae-Woo
Korea’s answer to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN is a family-friendly, Hollywood-style swashbuckling period comedy, powered by an even-keeled ensemble cast, including Son Ye-Jin (WHITE NIGHT, MY WIFE GOT MARRIED) as a lady pirate and Kim Nam-Gil as the unshaven beau. Set in the 14th century during a crucial period in Korean history, the film follows four rival parties of pirates, bandits, and soldiers, as they collide on a search for a grey whale that swallowed a royal seal of great importance. Enter hard-ass sea wenches, a bad guy with an eyepatch, slapstick aplenty, and an impressive display of special effects. A perfect summer popcorn blockbuster that delivers the fun in spades. Arrrrr!
FUTURELESS THINGS (이것이 우리의 끝이다적) 2014
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23 @ 8:00 PM
North American Premiere
2014, 107 min, DCP
Dir. Kim Kyung-Mook
Cast: Kim Su-hyeon, Yoo Yeong, Jeong Hye-in, Gong Myeong, Shin Jae-ha
An affectionate and delightful comedy of manners, structured in 13 episodes, FUTURELESS THINGS chronicles 24 hours in the intertwined lives of young clerks working at the same convenience store, and brings into the spotlight the private joys and tears of usually invisible people. What’s revealed is that there’s nothing ordinary about ordinary existence as we’re thrusted into a fascinating world of part-timers, college dropouts, North Korean defectors, gays and lesbians and other social outcasts, eking out a living in the interstices of ultra consumerist South Korea.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.
The New York Korean film festival is back in business! That’s right. What Subway Cinema started in 2001 with When Korean Cinema Attacks! – New York Korean Film Festival, and what has known many incarnations and iterations since then, is back in the funky and freaky curatorial hands of the festival’s original creators, now joining forces with BAMCinematek and the Korea Society to bring you the freshest crop of the record-breaking blockbusters and the must-see recent works of the peninsula’s internationally celebrated auteurs and mavericks. The new New York Korean Film Festival wants to serve as your road map for the best in contemporary Korean cinema.
All films in Korean with English subtitles.
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20-NOVEMBER 23, 2014
BAM Rose Cinema
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
(718) 636-4100 x 1
BAM
| Thursday, November 20 | 7:15 PM GYEONGJU | with Q&A with director Zhang Lu | |
| Friday, November 21 | 7:00 PM THE ATTORNEY | 9:30 PM A HARD DAY | |
| Saturday, November 22 | 7:00 PM THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS | 9:30 PM MAN ON HIGH HEELS | |
| Sunday, November 23 | 5:00 PM THE PIRATES | 8:00 PM FUTURELESS THINGS |
GYEONGJU (경주) 2014^
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20 @ 7:15 PM
US Premiere
Director Zhang Lu will be in attendance.
2014, 145 min. DCP
Directed by Zhang Lu
Cast: Park Hae-Il, Shin Min-A, Yoon Jin-Seo, Kim Tae-Hoon, Shin So-Yul, Baek Hyun-Jin, Ryoo Seung-Wan
An “existential ghost story” (Variety) and a poetic, sentimental journey in the vein of Hong Sang-soo’s best films, Zhang Lu’s new film follows the wanderings of Peking University professor Choi-Hyun (WAR OF ARROWS’ Park Hae-Il) as he returns to the city of Gyeongju to attend a friend’s funeral. Spurred by the memory of an obscene picture he saw seven years ago on the wall of a teahouse, he proceeds to go on a strangely aimless quest, fumbling between tantalizing possibilities of erotic satisfaction or perhaps something of a more spiritual nature.
THE ATTORNEY (변호인) 2013^
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 @ 7:00 PM
2013, 127 min, Blu-ray
Director: Yang Woo-Seok
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Kim Young-Ae, Oh Dal-Su, Kwak Do-Won, Siwan 2013, 127 min, Blu-ray
Based on the life of former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, THE ATTORNEY was this year’s most controversial box office hit, with over 10 million admissions. Set during the days of the military dictatorship, it follows the moral transformation of a pragmatic, mercenary and a tad shady attorney-at-law Song Woo-Seok (star Song Kang-Ho), who only got into the legal profession for the money. But everything changes one day, when he decides to take on the country’s National Security Law by accepting as his client the student activist Jin-Woo (Lim Si-wan), who has been unfairly arrested and tortured by the government.
