9th Diaspora Film Festival movies get spotlight on Korean platform Purplay

The Korean streaming platform dedicated to presenting women’s cinema, Purplay, will screen movies from the 9th Diaspora Film Festival for three days starting from Friday without charge.

Eighteen movies will be streamed on Purplay, which accounts for 30 percent of the total of 58 movies that were selected for the festival this year.

The streaming platform has two separate sections for this year’s Diaspora Film Festival -– Diaspora in Focus and Diaspora Shorts.

This year’s Diaspora in Focus section on Purplay features five movies on LGBT issues.

“On White Wind Wall” co-directed by Lee Kyoung-ho and Heo Ji-eun depicts the story of a lesbian, Jin-ah, who teaches a film production class at the local community center. During her first class, she meets her former high school teacher Seo-in and gets lost in old memories.

Another selection from the section, “A Good Mother” directed by Lee Yu-jin, centers on Ji-soo, who is a lesbian who married her partner Seung in Canada without telling her mom. While Ji-soo is asleep, her mother Su-mi opens her suitcase and finds her wedding photo album.

Thirteen films in the Diaspora Shorts section focus on the global diaspora issue.

The films include “Superstar” directed by Lee Tae-yang, which depicts the story of Reda, a Palestinian refugee who has spent his entire life at Ain al-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, and “Swelling” by Kim Sang-kyu which centers around North Korean defector and boxer Moo-taek.
 

Established in 2013, the Diaspora Film Festival is an annual event that is held in Incheon, west of Seoul. The film festival screens movies that deal with social minorities and issues of coexistence and inclusion.

Along with the online screening, this year’s in-person festival will be held from Friday to Sunday at CGV Incheon Yeonsu Cinema.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)