Lessons from Jeju

Vote Young Ones

In Jeju Province, located off the southern coast of Korea, are the women of the sea, those who hold breath for life. These women still exist and they still dive the old way, without tanks. They go into the waters of 10- to 20-meter depth to harvest seaweed and shellfish to make a living. They make a living in the same sea, but each haenyeo’s sea of life is different. The community is divided into three tiers- Group A, B and C, based on skills and capabilities. One’s rank is determined by sum or breath. Sum, is pre-determined at birth. Therefore, sum is desired. However, the ocean is harsh. May you desire! But seek what is not yours, the ocean will devour you. Life, for these women of the sea, is about holding one’s breath, and containing and controlling one’s desire. The film is a six year record of the lives of the haenyeos in Udo, an islet in the province of Jeju, known to be the birthplace of haenyeo. It is a close look into the lives that stand on the boundary of life and death.

Gangjeong Village, located at the southernmost part of Jeju Island's Seogwipo City, is in the true sense a 'breathtaking land of water.' In this film, eight directors independently yet collaboratively orchestrate a clever and humorous "mission" at this place where the groundwork for building a naval military base is in progress.

In an abandoned resort on the South Korean island of Jeju, a group of people perform a symbolic funeral ritual to end a world built on hierarchies, division and destruction.

If you look into the entrance of one of the huge caves on the Korean island of Jeju, it looks like a camera lens. If you walk into the cave, it looks like a screen, a rectangle showing clouds and white light, just like a film. Director Kim Minjung delves into the bloody history of Jeju, where tens of thousands were killed in a massacre in 1948. The camera follows the traces in the landscape, sometimes transformed by a strident, distance-creating red light, accompanied by a commentary by avant-garde filmmaker Hollis Frampton. Film as a means to address history and its taboos.

Battling deep depression, Jaeyoun returns to her roots on the island of Marano, South Korea, to visit her family of female free fivers known as haenyeo. To her surprise, she finds a connection to nature and her ancestors that literally saves her life.

Focusing on Mrs. Kang Sang-hee’s life, she lost her husband in the Jeju Uprising (March 3rd, 1948). The film views the dark-side of Jeju Island, a huge grave, which is completely opposite of the other side of the island, the famous tourist attraction. It says that the tragedy has been going on about the recent Gang-jeong village situation.

Their Own Ways

Jeju-do is the largest of Korean islands and lies between Korea and Japan. There, for hundreds of years, women dive without breathing apparatus, to the ocean floor and collect shellfish, octopus, and urchins that they sell. The divers are in their sixties and seventies and their daughters do not want to inherit their work, lifestyle, and health problems that go with diving. As a filmmaker I was privileged to meet many of these women and dive with them. Their stories of hardship and pride confirmed my desire to record this unique and ancient tradition.

Hot Pink Dolphins

Hyun Soonjik is the oldest living resident in Jeju Island. A natural diver with good skills, she became a high rank Haenyeo at an early age and has led an astonishing career of diving for eighty-seven years. Though she looks more comfortable when she is under water than when she is at home, she quit diving in October, 2020, and goes to sea every day, missing her old life as a diver. When she does, Chae Jiae who has been disciplined by Hyun, accompanies her and looks after her. Together they head for Deulmoolyeo, a place that only Hyun can find, to see the water flowers that bloom under water.

There are five grandmothers, four of whom went to Jeonju Prison due to the Jeju 4.3. All of them were young people around the age of 20 at the time of the incident in 1948. The outline of the incident is formed when hearing the experiences of those who were sent to prison without trial particularly as women. The audience feels indescribable emotions by the fact that they have lived on despite what they had gone through, things that are just too much for a human being to bear.

On the shores of Jeju Island, a fierce group of South Korean divers fight to save their vanishing culture from looming threats.

Immediately after liberation, an incident called 'Jeju Uprising' took place on Jeju Island, the Hawaii of Korea, under the control of the US military government. As a result, about one-tenth of the total population of the island at that time was sacrificed. The children who survived the massacre record the memories of that day in an animated film 70 years later.

The film shows demonstrations against building the second airport in Jeju Island the performances of environmentalists very closely and in detail, by which it develops a desperate love story.

This is a record of people who face up to the big change.

A director, a cinematographer, and an actress spend the days leading up to a movie shoot together on-location, waiting for the director to come up with an idea for what the film will be about.

The sudden death of her mother brings Myung-eun back home to Jeju island. There she meets her estranged sister Myung-ju and Myung-ju's daughter Seung-ah, still living at their old home, and Hyun-ah who has lived with them for over 20 years like a relative. A career woman whose hard exterior masks her illegitimacy and abandonment issues, Myung-eun tells Hyun-ah she wants to start looking for her father after the funeral. Single-minded in her desire to dig up memories of her father and discover why he left, Myung-eun resents that Myung-ju, who like their mother is a carefree fish trader and an unmarried mother of a young daughter, seemingly doesn't care. At first Myung-ju is reluctant to accompany Myung-eun, but after Hyun-ah persuades her, guilt and her sense of duty as an older sibling prevails. And so the two sisters who are dissimilar in character...

Yong-pil gives up his dream of becoming a singer after an accident at a village in Jeju-do. This film depicts the hilarious conflict among Yong-pil, Bbong-ttol, dancer Kim, and Samchuni who follow him and the routine lives of villagers.

Three retired K-pop idols take a trip to Jeju Island. After failed careers and missed school trips, they finally have the time to go on a trip on their own. On their first day on the island, things start to go awry.