Festival explores new media films and how they might be improved

The New Media Festival in Seoul opened on Friday and continues until Nov.25 in venues in Hongdae including popular dance clubs and cafes.
The festival, which is in its sixth year, has the theme of “Flying Media, Cooking Sensibility.”
The festival changed its name two years ago. It had previously been called the Indie Video Festival, which introduced promising directors including Ryu Seung-wan, who filmed Dachimawa Lee in 1998.
It also expanded from simply introducing independent films from around the world to exploring the definition of new media and the possibility of what it could do with different tools, according to a press statement released by Igong, the company organizing the event.
Sponsors include The Korean Culture Ministry, online portal company Naver and Art Council Korea.
Among the programs offered during the festival, one called “NEMA of Artworks” (NEMA is an abbreviated version of the festival name) features 49 works including documentaries, animation, digital films and experimental videos. The works were selected from a pool of applications.
The films are placed in different categories according to the subject they deal with. For example, one of the categories is life and death subjects while another theme is social and political issues.
The running length of the works range from less than two minutes to as long as 100 minutes.
An animated film by Kim Hee-jung uses comedy to criticize Korea’s nationalism through a character in a cape, all in under two minutes.
In another program, the festival accepted the submission of 52 visual works that were in global media art archives of various institutes or had appeared in international media art festivals, including those shown at a festival in Japan earlier this year.
Unlike the “NEMA of Artworks” program, which consists mainly of works by Korean artists and directors alongside a few Japanese and Taiwanese artists, the invitation project includes works by artists from all over the the world, including the United States, Canada and Europe.
“NEMA of Playground” is an interactive program using video, radio and the Internet.
The festival will also hold a workshop on feminist media activist education called “Girlfriends’ Media Power!”
More information on the festival can be found on its Website at www.nemaf.net.

by Lee Ho-jeong