9th Korean Refugee Film Festival kicks off Saturday in Seoul
Youn Geun-hyu, secretariat of KOREFF and head administration officer at the Advocates for Public Interest Law Center (APIL), poses at APIL's office in Seoul, June 14. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
By Bereket Alemayehu
The 9th edition of the Korea Refugee Film Festival (KOREFF) kicks off this Saturday at CGV Apgujeong in southern Seoul, with screenings of four major films made in Korea and Europe on refugee issues.
Youn Geun-hyu, secretariat of KOREFF and head administration officer at the Advocates for Public Interest Law Center (APIL), told The Korea Times that KOREFF is a nonprofit human rights film festival held in solidarity with refugees. And the festival aims to reach out to citizens in commemoration of World Refugee Day on June 20, established by the United Nations. It is one of the official annual events of the Refugee Human Rights Network, a coalition of Korean refugee human rights organizations. It has been held every year since 2015.
The local human rights coalition presents this year's KOREFF, together with the Permanent Mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Korea, which acts as the co-host.
With the film festival, the organizers aim to challenge misunderstandings and prejudices about refugees and encourage coexistence. The organizers hope that citizens will be able to see the stories of refugees as life rather than news or events.
"Starting with the 1st Refugee Film Festival in 2015, we have been aware of the misconceptions and prejudices about our neighbors and aim for coexistence with refugees. Through the medium of film, which unites people living with different temperatures and expressions as a community, we want to let people know that refugees are another me today and that we can be different tomorrow," Youn said.
“Our main purpose in organizing the festival is to raise awareness in Korean society by telling the audience it is possible to live in coexistence. Understanding refugee issues is important — comparing public interest in the issues since the first festival, we are making satisfactory progress. People are hearing our plights. In addition to raising public awareness, it’s greatly helping bring changes in the Korean legal system as well.”
Asked how the films are selected, he said, "We're considering a lot of things. For example, whether it's related to global refugee and migration issues, or to Korea, or whether it's a movie that kids can watch together. Of course, we're considering more things as well."
The poster for the 9th Korea Refugee Film Festival (KOREFF) / Courtesy of KOREFF
Among the featured films, the recently released documentary “Youth,” directed by Paul Wu, describes that while Korea is facing the crisis of an aging society, today's youth represent the future of the country and its standing in the world. The film asks young people from different backgrounds living in Korea about their lives and futures, and also about their attitudes toward refugees and foreigners.
This year’s film festival carries the theme “Today's Me, Tomorrow's We.”
"There's a refugee in all of us who fear not being understood," according to a written description explaining the theme. "In a time when individual struggles are treated as generational selfishness, we feel more alone than ever. Among us who feel lonely for fear of not being understood — or worse, of being treated as the odd one out — are refugees who have fled their homes due to war and persecution and settled in Korea. Because the word 'refugee' is so foreign to us, we have gradually widened the gap between us and them. We wish to convey the message that we should no longer isolate ourselves from each other. When we step out of our own shadows and reach out to each other, the 'me' who is alone today can become 'we' with refugees tomorrow."
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According to the U.N. Refugee Agency website, World Refugee Day is an international day organized every June 20 to celebrate and honor refugees from around the world. The day was first established on June 20, 2001, in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
In addition to featuring selected films, the festival also serves as a platform where organizations, human rights advocacy groups, refugee-led initiatives and multicultural communities unite to promote their projects by hosting side events and cultural activities.
The film festival will be held on the third floor of the CGV Apgujeong main building. The doors open at 10 a.m. and an opening ceremony kicks things off at 11 a.m. The last film ends at 6 p.m.
Visit koreff.org for more information.
Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He's also the co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative, and freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.