ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Asian Network of Documentary(AND) Fund
2024 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund
LIST Can I Talk to You?
| Category | Korean Project |
|---|---|
| Project | Can I Talk to You? |
| Director | YI Seungjun |
| Country | Korea |
| Director's Profile | Yi Seung-Jun and his films are widely known in South Korea, Asia, and internationally. Since 1999, his documentaries have been shown around the world and have won awards at prestigious film festivals. His short documentary, In the Absence (2018), was the first Korean documentary film nominated for an Academy Award in 2020, and won Grand Jury Awards at DOC NYC 2018 and AFI Docs Festival 2019. Planet of Snail (2011) was the first Asian film to win Best Feature-length Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2011. His recent films include Crossing Beyond (2018), official documentary of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; and Shadow Flowers (2019), winner of Best Korean Documentary at the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival 2019, and Grand Prize at Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival 2021 |
- Synopsis
-
Teenage boys and girls enter the juvenile courtroom one by one. They are given punishments ranging from Penalty No.1 to No.10, depending on the severity of their offense. Those who have committed minor offenses and receive a Penalty No.1 are sent to a social welfare facility where they must live in foster care. Girl 1 was sent to one such facility, where she must stay for 6 months under strict controls. Having grown up in an orphanage, she sheds tears, saying, "I′m most afraid of being abandoned." At present, 15 girls live at the facility. It is here that those girls, silent as they endured broken family relationships and the inability to fit in at school, begin to open up about their deepest secrets and fears. But life here is far from easy. Many of the girls in the facility are on medication for depression. Some of them break the rules, get into fistfights, or run away from the facility. Girl 2, who has already been tried for online gambling and prostitution, gets into more trouble, and will be sent into juvenile detention.
When their required 6 months are up, the facility offers the girls a chance to stay longer. It is up to each individual to decide. Girl 3 is afraid to go back to her old life and opts to stay. Girl 4 decides to return home, hoping to repair her relationship with her mother. Meanwhile, Girl 5 is just starting her life here, following her trial.
- Director’s Note / Intention
- South Korea is known as one of the most dynamic countries in the world. It is the land of BTS, semiconductors, and Squid Game (2021), but teenagers in this country are not happy. South Korea has one of the highest rates of youth suicide and child abuse in the world, and 20,000 young people drop out of school each year. They are crying out, but nothing changes. This world seems like a vacuum where their voices are never heard. What makes them so unhappy? What makes them anxious and depressed? Have we ever tried really listening to them? Listening is the beginning of empathy, and empathy drives change. I hope that Can I Talk to You? will be a portrait of anxious and depressed children, and a self-reflective confession for the adults who ignore their voices.
- Still Cut
-
