A Look at Various Moments during the Migrant Worker Film Festival in the Local Theaters

[A Look at Various Moments during the Migrant Worker Film Festival in the Local Theaters]

◀ ANC ▶
The 5th Migrant Worker Film Festival, titled, "From Shadows to Human Beings," came to a close with screenings in Puch'on on October 17th. Let us look at the course of the film festival, lasting 44days, that began in Seoul on September 4th and traveled to Masok, Kimpo, P'och'on, Koyang, Ansan and then to Puch'on.

◀ VCR ▶
Those who were advertising the Migrant Worker Film Festival were busily making rounds in every corner of the Masok Industrial Complex. Migrants began to take interest in the festival as they took a closer look at the leaflets on the Festival. The screenings in provinces outside of Seoul began in Masok.

At dusk, migrant workers began to gather one by one at the Shalom House where the Festival was being held. As the passionate performances of migrants started, the auditorium became filled with warm excitement.

As the screening of films made by migrant workers began, the atmosphere turned solemn. It was because the films vividly portrayed many difficulties that migrant workers experience such as delayed wages, problems with the Work Permit System, and the terrible housing conditions.

◀ INTERVIEW ▶
[An audience member at the Festival] 28:47
All film festivals change peoples' conceptions of real-world perceptions and conveys the truth of people.

◀ VCR ▶
The Migrant Worker Film Festival held in Koyang, after Kimpo and P'och'on, was a very special occasion for female migrants. As the films showed the difficulties that they experience, rising from cultural differences, we could hear frustrated and anxious sighs coming from the audience everywhere in the auditorium. The film, "The Perm," generated a particularly heated response. When a scene where a Korean mother-in-law forced her Vietnamese daughter-in-law to get a perm at a hair salon came on, many audience members were moved to tears.


◀ INTERVIEW ▶
[An audience member at the Festival] 36:38
A similar situation was faced in which confronting a Korean mother-in-law was labored due to limited communication.

◀ VCR ▶
The closing ceremony for the Migrant Worker Film Festival held in Puch'on had even more plentiful offerings as it was accompanied by a multicultural festival. The Migrant Worker Film Festival enables us to vividly hear the voices of migrants. Both migrants and Koreans who watched the films at the festival agreed that they hope that even more people would be able to understand one another via the medium of film. However, the film festival is not yet well-known outside of the migrant worker community.

◀ INTERVIEW ▶
[Monica / from Bangladesh] 33:30
Curious of the hardships faced by her friends, Monica hopes that Koreans may stop and think about their perceptions and how they differ from reality. Everyone should be friends.

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News & Politics

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