ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Asian Network of Documentary(AND) Fund
2015 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund
LIST Old Marine Boy (aka. The Stranger)
| Category | BIFF Mecenat Fund |
|---|---|
| Project | Old Marine Boy (aka. The Stranger) |
| Director | JIN Moyoung |
| Country | Korea |
| Director's Profile | JIN started his career in broadcasting and now works as a documentary filmmaker. In 2012, he felt the limitations in Korean broadcasting that were result of outsourcing production; subsequently, he then entered the global market with his own copyright video content. In 2013, he worked as a producer of SHIVA, Throw Your Life directed by the late Director LEE Seong-gyou. His feature length documentary My Love, Don’t Cross That River (2014) has been screened in at 15 international festivals and received a number of awards, including the Audience Award from DMZ International Documentary Festival, Special Award of the Jury from Millenium International Documentary Film Festival, Grand Angle from Visions du Reel, TOP 10 Audience Favorite from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Documentary Prize from LA Film Festival Documentary Competition. |
- Synopsis
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Nine years ago, PARK Myongho sailed in the darkness of the West Sea and crossed the border with his family. Living as a meoguri in Daejin Harbor in Gangwon Province, PARK is a hard worker and branded as a successful North Korean defector.
After three years of hard work, he bought his own house. After another two years, he owned a boat and finally, with another two years of work, opened a raw fish restaurant. His family seems to have settled down and their business seems to be booming. His success was the result of his desperate effort not to become a stranger in the South and survive as a meoguri. For the past decade, the number of meoguri boats has decreased from around 30 to only five because the meoguris died in accidents or became disabled and left the harbor because of diving disease. PARK knows it, too, that it can happen to him anytime.
PARK opened a restaurant to support his family because he knew an accident could happen anytime, he made his son the captain because he knew that he would protect his life more than anyone. PARK even called in his son’s friend (who is also a North Korean defector) to work on the boat so that this son does not leave town. In addition, he is now trying to marry them to brides from Uzbekistan for them to settle down. PARK is doing everything to protect his family on the rocky boat of South Korean society.
- Director's Note
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South Korea is a land of opportunity but at the same time a land of hardships for third world migrant workers. Pathetic Asians depicted in Hollywood films are also pathetic to South Koreans. Then what about North Koreans? Especially “defectors” who escaped North Korea and want to live in the South?
PARK Myung-ho came from Ongjin-gun, Hwanghaenam-do, in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He served as a professional soldier for twenty years in an air force military engineering unit. Now he is called a “North Korean defector” in the South. Through the lives of PARK Myung-ho and his family, I would like to confront the bare face of the discriminative attitudes that our society takes against migrants
- Festivals
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2017 DMZ International Documentary Film Festival
2017 Helsinki International Film Festival - Sneak Preview
2018 SALEM FILM FEST
2018 VISION DU REEL - GRAND Angle
2018 Moscow International Film Festival - Documentary International Competition
2018 Korea International Ocean Film Festival
- Still Cut
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