Community backs independent film on Jeju shamans

Giuseppe Rositano, left, interviews a follower of Jeju’s shaman tradition. / Courtesy of Natasha Mistry

By Tracie Barrett

Guiseppe (Joey) Rositano is a perfect example of what community support can achieve. The first-time documentary maker recently had post-production costs for his first film, on Jeju’s traditional shamans, crowd-funded in only 12 days.

Rositano has lived on Jeju Island for almost seven years, during which he has learned the local dialect and became aware of the rich spiritual history of Korea’s southern resort island.

Over the course of 18 months, he and a team of helpers have accumulated more than 500 hours of interviews, ceremonies and traditional stories of a heritage in danger of becoming obsolete, focusing on five villages.

“For each village, I would get a couple of foreign friends and a couple of Korean friends to join me,” he said. “Quite a few of them, especially the Koreans, got really into it. They would call me up wanting to know the next time we were going out to film.”

To fund post-production, Rositano put together a proposal for a crowd-funding proposal for the Kickstarter website, promising rewards such as digital stills, film downloads and karmic gratitude.

The close-knit Jeju community came on board, not only donating but sharing the Kickstarter link with their friends on other social networking sites. His $4,000 goal was exceeded quickly, and long-time Jeju resident Fred Dustin, owner of the Kimnyeong Maze Park and a well-known philanthropist, offered further support for promotional costs.

The Jeju community, currently residing on Jeju and abroad, has been essential in the development of the film and now the fundraising,” Rositano said. “The fact that we overcame the goal in 12 active days shows the close-knit nature of the island and people's willingness to help out a good cause. I am overwhelmed by their ongoing support. It's not a passive form of support either, but a very active one.”

Dustin’s added support will allow Rositano to work on post-production full-time, and work to get his documentary distributed and shown at film festivals.

Dustin, a former professor of tourism, said his support is to keep the Jeju dialect and the recorded interviews available for future generations of young scholars.

Rositano said he already has a full edit of the film that runs to about two hours but now needs to cut that to about 90 minutes.

“After that, it will be time to start thinking about film festivals and how to get it out beyond Jeju,”he said.

Judging from his success thus far, he looks likely to achieve that.