A HARD DAY (끝까지 간다) 2014^
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 @ 9:30 PM
2014, 111 min, DCP
Directed by Kim Seong-hun
Cast: Lee Sun-Kyun, Cho Jin-Woong, Jeong Man-Sik, Shin Jung-Keun, Kim Dong-Young, Joo Suk-Tae
A selection of the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes film festival, A HARD DAY is a slick police thriller that follows detective Ko Gun-Soo (Lee Sun-Kyun, both a Hong Sang-Soo regular and a blockbuster frequent flyer) on a lung-bursting race against karma and all sorts of odds and (deadly) ends, as he runs over a stranger on an otherwise deserted, dark highway. Hastily shoving the dead body in his trunk in a moment of wild panic, the detective has just bought himself a world of trouble. What follows is a super-charged mixture of bone-crushing action, chases, black humor, and social satire, proving once again that no one makes smart genre films the way Korea does.
THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS (명량 – 회오리 바다다) 2014^
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 7:00 PM
2014, 128 min, DCP
Directed by Kim Han-Min
Cast: Choi Min-Sik, Ryoo Seung-Ryong, Cho Jin-Woong, Jin Goo, Lee Jung-Hyun
The blockbuster to sink all blockbusters (17.6 million admissions and counting), THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS is a massive sea epic that depicts the 1597 Battle of Myeongryang, when a formidable Japanese fleet threatened the very existence of the peaceful peninsula. In a desperate, defiant last stand, Korea’s most celebrated historical hero, Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, portrayed by Choi Min-sik (Besson’s LUCY, Park Chan Wook’s OLDBOY) tries to save his homeland from a dire fate, with only a dozen ships at his command and his fierce determination not to go down without a good fight.
MAN ON HIGH HEELS (하이힐) 2014^
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 9:30 PM
2014, 125 min, Digibeta
Directed by Jang Jin
Cast: Cha Seung-won, Oh Jeong-se, Esom, Ko Kyeong-pyo, Ahn Kil-kang, Lee Eon-jeong
After a three-year hiatus, Jang Jin (WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL), one of Korea’s most inventive writer-directors, is back to subvert the tough-guy detective genre and established notions of Korean masculinity. Detective Ji-wook (Cha Seung-won) is the most bad-ass cop in town, never missing an opportunity to beat the crap out of the bad guys. But deep inside, despite his uber masculine good looks, Ji-wook is tired of being a tough boy. Tortured by the unavowable desire to be a woman, he decides to get a sex change. Things get messy when a gang that Ji-wook had busted starts hurting people close to him: time to prove that, even in high heels, he can still kick some ass.
THE PIRATES (해적: 바다로 간 산적) 2014^
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23 @ 5:30 PM
2014, 130 min, Blu-ray
Directed by Lee Suk-Hoon
Cast: Kim Nam-Gil, Son Ye-Jin, Yu Hae-Jin, Lee Kyoung-Young, Kim Tae-Woo
Korea’s answer to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN is a family-friendly, Hollywood-style swashbuckling period comedy, powered by an even-keeled ensemble cast, including Son Ye-Jin (WHITE NIGHT, MY WIFE GOT MARRIED) as a lady pirate and Kim Nam-Gil as the unshaven beau. Set in the 14th century during a crucial period in Korean history, the film follows four rival parties of pirates, bandits, and soldiers, as they collide on a search for a grey whale that swallowed a royal seal of great importance. Enter hard-ass sea wenches, a bad guy with an eyepatch, slapstick aplenty, and an impressive display of special effects. A perfect summer popcorn blockbuster that delivers the fun in spades. Arrrrr!
