The Jeonju film festival opens this evening with the world premiere of Park Jin-oh’s SHOULD’VE KISSED, with the first full day of screening starting tomorrow and continuing until next Friday. Jeonju is my personal favorite of Korea’s film festivals, partly because of its focus on film aesthetics over commerce, and also because of the smaller scale of both the festival and city, which gives it a charm absent from the larger Busan festival. This will be my third year attending, and I will be able to take in 4 full days of screenings: Saturday and Sunday and then Wednesday and Thursday of next week. A note that if you are planning on attending this weekend, tickets will be difficult to come by if you haven’t already reserved. You can get rush tickets every morning, but they sell out fast. There are, however, screenings at the large auditorium at Chonbuk National University, which usually can accommodate last minute buyers, and if you’re a night owl you can check out the midnight screenings that run into the next morning. If you are attending during the week, tickets are easier to come by, although I imagine the Wednesday holiday (May 5th) will be busier. The ticket schedule can be viewed here. I won’t be able to attend everything I would like to see, but here is a preview of the programs and films that I’m most looking forward to.

(1) JIFF Masterclass with Bong Joon-ho (Saturday) and Pedro Costa (Sunday)

The masterclass was the highlight of last year, with talks by noted film critics Adrian Martin, Raymond Bellour, and Richard Porton, accompanied by screenings of four great films: UN LAC, LEVEL FIVE, THE MOUTH AGAPE, and WR: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM, all of which were new to me. This year, the festival focuses on two of the most prominent directors working today, the South Korean Bong Joon-ho and the Portugese master Pedro Costa. Following a screening of their respective oeuvres (clips from Bong’s four features, Costa’s masterpiece COLOSSAL YOUTH), there will be a lecture given by each. One of the events that makes Jeonju a unique experience.

(2) Pedro Costa Retrospective

In addition to the masterclass, there will be also be a complete 13 film Costa retrospective, including 10 features and  3 short films. The 50 year old Costa has been directing since 1984, but it is only in the last decade that he has started to appear on the radar of international critics. Costa is still rather obscure, so this is a rare chance to see his complete filmography.

(3) Miklos Jancso Homage

This program will feature 6 works by the Hungarian modernist auteur Jancso. Although Jancso has continued to make films, this homage harkens back to the European art cinema golden age of the 1960s: CANTATA (1963), MY WAY HOME (1964), THE ROUND-UP (1965), THE RED AND THE WHITE (1967), SILENCE AND CRY (1968), and THE CONFRONTATION (1969). Jancso mixed radical politics with a long take style that set the standard for the modern Eastern European cinema, which was perhaps not surpassed until Bela Tarr’s work of the past two decades.

(4) Poetry of Resistance and Revolution

An eclectic mixture here, to be sure, but also a number of films by some of cinema’s great filmmakers, such as Sergei Eisenstein, Ousmane Sembene, Straub and Huillet, and Glauber Rocha. Also, a chance to see the Solanas and Gettino four hour long THE HOUR OF THE FURNACES, a key work in the history of what became known as “Third Cinema”.

As this list shows, Jeonju is definitely a festival made for the hard-core cinephile. There are also retrospectives on the Korean independent documentary director Kim Dong-won, as well as the little-known German filmmaker Ronmuald Karmaka. In terms of current contemporary art cinema, there are not as many big names as the major festivals, but it is still an impressive and diverse line-up: a new short by Tsai Ming-Liang (MADAME BUTTERFLY), a documentary by the New Wave director Luc Mollet (LAND OF MADNESS), a documentary from direct cinema pioneer Frederick Wiseman (LA DANSE, THE PARIS OPERA BALLET), American indie director Ramin Bahrani’s new short (PLASTIC BAG), New Waver Jacques Rivette’s latest (AROUND A SMALL MOUNTAIN), New Hollywood auteur Francis Ford Coppola’s TETRO, the French director Bruno Dumont’s HADEWIJCH, American indie director Jon Jost’s SWIMMING IN NEBRASKA, and many others.

And, finally, there are two screenings of Fritz Lang’s newly restored METROPOLIS, one of the most famous of silent films. This new version is being claimed as one of the major film events of the year, so the chance to see this on the big screen should be a highlight.

Jeonju also features both an international competition as well as a Korean film section, all of which will be Jeonju premieres, for those less interested in film history and more concerned with cinema’s future. While there are no real names of note in these sections, those wanting to look for new masterpieces may find something great here. It is, however, a bit of a lottery, and I usually use Jeonju to explore older films and directors that I have not given sufficient attention to in the past.

I will be posting some more previews as well as reviews from the festival in the days ahead.

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