7 pioneering female directors to be featured at Jeonju film festival

Cecilia Mangini, an Italian documentary filmmaker, is one of the seven female directors whose works will be screened during Jeongju International Film Festival from April 29 to May 8. Courtesy of Jeonju International Film Festival

By Yi Whan-woo

Seven pioneering female directors from around the world will be highlighted in this year's Jeonju International Film Festival, according to the festival organizer.

The seven are Cecilia Mangini of Italy, Forough Farrokhzad of Iran, Han Ok-hi of Korea, Barbara Loden and Cheryl Dunye, both from the United States, Anna Karina of France and Albertina Carri of Argentina.

A total of 15 selected films made by the directors will be showcased under the theme, “Special Focus: I am Independent,” during the festival to be held in Jeonju from April 29 to May 8.

The organizing committee announced their names this week in celebration of the U.N.-designated International Women's Day, March 8, for women's rights and empowerment.

“The works of those directors, despite their values, were not widely available for screening or thoroughly discussed when they were made because of women's status, customs and other social factors at that time,” the committee said in a press release.

It said the directors, through their 15 films, “relentlessly rose to the challenges,” such as experimenting in new cinematic formats, dealing with issues that are considered taboo in society, and focusing on the underprivileged and minority groups.

“We hope their films will help write a new history in cinema,” the committee added.

A pioneering female documentary filmmaker in Italy, Mangini dealt with problems caused by urban development, the connection between religion and racism, and the harsh reality faced by women and workers, among others, in her films.

She made her debut with “Unknown to the City” (1958). It will be screened with five others that she directed between the 1960s and 1970s ― “Maria's Days,” “Stendali” (Still They Toll), “The Marshes' Chant,” “Being Women” and “The Bridle on the Neck.”

Farrokhzad, through her only film, “The House is Black” (1962), criticized a closed Iranian society through displaying the everyday life of lepers with whom she stayed for 12 days.

Han, in the time of the dictatorial regime of Park Chung-hee, advocated resistance movements and cinematic experiments as witnessed in her four short films in the 1970s ― “The Hole,” “The Middle Dogs Day,” “Colour Of Korea” and “Untitled 77-A.”

Director Han Ok-hi advocated the pro-democracy movement during the dictatorial regime of Park Chung-hee in the 1970s. Courtesy of Jeonju International Film Festival

A Tony Award-winning actress, Loden directed and also starred in the title role of “Wanda” (1970) that focuses on an apathetic woman with limited options who inadvertently goes on the run with a bank robber.

Dunye, a Black woman and a lesbian, explored the history of Black lesbians in her feature debut, “The Watermelon Woman” (1996).

A muse of French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s, Karina made her directorial debut with “Living Together” (1973). It is about a love affair between a free-spirited young woman and a male history teacher that leads to drug abuse and domestic violence. It was screened at the 26th Cannes Film Festival.

Carri focuses on her parents who were abducted during the last military dictatorship in Argentina in her documentary, “The Blonds” (2003).