Festival Director
JUNG Sangjin
I send my greetings to you, documentary filmmakers, film professionals, and documentary lovers.
In April this year, I assumed the important position of festival director of DMZ International Documentary Film Festival,
and worked along with our staff to prepare for the 12th film festival. But as the advent of COVID-19 has drastically changed our society,
the film festival established a step-by-step operation plan accordingly, yet its spread is still unpredictable.
More than the regular opening of the film festival,
every guest and visitor¡¯s health and safety were and are our ultimate priority.
Therefore, we had to make an inevitable decision to cancel all outdoor screenings and events,
and to limit the number of theater audience.
Moreover, we¡¯ve turned our forums and DMZ Industry events online. For the past 11 years,
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival has not forgotten its social role and responsibility to revitalize the documentary industry by expanding its base and supporting its production,
and has been striving to do so. Above all, due to the nature of the documentary genre, which is difficult to screen in domestic theaters,
we thought that the role of the film festival was to provide opportunities to many documentary filmmakers who tried hard to screen in theaters before the film festival entry.
But this time, we¡¯re sorry that we¡¯ve unfortunately invited a limited number of directors, invited guests, and industry officials.
To countermeasure the ongoing COVID-19 situation,
this year¡¯s DMZ International Documentary Film Festival has strengthen its overall contents and also prepared online content to meet the audience non-face-to-face-this also reflects the concerns
about the future direction of the film festival in this COVID era.
We¡¯ll expand the contact point with the audience by revitalizing the ¡°Doc School¡±, a documentary training program for teenagers,
and ¡°Docu&joy, DMZ Online Cinema,¡± a program that screens documentaries online.
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival promises to make every effort to grow as a film festival that Gyeonggi residents can love and boast about.
In addition,
I am confident that the achievements of ¡°DMZ Industry¡±, a documentary support platform for documentary filmmakers,
and the newly launched ¡°Good Pitch¡± will serve as an opportunity for a pivotal change in promoting Korean documentaries to the world. We ask for your interest and encouragement.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the documentary filmmakers who did not spare any support and encouragement for the film festival to be held even in these difficult times,
as well as Gyeonggi Province, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korean Film Council, Goyang City, and Paju City.
Thank you.