ACF - Asian Cinema Fund

2014 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund

LIST The Children in Blue

Synopsis

On October 16, 1984, a young brother and his sister who look to be around 10 years old are sitting at a police station in Dongkwang-dong, Busan. With a bag of chips in their hands, they have an innocent look that suggests they are waiting for their parents. After a while, a black truck arrives and the children are taken away by force on the authority of a statement upon which is written ′At the request of Dongkwang Police Station′. The truck drives around Busan city all night long picking up various people, such as a homeless person and a drunk who are both in a similar situation. They arrive at Hyeongjae Welfare Center, located on a hill in Jurye-dong, in the Sasang-gu area.
Han Jong-seon is in his early forties and lives on welfare. Every month, he visits his older sister and his father at a mental hospital in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang province. In order to heal the wounds of having been deprived of his childhood, he frequently meets with people who are in a similar situation. This is all because of what happened 30 years ago; events which totally changed the course of his whole life.

Director's Note

As in the 1987 case of the Hyeongjae Welfare Center in Busan, in these stories that are repeated and then forgotten, there always appear ′those without a share.
′ When talking about the act of isolating those who lack the ability to contribute to the development of society in a place far away from the city, the act of locking them up at times, could it be that there was a tacit agreement that went beyond state violence? Through the Hyeongjae Welfare Center case, The Children in Blue aims to uncover not only the violence committed by the government, but ultimately to expose the long-held discrimination prevalent in our society towards ′those without a share.′

Festivals

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