ACF Asian Cinema Fund

Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund

2024 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund

LIST Waterfull Paradise
Category Korean Project
Project Waterfull Paradise
Director KIM Sungeun
Country Korea
Director's Profile Sungeun Grace Kim is a researcher in visual anthropology, media artist and filmmaker living in Jeju Island. They explore the possibilities of care and collaboration through camera-mediated relationships, body movements and active memory. Their feature-length documentaries include The Memory of the 25th Hour (2017) and Map without Island (2021).
Synopsis
There is an invisible world of water beneath the hard surface of urban sprawl. We follow the trajectory of water as it penetrates the surface of the earth and heads underground, falling into water’s timeframe, as it ignores and breaches the boundaries created by humans. Isn′t the groundwater that we now drink a testimony to the history experienced by the island? The plan to make the island a paradise was initiated simultaneously alongside management of the spring water, a scarcity which is considered precious by the indigenous islanders and the subject of worship. The way in which the ground water is considered as a resource intersects with the way the culture of the islanders and its ecosystems are treated as bait for tourism. What and who have drawn the boundaries determining what is inside or outside of paradise?
Director's Note
Was the development of an island paradise really for the benefit of the islanders? Can we convince the local residents of the importance of environmental conservation and a sustainable future over their dreams of an urban life style through development? Since we must do something, at this point in time, when environmental disaster and global extinction loom on the horizon, one possibility is to look at this reality through the lens and medium of ′ground water′. This is also an attempt to connect the climate crisis to a more visceral, physical, personal experience, as well as to expand the timescale beyond that of humans to include things such as water. I am trying to transfer the temporality of the water that flows, connecting my body and the bodies of others, the interior of the island and the world outside, on to film.
Still Cut
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