South Korean Cinema: An Unconventional Crash Course

A five-week Film Talk and screening series April 5–May 3

South Korean Cinema

Join SIFF Film Talks this spring on a crash course through South Korean cinema, but don’t expect your typical 101 film history course! We’ll unpack significant themes, stylistic tendencies, and moments in South Korean cinema through an eclectic selection of films from the 1960s to the 2020s. We’ll interrogate exactly what “Korean film” is as we traverse its relationships to history and politics, gender and sex, transnational flows of capital, and more. No previous familiarity with Korean film, language, or history is required to enjoy—everyone will walk away from our series armed with a list of new films to explore and new insights for appreciating them.

In conjunction with this series, SIFF will present four Korean cinema classics old and new on the big screen at the SIFF Uptown—JSA (April 2), Aimless Bullet (April 9), Io Island (April 16), and Save the Green Planet! (April 23). As well, each week of the series will include supplementary films that will be drawn from in class, which you are welcome but not expected to view on your own.

Buy Pass

TICKETS & PASSES

Class Pass including all classes and screenings: $120 Sustainer | $100 Regular | $75 Member
Individual Talks: $25 Sustainer | $15 Regular | $10 SIFF member

CLASS SPECIFICS

7:00–9:00pm PT
SIFF Film Center (live) + Streamed via Zoom Webinar

Series Schedule

April 2 - Screening - JSA
April 5 - Film Talk - Week 1: Precarity
April 9 - Screening - Aimless Bullet
April 12 - Film Talk - Week 2: History on Film
April 16 - Screening - Io Island 
April 19 - Film Talk - Week 3: Gender and Sex
April 23 - Screening - Save the Green Planet!
April 26 - Film Talk - Week 4: "Asia Extreme"
May 3 - Film Talk - Week 5: Innovation

Hannah Baek

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Hannah Baek is an independent film programmer specializing in Asian cinema and interactive film screenings. She received a master’s degree from Harvard’s Regional Studies East Asia program, where she studied gender queerness in the "Dark Ages" of 1970s South Korean cinema. Most recently, she has worked with the Sundance Film Festival, the Harvard Film Archive, MUBI, SIFF, and Spectacle Theater.