The 5th Peace Film Festival in Busan.

There was a film festival held by Busan Okedongmu co. from June 27 to 29 in Busan Gunkdo Art Cinema. The festival was about peace, human right, environment, nonviolence, sharing and wars. It has been being held for five years to share the importance of peace and arouse sympathy through films.

They showed 13 winning pieces among 304 entries and 5 more invited ones. To introduce some of them:

‘Truth of Kyoku Sai’ is a documentary film about the tregedy of Okinawa, Japan during the Pacific War. It was made by a command called Kyoku Sai, to kill families and suicide when Japanese troop was having a total war with the US army. The song of the survivors who were Korean reminds of violated human right of the victims.

‘Our Family’ is also a documentary one, telling the story about a special family composed of 10 teenage North Korean defectors and a South Korean teacher who is a single man. All eleven people are living together growing remarkably, embracing the scars they got when they were at death’s door.  

‘Sad Song of the Sisters’ (dramatic film) featured North Korean sisters. One defected to South already tried to bring another, however, at a crucial moment younger sister decided not to come but to leave in north. The sisters turn against each other to north and south carrying the wish of unification of Korea.

There would be so many issues about peace and violence, especially in the situation of Korea. These films are really enlightening and worth seeing because they do convey ideas of peace and severity of the situation not being peaceful very effectively.

If our faint but earnest hope for peace is being projected on the screens of blockbuster movies, the films of this festival are crying out for pratical endeavor. The opening film was ‘Wise Solution’ which represents the ideal role of media and how it has been tarnished. There is a saying the pen is mightier than the sword. It may apply to both of films and media. For world peace, let’s do it by pen, no more swords.