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15th DMZ Docs(2023)

I AM DOCU



Ten Wells

KIM Mirye

  • Korea
  • 2023
  • 82min
  • 12 +
  • DCP
  • color/black and white

World Premiere

Synopsis

In the 1980s, Kim Hyunsook was an integral part of a collective of young women activists who focused their efforts on fighting urban poverty in some of Incheon's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. These women not only lived in these communities but also worked alongside the urban underprivileged. She introduced me to some of her former colleagues from that era. Thus, I began this film journey by visiting Ahn Soonae, a close confidante and associate of Kim's, whom Kim affectionately described as ¡®a foul-mouthed woman with a huge ass.¡¯ Soon after, I had the privilege of meeting other members of the collective, now elderly women in their 60s.

Review

Like the previous documentary, East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front (2019), Director Kim Mirye once again discovers people who have been shunned or expelled from history. Ten Wells follows the traces of female activists who participated in the movements for the poor and laborers in the 1970s and 1980s near Manseok-dong, Incheon. In the course, Kim ultimately finds the history of the ¡°Daycare Movement¡± which served as the basis for commitment to the movements. The documentary film takes a form of dialogue and it travels past and present to testify and comment on how lesser-known people who led the daycare movement lived or live now. In Ten Wells, various expressive elements, such as interview, archive data, scenery image, and director¡¯s narration respond to each other to create meaning and context. Each element also speaks, asks, and answers about other elements. Ten Wells is full of women¡¯s energy and its all expressive elements are dedicated to the lives of women who were quiet but groundbreaking. The changes in the neighborhood bookstore, farming village, factory, poor village, apartment house, and nature link the present and past of the characters. The transition from interview and archiving to space and scenery shots and from space and scenery to different elements organically connects scattered people, memories, and lives to achieve completeness in composition. 

Director

  • KIM Mirye

    Born in 1964 in Chungcheongbuk-do, Kim has directed six feature documentaries, including her debut feature We Are Workers or Not? (2003), which has been showcased at both Korean and international film festivals. We Are Workers or Not? (2003) received the Documentary Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival, while Sanda (2013) was honored with the Korean Documentary Award at the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival.

Credit