Jurying at Busan International Film Festival

Growing up in the 70’s, S. Korea never featured in my minds eye. It was either Japan, everything imported from Japan was of the highest quality, from stationary to all our electronics, Great Britain, I was weaned on the BBC World Service, or the USA, the setting of all my favourite television shows. Korea, if it featured at all, was represented by Ssangyong, the mega construction company who built our train lines in the 80’s or it was a country riddled with North Korean spies who were always defecting. I never saw them as cultural beacons who would make such an impact on my filmmaking life. As we speak, To Singapore, with Love has completed a three city tour screening at Busan, Seoul and Incheon. Busan International Film Festival supported both To Singapore, with Love (2013) and Invisible City (2007) through the Asian Cinema Fund, they were the first people who gave this films the huge vote of confidence. DMZ Documentary Film Festival also commissioned “The Impossibility of Knowing” (2010). Most recently, I was asked to be on the Jury of the Wide Angle Section at the Busan International Film Festival. An honour, I quickly accepted, it my chance to pay back, even a little bit. Come the first two weeks of October, I will be in Busan watching documentaries, I can’t think of anything better.