1. There Are No Words by Min Sook Lee

There Are No Words follows award-winning filmmaker LEE Min Sook as she searches for the truth of her mother who died by suicide when she was twelve years old. Beginning with the silence left by this loss, she turns the camera on herself and retraces the fragments of her childhood across Toronto, Canada, and the place of her birth: Hwasun, South Korea. As she confronts the people, places, and histories that shaped her family, the film moves between testimony, memory, and speculation. There Are No Words traces a daughter’s attempt to give form to an absence, revealing how grief, trauma, and inherited history continue to live in the body even after words fail.

Directed by

Min Sook Lee

Origin

South Korea, Canada

Length

98 mins

Year

2025

Language

Korean, English

Medium

Documentary

2. Saekdong by Han Okhi

Saekdong / Colour of Korea is an experimental short film by HAN Okhi that begins with a question: if Korea is often imagined through the colour white, what other colours might reveal its culture, history, and spirit? Using double exposure, hand-coloured film, music, and fragmented visual composition, Han turns her gaze toward the vivid patterns of children’s “saekdong” clothing, their innocent movements, and the free rhythm of play The film. reimagines Korean cultural heritage through experimental form, searching for a more personal and expansive sense of Korean colour.

3. Red Star Alley by Jenny Yujia Shi

Red Star Alley is an experimental animated short that captures a disappearing way of life in Beijing. Using backlit cut-outs with delicacy and invention, the film brings the city’s alleyways to life through light, shadow, texture, and movement. As traces of an older Beijing begin to fade, Red Star Alley becomes an elegy for the places, rhythms, and communities that modernization leaves behind.

1. Mr. Kim Goes to the Cinema by Kim Dong-ho

We are deeply honored to present a special screening celebrating the legacy of Kim Dong-ho whose life has been devoted to film as founder of the Busan International Film Festival and a defining figure in Asian cinema. In this intimate documentary, Kim, now nearing ninety, picks up a camera for the first time following COVID-19, traveling the world to reconnect with filmmakers and reflect on a changing cinematic landscape. The film becomes a meditation on memory, resilience, and the future of cinema.What makes this work especially powerful is its extraordinary collective of voices. Featuring over 100 Asian filmmakers, it brings together legendary figures such as Lee Chang-dong (Director, Burning), Park Chan-wook (Director, Oldboy, Decision to Leave), Bong Joon-ho (Director, Parasite), Tsai Ming-liang (Director, Vive L’Amour), Im Kwon-taek (legendary South Korean director), Moon So-ri (acclaimed character actress), Park Jeong-min (acclaimed actor), Jeon Do-yeon (Best Actress, Cannes Film Festival), Lee Jung-jae (Emmy-winning actor, Squid Game), and many more.

Directed by

Kim Dong-ho

Origin

South Korea

Length

104 mins

Year

2025

Language

Korean

Medium

Documentary

2. Master's Tale: The Perfect Jib Bap by Shanghoon

"Jib Bap" is a personal journey into the heart of traditional Korean home-cooked meals, exploring the deep connection between food, culture, and identity. The film reflects on a unique upbringing, split between Korea, England, and New York, and how this experience shaped an appreciation for authentic Korean cuisine. The documentary highlights the significance of Korea's three key fermented sauces—Doenjang, Ganjang, and Gochujang—and the personal touch each family brings to their meals. In contrast to mass-produced flavors, the focus is on preserving tradition through fresh, seasonal ingredients.

Directed by

Shanghoon

Origin

Canada

Length

5 mins

Year

2024

Language

Korean

Medium

Documentary

1. Manok by Yu-Jin Lee

After the death of her mother, Manok closes her lesbian bar, Lainbow, and returns to her hometown of Iban-ri(이반리). But the home she comes back to is still shaped by the same old judgments, exclusions, and the obstructive presence of her ex-husband who is the town chief. Rather than letting the town define or diminish her, Manok decides to enter the race to become the next chief.

Directed by

Yu-Jin Lee

Origin

South Korea

Length

109 mins

Year

2025

Language

Korean

Medium

Fiction

2. 2mins40seconds by Han Okhi

One of the major works by South Korean feminist film collective Kaidu Club, this short is a dynamic, idiosyncratic, and mosaic-like portrait of Korean life, culture, and people who dream of a unified North and South.
Part of the HAN OKHI RETROSPECTIVE series.

1. A Man Who Heals the City by Hyunji Kim

The man who at the age of 40 built a private school foundation and donated it to the country. The man who always walks around and has never owned a car. The mysterious owner of an oriental medicine shop who gives everything to everyone but has never been interviewed. Who is this grown-up whom the whole city admires? A retired local newspaper reporter tries to cover this grown-up’s story once again after having failed 30 years ago.

2. Walk-in-the-Forest by Diane Obomsawin

This whimsical animation, reminiscent of NFB classics, follows a medicine man called Walk-in-the-forest on a walk in the woods that leads to the discovery of an intriguing secret world.

1. The Final Semester by Lee Ran-Hee

Nineteen-year-old Chang-woo spends the final semester of his school years not in a classroom but on the floor of an unfamiliar small factory, working as an industrial intern. Even under the cold judgment of his supervisor, he discovers the joy of work and a sense of camaraderie with his coworkers, tasting all at once the excitement and fear of stepping into the working world — its sweetness and its bitterness.

But an unexpected farewell with a fellow worker makes Chang-woo hesitate, and pulls him a step back… The film follows the heart-pounding first steps that each of us once took: the final semester we all share, those uncertain beginnings filled with small courage and quiet hope.

2. The Hole by Han Okhi

Synopsis | This experimental film portrays a person confined in prison, capturing their intense desire to escape into an open world. Through this struggle, it expresses a longing for freedom and the psychological tension between physical imprisonment and inner liberation.

1. In the Sea of Strange Thoughts by Choi Jeongdan

 A 21-year chronicle exploring the strange life and the cosmic thinking about death and life of Kim Uchang, one of Korea's foremost thinkers, who leads a life in complete agreement with his scholarly philosophy. For 40 years, he has been living with his wife Sul Soonbong in a house with lots of steps and a leaky roof, where the open sky and the mountains can be seen. His children urge him to move, but he has no such intention. It’s because, according to his children, Kim believes that what remains unchanged is ethically right and that comfort is evil. The house, therefore, represents Kim himself. He keeps all the things inherited from his parents. One day, an accident occurs, leaving his wife bedridden. He runs the household by himself, but as his own body grows frail, caring for his wife becomes an arduous struggle. He is engrossed in thought, trying to write his final book, 『The Horizon of Things and Being』, but has yet to deliver the manuscript to the publisher. What meaning do things and his house hold for him? Can he ever complete his final book?

2. Itch by Su-An Ng

Itch is an abstract expression of what it feels like to experience an eczema flare-up. Produced as part of the 9th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

3. Walk-in-the-Forest by Diane Obomsawin

This whimsical animation, reminiscent of NFB classics, follows a medicine man called Walk-in-the-forest on a walk in the woods that leads to the discovery of an intriguing secret world.