The 18th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival opens on the 10th of next month... 147 films screened

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeong Rae-won = The 18th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival will be held from the 10th to the 16th of next month.

The DMZ International Documentary Film Festival Executive Committee held a press conference at the Chungmu Art Center Cinema in Seoul on the 18th to introduce the festival's main programs and screenings.

This film festival, with the slogan ‘Peace is not silent,’ will screen 147 documentary films from 52 countries. Screening locations include Megabox KINTEX, Lotte Cinema Paju Yardang, Hyundai Department Store KINTEX Branch, Aegibong Peace Ecological Park Peace Ecology Exhibition Hall, Camp Greaves, and Gallery Greaves.

Director Hwang Yun's documentary film 'Haje' was selected as the opening film. This work records the story of Haje, a small village in Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do, where residents were evicted due to the expansion of the U.S. military base.

Chief programmer Jang Byeong-won introduced, “It is an elegantly directed work that encompasses a variety of topics, including the last residents of Haje, local activists, and the creatures surrounding the village.”

Director Hwang Yoon, who directed 'Haje', explained, "I realized that a village was disappearing from the map of our country and from history, and as a documentary director, I felt that I could not ignore or overlook recording this village."

The closing film is ‘Che Guevara: The Last Comrades’ directed by French director Christophe Dimitri Reveille. This is a work that tracks and records the members of Che Guevara's guerrilla unit.

Executive Committee Chairman Oh Dong-jin explained, “We thought that Che Guevara was a political figure that should be introduced once again in our times, so we boldly selected it as the closing film,” adding, “This year’s film festival included many progressive voices.”

This film festival will be held with some events, including the opening ceremony, scaled back in consideration of Gyeonggi Province's financial crisis. Although the budget cut and scale have not been confirmed, the plan is to operate conservatively, including preemptively reducing some events.

The opening ceremony will focus on programs such as screening of the opening film, introduction of the director, and Q&A.

Existing programs such as overseas competition categories such as International Competition and Frontier, Korean Competition, and non-competition categories such as 'Verite', 'Docu-Fiction', 'Essay', and 'Expanded' will continue as is.

A special exhibition was also prepared to screen all 13 works that Palestinian visual artist and documentary filmmaker Kamal al-Jafari has directed over the past 20 years.

Another special exhibition, 'Eco Documentary: Fighting Together', will introduce a collection of works that capture ecological issues, including the climate crisis, such as director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 'Sound of the Waves' (2011) and 'The Singing Man' (2013).