Washington Event Showcases Debut Works and Films with International Focus 

The Korean Film Festival DC has returned for its 2021 edition. Presented by the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, the event opened its doors on May 7 and will screen nine films until June 6.

This year’s edition is split into two distinct programs, ‘Debuts’ and ‘Korea and the World’. Films in the former program will be available to stream from May 7 to 23, while the titles in the latter section will be made available from May 21 to June 6.

Focusing on first-time filmmakers, ‘Debuts’ includes four titles: AHN Ju-young’s A Boy and Sungreen (2019), KIM Do-young’s KIM JI-YOUNG, BORN 1982 (2019), KIM Cho-hee’s Lucky Chan-sil (2019), and YUN Dan-bi’s Moving On (2020). In addition to being debut works, these four acclaimed titles were all helmed by women. 

The ‘Korea and the World’ program include five titles: LEE Jae-kyoo’s Intimate Strangers (2018), NAM Yeon-woo’s Jazzy Misfits (2019), The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin (2019) from KIM Dong-ryung and PARK Kyoung-tae, LEE Jong-pil’s SAMJIN COMPANY ENGLISH CLASS (2020) and KIM Tai-sik’s Sunshine Family (2019). 

Intimate Strangers is a remake of the Italian work Perfect Strangers, Jazzy Misfits takes place in the multicultural Itaewon district, The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin explores how a woman’s life is impacted by a US army base, and SAMJIN COMPANY ENGLISH CLASS features a cast of characters learning English who then become embroiled in a case of international corporate intrigue. Finally, Sunshine Family is a Korean-Filipino co-production, shot in Korea and featuring Filipino stars in the lead.