JEONJU International Film Festival (JEONJU IFF, Festival Director LEE Joondong), which has introduced alternative trends of contemporary cinema and posed various discussions, celebrates its 21st anniversary and presents “Special Focus ´KBS Collection: Audience Engagement´” to showcase the new format experiments of Korean broadcast documentaries.

Last year, JEONJU IFF diverged from its traditional film screening style through exhibitions and VR cinema programs and attempted to expand films as a media art. This year, based on questions about the roles and solutions that a film festival can present in this rapidly changing media platform era, Special Focus ´KBS Collection: Audience Engagement´ was planned.

Special Focus ´KBS Collection: Audience Engagement´ is a reconstructed version of KBS Archive Project Modern Korea, which was introduced on TV with 6 episodes from the second half of 2019 until the first half of 2020. With a unique perspective of JEONJU IFF, there will be screening of all three parts: Our Only Wish by director LEE Taewoong and Dynasty by director JEON Jin reveal the relationship between Politics and Sports; Great Expectations by director YOUM Jisun and We Built This City: Sampoong by director GU Sangmo deal with the Breakdown of Success Story; and The Test of Your Life: Birth of K-SAT by director JEUN Ahyoung and Rapture: The Day They Vanished by director LEEM Jongyoun explicitly show the Pursuit of Uprise.

These films have reconstructed important issues of Korean society into various layers by actively utilizing the extensive archived videos kept by KBS since its foundation. They overcome the possibly somber mood by the historical weight of each episode with satirical images and brilliant composition. The style of each episode created by the daring typography of designer KIMM Kijo and the retro music by DJ Soulscape are also important elements that go beyond the conventional TV documentary.

Programmer Sung MOON expressed the purpose, “The films invited for this year’s Special Focus connect time by rearranging the past and present and construct the narrative by combining images of various genres such as drama, entertainment, and news. This year, JEONJU IFF will once again reflect on the challenging attempts of KBS’s Modern Korea to look back on the true nature of Korean society. Moreover, we will provide sessions where directors and producers can have deep conversations about the social, political, and cultural implications of their works to find clues through a community experience.”

Special Focus ´KBS Collection: Audience Engagement´ will be shown on the long-term screenings, which JEONJU IFF is rearranging due to COVID-19 pandemic. Talk programs with related filmmakers also will be held in this period. Meanwhile, KBS will re-air Modern Korea from May 28 on KBS 1TV to celebrate the invitation from JEONJU IFF.