FUTURELESS THINGS (이것이 우리의 끝이다적) 2014^
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23 @ 8:00 PM
North American Premiere
2014, 107 min, DCP
Dir. Kim Kyung-Mook
Cast: Kim Su-hyeon, Yoo Yeong, Jeong Hye-in, Gong Myeong, Shin Jae-ha
An affectionate and delightful comedy of manners, structured in 13 episodes, FUTURELESS THINGS chronicles 24 hours in the intertwined lives of young clerks working at the same convenience store, and brings into the spotlight the private joys and tears of usually invisible people. What’s revealed is that there’s nothing ordinary about ordinary existence as we’re thrusted into a fascinating world of part-timers, college dropouts, North Korean defectors, gays and lesbians and other social outcasts, eking out a living in the interstices of ultra consumerist South Korea.
Daniel Sneider, Associate Director of Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center, talks about his family’s long engagement with Korea.
Lea Sneider has a passion for folk art: the ceramics, woodwork, paintings, and sculpture used and enjoyed in everyday life. While accompanying her husband, Richard L. Sneider, to his appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Korea in 1974, Mrs. Sneider became an avid explorer of the art galleries and museums of Seoul, Daegu, and Busan. She sought out scholars of the rich tradition of Korean folk art, a field largely unexplored in the West at the time.
After returning to the United States, Mrs. Sneider became an art dealer, curator, and influential mentor, as three of her former assistants went on to become East Asian art teachers in leading US universities: Princeton, Chicago and Brigham Young. Sneider, together with Robert Moes, former Curator of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum, produced the first-ever exhibition of Korean folk art in the West, Auspicious Spirits: Korean Folk Paintings and Related Objects, which opened in New York in 1983 and traveled across the country. “The work in Auspicious Spirits has the magic that has come to be expected from Asian art of the first quality,” wrote the New York Times.
This exhibition pays tribute to Lea Sneider, a great patron of Korean art and longtime board member of The Korea Society, with pieces from her personal collection.
Monday, November 17, 2014 | 6 PM
Celebrate Korea as a center of excellence for classical arts with Juilliard violinist Jiwon Kim. Ms. Kim recently premiered Roberto Sierra’s Duo Concertante for violin and viola as part of the Summergarden series at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall and with the New Juilliard Ensemble, Juilliard Orchestra, and Sejon Soloists. Ms. Kim performs works by Bach (Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003), Ysaÿe (Violin Sonata No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 27, No. 4 “Fritz Kreisler”) and Corigliano (The Red Violin Caprices). Jiwon and sister Hyewon Kim, a cellist, perform together Gliere’s Huit Morceaux for violin and cello, Op. 39.
$10 Members, $20 Guests
Explorer/ YPN and above attend this program for FREE with Registration
5:30 PM | Registration
6:00 PM | Performance
The Korea Society, the Asian American Film Lab, and the Korean American Film Festival of New York, working together to promote multi-cultural collaboration, are delighted to present Unfinished Works, a program that featuresperformances and videos that showcase Korean and Korean-American stories, writers, and themes. The evening’s selections will feature works by Willem Lee and Savanna Washington.
Willem presents a staged reading of his co-written (with Mayuran Tiruchelvam) script, Nic of Time, which is a coming of age comedy about Nic, a jaded and bitter man, who travels back in time to undo the moment that has plagued and defined his past. Savanna screens an excerpt from her documentary, Playing Frisbee in North Korea, which captures the hardship of daily life in North Korea especially around the issues of freedom and food insecurity.
Film Lab’s Unfinished Works coordinator, Lorna Nowve, will moderate the event in the Film Lab’s signature style, welcoming audience participation in the creative process and directing interaction with the writers and filmmakers. Don’t miss this opportunity to see amazing new talent—come and enjoy the show!
Thursday, November 6 , 2014 | 7 PM
This event will take place at The Korea Society.
This is a FREE event, but please register in advance here. If you have any questions, please contact Claudia Pak or (212) 759-7525, ext. 321.
Contemporary Culture programs are generously sponsored by CJ
Willem Lee is a New York based filmmaker and recent graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Film Program with a focus on directing. His thesis film, The End of the World, premiered at 2012 Columbia University Film Festival and was awarded the IFP Audience Choice Award. It was also the recipient of the Best Short Film Award at KAFFNY. It has gone on to exhibit at festivals in the U.S. and abroad. He also produced Amateur Dictator, which was awarded Jury Honors and Student Selects at this years Columbia University’s Film Festival.
