hankyoreh

By Song Ho-jin, staff reporter

A low budget animation director once said to me while putting down his soju glass, “Next time I will look into how I can show my work at the regional cultural centers or something.” In a way, this sounds like killing two birds with one stone. Independent filmmakers get to showcase their work and the local people get a better understanding of what independent (indie) movies are all about. It sounds good. But what this director was really trying to say was that he was willing to do anything to find a venue to show his work.

On Sept. 13 there was a big event to celebrate “Pieta”’ winning the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. The host was the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Choi Kwang-shik. Raising his glass he said that he looks forward to more “Pieta”s in the future. And he proposed a new idea; “I will think of a plan so that independent and artistic movies can take advantage of venues in museums and cultural centers throughout the country.”

He added “I will make sure to promote the media centers in the 14 cultural centers nationwide into venues where independent movies will be shown.”

So this idea by the Ministry of Culture and the grumping of a poor indie movie directors are on the same wave length. Is this something to be hopeful about? With Kim Ki-duk’s success, there is much discussion about the unfair movie distribution system. And the solution suggested by the pertinent minister was to take advantage of existing cultural centers. Somehow, this seems like a Band-Aid solution.

Yes, giving local people access to new indie films is meaningful. But this does not solve the fundamental problem of unfair distribution and will not effectively foster indie movies and art. The minster confessed that this was a new idea. But is he aware that there are already many cultural centers that hold special events to show indie movies in their media centers?

An official from the Korean Film Council said that these special events receive great feedback because they are held in cities where there aren’t many movie theaters. “But you must consider that these centers also have their own schedule of events. Some of them don’t have movie projectors since they are not movie theaters. So it isn’t as if there is a set venue where indie movies can be shown on a regular basis.” Moreover, the events are held free for the public, where is the revenue for the production companies?

It is for this reason that the demand from the filmmakers is somewhat different. They are asking that additional movie theaters exclusively for indie movies be set up in seven to eight cities with the cost borne by the national and local governments. Public funding would be good to enhance cultural diversity. But the government would certainly turn its face on this.

The representative of Indie Space, a privately owned indie movie theaters said, “If a movie theater is leased and managed I think with the leasing fee, it will cost around 500 million won (about US$440 thousand) a year.”

The pertinent officer in the Film Council said that low budget movies are shown in around 20 theaters nationwide but they have to be shown in at least 40 theaters to break even. The government will have to do some calculating.

Another demand repeatedly being made by the filmmakers is the creation of a “movie diversity quota” by which the government has the theaters show a certain proportion of movies recognized as diversity promoting movies. The quota does not have to be big, just a certain proportion that will not hinder the business of the movie theaters.

But the Ministry has said that it would not be appropriate for the government to meddle in the standards of the industry. An executive of a big corporation that invests in and distributes major movies said that the occupancy at showings of a big blockbuster movie that had been invested in by a big company shown in 800 to 1000 movie theaters is only 20-40%. “So even if a screen is given to another movie, this will not make much difference in the box office result or profits for the theaters,” the executive said.

CJ entertainment invested in and distributed the movie “Kwang-hae, the man who became King,” which was able to secure 700 to 800 theaters nationwide. In the movie King Kwang-hae actor Lee Byoung-hun says to the high officials whose concern is in only increasing their riches, “Please, that’s enough.”

Looking at the big corporations monopolizing the screens for their movies and hearing the pertinent cultural minister’s new idea of using museum media centers to show small movies, the speech rings true. “Please, that’s enough” the small productions and low budget directors would say.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]