Busan International Film Festival / Cucalorus Film Festival 2019 – Jesa
Jesa is a Korean tradition honoring their ancestors. The filmmaker interviewed her parents about this ritual tradition of Korea. However, it goes totally unexpected.
Interview with Director/Animator Kyungwon Song
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I am an animator from Jeju, where is a small island of South Korea. I moved to LA 5 years ago to study animation at CalArts. Jesa is my thesis film at CalArts.
When I was brainstorming my thesis film idea, I had a chance to direct United Nations women’s PSA, HeForShe. This project gave me huge inspiration and motivation to speak more of my voice as a female filmmaker. As a female born in Korea, I have always wanted to talk about my complicated feeling toward Korean culture and tradition, but I didn’t know how to start. Making animation for The UN Women and women right became a start point to lead me to make this film.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
The film is structured by my questions and interview with my parents about Jesa which is a Korean traditional ceremony for ancestors. You might expect this is a serious film that deals with beautiful Asian tradition or heavy-handed statements on the patriarchy, but the answer for both is no. Like most of the family, conversion with parents always goes crazy, chaotic and stressful. It would be fun, weird and confused.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I didn’t have a script for the film. The working process of the filmmaking was pretty flexible and spontaneous. My initial plan was to structure my film based on the patriarchal rule of the tradition, obedience and disobedience of images when responding to sound. However, the research interview with my parents changed the whole plan and direction of the film. The interview with my mom went more personal than I expected and interview with dad was almost a disaster. He was talking 20 min straight and didn’t give me a chance to talk. I thought I messed up my project. But when I listened to the interviews later, I realized it contained a more interesting dynamic than my primary plan. So I started to edit the interviews and experiment images using the food used in the ceremony.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
People laughed a lot. I think because the interview is so raw. I’m glad that the film makes people laugh and the laugh breaks the solemn of the tradition.
The most interesting feedback was from my parents. They attended the Calarts screening event at the end of the semester. They knew that I was doing weird things with the interview but I didn’t show my film while I was making it, so it was their first time watching it. During the screening, I thought my father would be upset or sad. But he liked the film and my mother was skeptical about my film.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I worried if people could understand the distinctive cultural subject. But people shared their stories that relate to their own family and culture.
Also, It was challenging for me to balance between humorous aspects and criticism.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Through the film and sharing it, I want to communicate with more female filmmakers.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
It would be amazing if the film festival directors can come on board and the film can travel around the world and meet diverse audiences. And I’d like to release Jesa online eventually.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I am a nerd of old optical toys such as a zoetrope, phenakistoscope. I am collaborating with artist Ray Chang who is also a big nerd of optical toys. We are going to experiment with making contemporary optical toys.
Interview: October 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Jesa
Jesa is a Korean tradition honoring their ancestors. The filmmaker interviewed her parents about this ritual tradition of Korea. However, it goes totally unexpected.
Length: 6:21
Director: Kyungwon Song
Producer: Kyungwon Song
Writer: Kyungwon Song
About the writer, director and producer:
KYUNGWON SONG is a Korean born independent animator currently based in LA. She is interested in non-fiction animation and her main medium is early film technique and stop-motion.
Looking for: producers, film festival directors
Instagram: @kyungwonsong_
Hashtags used: #jesa #제사 #nonfictionanimation #stopmotion #animateddocumentary
Website: www.kyungwonsong.com
Other: Vimeo
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? San Diego Asian Film Festival/San Diego,CA; Cucalorus film festival/Wilmington,NC.