Willem recently returned from his second trip to North Korea where he was the cinematographer for documentary film director, Dai Sil Kim-Gibson. He is currently working on a number of feature film scripts, including a multicultural and generational NYC multi-narrative drama entitled Abba’s Orphans, Syndicate, a thriller (with co-writer Mayuran Tiruchelvam), and Paris Syndrome: A Traveler’s Dilemma, an existential film noir.
Willem has taught film directing at Columbia University and guest lectured at School of Visual Arts and Sacred Heart University. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Gordon College.
Mayuran Tiruchelvam is a screenwriter and producer of narrative and documentary films. He is a 2014 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow. His feature screenwriting and producing debut, The Girl Is In Trouble, executive produced by Spike Lee, was a selection of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival’s All Access program, and will be released in 2015.
With producing partner Gerry Kim, Mayuran produced To Be Takei– a portrait of actor, activist and pop-culture maverick George Takei, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Mayuran is also producing the documentary Farewell, Ferris Wheel – an examination of the fading American carnival industry and its reliance on guest worker visas, which was funded by Latino Public Broadcasting and ITVS. For Ferris Wheel, he received a Film Independent Documentary Fellowship.
Mayuran has line produced independent feature films including The Mend, starring Josh Lucas and directed by John Magary, and Deniz Seviyesi, a Turkish-US production funded by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Mayuran’s short form productions, including Derby Kings, The Boundary, and Domestic have aired on HBO, PBS, and at festivals including the Los Angeles Film Festival, Starz Denver Festival, Palm Springs ShortsFest, Urban World, and Amnesty International Movies That Matter.
While earning an MFA at Columbia University’s Graduate Film School, Mayuran received the Arthur Krim Memorial Award for Excellence in Producing and the Entertainment Partners Best Producer Award. He served as a Fellow in Producing, Post-Production, and Television Writing. Mayuran earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He worked as a human rights observer in Latin America and a community organizer against the prison industrial complex in New York.
Savanna Washington received her M.F.A. in Directing from City College in New York. While attending City College she was awarded a Colin Powell Graduate Fellowship, the first filmmaker to be honored. As a community activist and activist educator, Savanna has used her life to effect change. Ms. Washington has over 15 years experience as a writer, director, and activist. As part of her activism, she was the Founding & Managing Editor of the Adams Avenue Herald, a community newspaper in San Diego. She was awarded a Puffin Grant for her film work on urban greening and was recently awarded a $25,000 grant from the Korean Issues & Insights Endowment for her current documentary, Playing Frisbee in North Korea.
She is currently an Assistant Professor at City University of New York, teaching Video Arts Production, Screenwriting, and Intro to Contemporary Media. She resides in Harlem.
The Asian American Film Lab (Film Lab) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to the promotion and support of gender and ethnic diversity in film and television through free monthly educational and outreach programming and the acclaimed annual 72 Hour Shootout filmmaking competition (www.asianamericanfilmlab.org) . This annual competition has inspired hundreds of filmmakers by helping nascent talent take brave steps towards a filmmaking career. The Film Lab was formed in 1998 by collaborative of New York-based filmmakers whose goals were to hone their craft and to share their knowledge, experience and resources. The membership has grown to comprise professionals, artists and other talented individuals who all share the common goal of creating great film and promoting all filmmakers of color, with a focus on Asian Americans, and the visibility of their stories and characters in film and television.
The Film Lab’s Unfinished Works program constitutes its longest running program, ongoing for 15 consecutive years. Unfinished Works allows writers to workshop, in a structured and constructive environment, unfinished plays, screenplays and television scripts.
The Film Lab is run under the direction of President Jennifer Betit Yen. The Unfinished Works program is coordinated through Lorna Nowve. Acting and Advisory Board members include Aaron Woolfolk, Eric Lin, Bea Soong, John Woo, Erik Lu, and James Kyson.
KAFFNY is the first and only film festival in New York City showcasing the diversity of Korean American and Korean diasporic perspectives in film. Since its inceptions in 2007 at the Anthology Film Archives, KAFFNY has continued to broaden its focus on emerging filmmakers to include international films by Korean and as well as non-Korean filmmakers.
