hankyoreh

second from right

Independent film directors are sharply criticizing the outcome of the selection process for the new managers of the independent film theater IndieSpace and MediACT Media Center programs. Some are saying that a biased selection process has resulted in a government push to hand management rights to pro-government groups.

A press conference for “One Hundred Independent Filmmakers Opposed to the Unfair Independent Film Theater Management Selection” took place Thursday afternoon at Neutinamu Hall in the basement of the People’s Solidarity for a Participatory Democracy (PSPD) headquarters in the Tongin neighborhood of Seoul’s Jongno district. The eight directors in attendance included Lee Chung-ryul, whose film “Old Partner” set a monumental box office record by drawing three million viewers last year, and Yang Ik-june, whose “Breathless” elevated the standing of Korean independent film as it swept through acclaimed world film festivals. Some 155 independent directors signed a boycott statement saying that they could not allow their films to be screened at IndieSpace, a theater now managed by the Association for Diversity in Korean Film (ADKF), which was selected through the recent screening to manage the independent film theater program.

Lee said, “I came here not because my views or ideas differ from those of the current administration or the Korean Film Council, but simply because I feel that there has been a recent string of events that I cannot understand in common sense terms.” Lee also noted that last-place finishers in the first selection process for the independent film theater and MediACT project managers came in first in the second selection process. Lee added, “This is not suited to the Lee Myung-bak administration and its talk about efficiency.” Lee said the developing situation is “like watching some low comedy.”

Yang said, “Over the decade of my involvement in independent film, I have been learning bit by bit what independent film is.” However, he commented that the people selected to manage the programs “are people I do not know at all, and I have no way of knowing how they intend to run the independent film theater program or MediACT.”

Yang added, “It is ironic that creators, who should be encountering viewers through their films, instead show their faces before the media like this; it shows how constricted the windpipe of our culture is.” Yang said that current administration “is making someone like me, who did not even know what ruling and opposition parties were, read up on society.”

IndieSpace, the independent film theater program and MediACT are projects that were proposed to the government by the Association of Korean Independent Film and Video (KIFV) after more than a decade of preparation and discussions. Until last year, the projects were entrusted to the KIFV by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). However, in 2009 KOFIC announced that it was switching to a competitive selection system, and after failing to be selected as project managers during the first competition, ADKF and the Institute for Citizen Visual Culture (ICVC), were selected respectively to operate IndieSpace and MediACT during the second competitive selection process in January.

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