With upcoming opening ceremony on September 14, the 15th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (hereinafter DMZ Docs, Chairman Kim Dong Yeon, Festival Director Chang Hae Rang) held a press conference and announced the opening films, characteristics and directions of this year’s film festival, and programs. 

The opening film for the 15th DMZ Docs is The Eternal Memory about a journalist who recorded the fever of Chilean democracy movement, his struggles with Alzheimer’s disease, and deep love of long-time couple. The Eternal Memory highlights the couple’s contribution to Chilean journalism and democracy and asks the present meaning of legacy of the times. The head of  Programming Jang Byung Won explained the reason for choosing The Eternal Memory as the opening film and said, "Since winning the Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, The Eternal Memory has received high praise from audiences. The film weaves the situation of its protagonist, Augusto Gongora, a prominent journalist in Chile, with the historical events of Chilean history to tell us about history, memory, and democracy. Paulina Urrutia will be visiting the 15th DMZ Docs and meeting the audiences at the opening ceremony, guest visit, and stage greeting throughout the film festival.

This year’s DMZ Docs screens a total of 147 documentaries (83 features, 64 shorts) of 54 countries. In the new program sections, competition session includes International Competition, Frontier Competition, and Korean Competition, and non-competition session includes Verite, Docufiction, Essay, Expanded, and Special Exhibition.  Especially, 7 documentaries screened in the Expanded Session will be also available in “Non-Theatrical Program” from September 14 to 20 at Camp Greaves located at Civilian Control Zone. This experimental program breaks way from the traditional theater screening and features moving images, artist videos, animations, and experimental films to provide new film experiences to the audiences.  

There also have been changes in the structure of special exhibitions. The three categories include theme exhibition that covers timely issues, memorial exhibition that recollects traces of notable figures, and archiving theme that summarizes history of creation trends and specific groups. 

 

DMZ Docs Documentary Market discovers, supports, and fosters outstanding Korean and Asian documentary projects. After holding a prior workshop from September 10 to 13, there will be a main event from September 15 to 19. It will be featuring DMZ Docs Fund (Korea POV 2023, The VoDA Fund) for projects in planning and early production stages and DMZ Docs Pitch Program for projects in production and editing stages. It also provides an opportunity for creators and global documentary industry people to meet and interact with each other throughout the film festival period.

After newly opening the Academy Program in 2022, DMZ Docs expanded the program for college film clubs this year. The program provides the film festival badge and educational program for the participating students to enhance their understanding on documentaries and offer opportunity to watch diverse works. It also features Youth Documentary Production Workshop for fostering future documentary makers, Special Experience Education Program - Talks&Docs, and Online Education Program “Docs School” focusing on educational values of documentaries. The Docs School participants will be watching documentaries and discussing them based on the worksheets for each theme.