The Milano Korean Film Festival, which will be inaugurated on November 23rd in Milan, will provide to all its visitors the opportunity of meeting big names of the Korean cinema scene, such as Park Jung-Bum, Director of The Journal of Musan and Height of the Wave, or Lee Sang-Young, an important critic and creator of the Jeonju International Film Festival, but also the possibility to discover new Korean talents and their short films.
Italcinema, the organizer of the event, chose the city of Milan precisely because of the important role it plays in the cultural and artistic network of Italy and Europe. An importance that Milano Genius continually tries to support through its projects. But in particular, Milano Genius aims to enhance the creativity and genius of local artists in international relations and cultural exchanges. And in fact the Milan Korean Film Festival will also be the first phase of a project that will coordinate profitable influences and suggestions between young Korean directors and young Italian directors.
There is indeed within the MKFF, the project “Korea comes to Milano” and it is one of the most awaited moment of the entire festival. On November 23rd, young Korean directors, selected among the participants of the “Italcinema Short Korean Films Go To Europe” competition, will have the opportunity to show their first works to an international audience and build a first exchange contact with an audience of different tastes and needs .
This is a theme that Asian Studies Group, Co-organizer of the MKFF, hold dear. In fact ASG has created a similar format named “Swich on your Creativity” (SOYC) with the aim to support and enhance Italian youth creativity, also through the creation of opportunities for international comparison. Therefore, as we will have the occasion to discover the creative short films of young Korean directors, the same will happen in Korea, one year from now, during the Italian Film & Art Festival in Seoul. On this last occasion, however, they will be young Italian directors who will have the opportunity to dialogue with a Korean public by showing their first short films.
The idea that aims these two projects, Korea Comes to Milano and Switch on Your Creativity, is to provide the chance to extend the experience and the reputation of these directors not exclusively in their motherland, but also abroad. Moreover, one of the most interesting thing is that in this way it will be possible to listen to different generations thorough an artistic point of view. Obviously, it will be the perfect occasion not to be missed for attending an inimitable form of cultural exchange, without any language barrier.
It is precisely the continual creation of opportunities and international ties that will lead Milan to stand out as one of the most important poles in Italian and European culture and art.
But the artistic exchanges on the occasion of the MKFF will be further reinforced by the presence of the Director Park JungBum who will present two of his masterpieces including Journal of Musan which made him famous and winner of several awards and Height of the Wave, his latest work and already winner of the Locarno Film Festival. At the conclusion of the screenings, moreover, Park JungBum will participate in a Talk together with the critic Lee Sang-Yong.
This represents an important opportunity to dialogue directly with the director on some of the themes, of which his films are witnesses, most discussed in Italy and Europe. Journal of Musan and Height of the Wave touch the difficulty of cultural intercommunication in a vivid and often crude way. It will therefore be interesting to be able to grasp nuances and suggestions coming from a culture and an environment different from the European one but that so closely resemble situations constantly documented in our mass media. The debate on the theme of the encounter/clash between different cultures can therefore only be enriched by suggestions coming from outside our cultural core.
Milan introduces itself, through the MKFF, an important pole of orientation of dynamics and international relations having as objective not only the creation of commercial connectivity but also, and above all to create new debating and discussion tables through the presentation of different opinions and points of view.
Milano Genius 2021 