ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Asian Network of Documentary(AND) Fund
2010 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund
LIST Sea of Butterfly
| Category | Dong-Eui Cinema Fund |
|---|---|
| Project | Sea of Butterfly |
| Director | PARK Bae-il |
| Country | Korea |
| Director's Profile | Park Bae-il is currently working in an independent film group, Film More. Inspired by an old lady in his neighborhood, he made his first short documentary, Just Their Christmas (2007). An encounter with Jae-nyeon and Ou-young led his attention to physically challenged people and he directed The Way to Jeje in 2008. Park also directed 2008 Candlelight Story in Busan, a documentary about the candlelight vigil in 2008 to protest on the U.S. beef imports. Dreaming of a world without any discrimination against workers, women and the disabled, he is currently working on his next documentary, Sea of Butterfly. |
- Synopsis
- Jae-nyeon (aka. Jeje) and Ou-young (aka. old bloke) suffer from brain lesion disorder. This 7-year-old couple is making plans for the wedding. In our old patriarchal society, it has been women’s duty to do housework and raise children and men’s duty to make money and support their family. Jae-nyeon and Ou-young are choked by this traditional definition of gender role. In Korea, there should be a mother, a father and children in family and other forms of families are not easily accepted. Jae-nyeon lives in a group home system with other disabled members and they have their own role and contribute to their family in their own way. Jae-nyeon and Ou-young live a so-called abnormal life in Korea. Sea of Butterfly is a story about this couple who have been suffering from ineradicable prejudices and their life lying on the border between normality and abnormality.
- Director's Note
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Thinking it′s a radish field, she went down / Her little wings got soaked by waves / She became tired like a little princess
- Butterfly and Sea (a poem by KIM Ki Rim)
From birth, human beings are categorized as men and women, the disabled and the non-disabled. Under this dichotomy, people are no more equally different and they are divided into the superior and the inferior, even the normal and the abnormal. Men and the non-disabled defined themselves as normal to hold their prominent position. They created the ‘normal’ myth in which they manipulated their power to oppress, exclude and control the others. I hope Sea of Butterfly can be a new window which will show you the life of “the abnormal” that always has been screened out. And I do hope you will reflect on how this absurd distinction between the normal and the abnormal will affect our life.
- Festivals
- 2011 Busan International Film Festival - Wide Angle_Documentary Competition / BIFF Mecenat Award
- Still Cut
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