The Seoul Cinematheque is one of Korea’s greatest cultural resources in a country where pop-cinema has a virtual monopoly on public screens. Since 2002, the Seoul Art cinema, has screened over 3000 films from 40 different countries under its mandate exhibit the best of world cinema. In its seven year history there have been 200 retrospectives one some of the world’s best filmmakers including, most recently, Sri Lanka’s Dharamsena Pathiraja and Nouvelle Vague founding member Jean-Luc Goddard.


The Seoul Art Cinema is one of fifteen cinematheques in the Korea Association of Cinematheques with theaters and clubs in cites as far off as Daegu and Gwangju. Most are small groups of people who meet at universities and small theaters to watch and discuss films. In Seoul groups like Film Forum hold events and lectures almost exclusively in Korean.

Despite many of the resources being out of reach to those who don’t speak Korean (including the schedule, although the names are in English) most of the films they screen are in English or have English subtitles. To know which ones are subtitled, find the schedule for the programme and look for a small “e” in a circle next to the name of the film like this “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg ⓔ.”

The Seoul Art Cinema is located in Insadong. near exit 5 of Chongno-3(sam)-ga subway station, on lines number 1, 3 and 5 (5 is the closest). Keep straight after coming up the stairs of exit 5 and go under the overpass you should see film posters on your left. The box office is on the fourth floor.

Check the Film section of The One One Four regularly for information on upcoming retrospectives and programmes and for information in English on what’s happening at the Cinematheque. Next week we will be looking at the Daegu branch of the K.A.C.T in Gyodong’s Dongseong Art Hall

Printable Korean taxi directions

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