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The following interesting piece has been published in last Monday's(6.25) Hankyoreh newspaper:

Film depicting Yongsan Disaster finds large, nationwide audience

Unusual success of independence film demonstrates continued interest in the mysterious tragedy (*)

On Saturday at Indiespace, a privately-run independent film theater in Seoul’s Jongno district, all 110 seats in the auditorium were full. Even after the film finished and the director’s talk began, the audience members remained glued to their seats. People waiting for the next screening, which was also sold out, squeezed in behind the back row to listen. Other Seoul theaters screening the film at the same time, including Indieplus, Megabox, Coex and the Daehangno branch of CGV, were all sold out. Joint director Kim Il-ran told the audience, “Every day since the film opened has seemed like a miracle.”

Independent documentary “2 Doors” (Dir. Kim Il-ran, Hong Ji-yu), which depicts the Yongsan Disaster of January 20, 2009, is proving a hit, selling out in its first week.
The Yongsan Disaster occurred when residents of a Seoul neighborhood that had been bought up for redevelopment clashed with police and private security forces. The residents demanded additional compensation before vacating their properties and staged a sit-in protest when developers refused. Five evictees and one member of a police SWAT team lost their lives in a late-night clash during which a large fire broke out. The full details of the case have never been found out. 8 residents were sentenced to terms in prison.

After opening at only 16 theaters nationwide last June 21, the film had been watched by around 5,600 people by June 24. Seoul theaters screening it were sold out from the first day onward, placing 2 Doors at the top of the ranking for highest audience figures on the opening day in the independent and art film category.
 

“To be screened [25 times daily] at 16 theaters, and sell out and attract 5,000 viewers from the first week onwards, is extremely rare for an independent film,” said Kim Il-gwon, CEO of Sinemadal, the film‘s distributor. “This week, it seems it will set the record for the shortest time to pass the 10,000 audience mark for a film released on this scale.”

It is hard for independent films, which are screened at small numbers of theaters, to pass the 5,000 audience mark. Last year’s documentary “Miracle on Jongno Street” only passed the 5,000 audience mark in the fifth week of its release. “Bleak Night,” popular from the day of its release, drew 3,977 viewers in its first week. “Old Partner,” which was watched in theaters in 2009 by a total of 2.96 million people, drew only 7,020 viewers in its first week while being screened at around 30 theaters.

“2 Doors” has risen to sixth position in the Naver and Yes 24 box office rankings, which include both Korean and foreign commercial films. According to Indiespace, “A lot of people have turned up thinking they don’t need to book in advance because it’s an independent film, and had to leave.”

Many believe the reason the film has become so successful lies in the strength of its directing, which takes a calm and composed look back at the Yongsan Disaster. Using images taken at the time, legal statements from the police and opinions from lawyers representing evictees, 2 Doors reconstructs the terrible events of the day of the disaster.

Jeong Ji-yeong, a well-known Korean film director said, “Its unique production method approaches the truth of the matter in the manner of a fictional film, tracing the progress of the incident through testimonies made in court rather than interviews with the families of the deceased.”

Just as “Silenced” and “Unbowed,” two other films with strong social messages, proved popular, 2 Doors is bringing audiences into theaters due to a desire for justice and reflection upon what would otherwise have been forgotten. “It seems this film has touched upon people’s desire to change desperate [political and social] situations into energy of hope, and ignited something,” said 2 Doors co-director Kim Il-ran. 29-year-old Hwang Ji-hun, watching the film at Indiespace, said, “I felt sorry that the Yongsan Disaster was gradually being forgotten, then I heard that this film had come out so I came to see it with nine of my friends.” Many Twitter users and netizens are saying that the film has given the strength and courage to face the truth.

The 834 members of the film’s distribution committee, including director Byeon Yeong-ju, who provided the entire sum of approximately 30 million won (about US$25,800) for the film‘s theatrical release, are taking their friends and acquaintances to theaters to watch it or taking part in the active Twitter publicity campaign that is accompanying it, adding to the film’s strength. Securing a stable schedule of two or three screenings per day at dedicated independent film theater Indiespace, which opened on May 29, has also aided its success.

A further source of support has been applications for group viewings via the film’s website (http://blog.naver.com/2_doors). Groups from Homeless Action, the National Human Rights Commission and the parliamentary offices of opposition parties have watched the film, while the New Progressive Party has hired an entire screen at Yongsan CGV to watch the film on June 30. Fans of idol group JYJ are due to hold a group viewing at Indieplus on the same day.

From this week, the film will be screened at 21 theaters nationwide, a slight increase, but the internet is inundated with demands for it to be screened at multiplexes too. As of 2011, there were 1,974 theater screens in Korea. “Ultimately, multiplexes like CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox must open more of their doors [to give screening opportunities to independent films],” said Kim Il-gwon. (**)

The producers of 2 Doors wanted the film to prompt the release of the eight evictees currently behind bars as a result of the incident and the revelation of the truth about the suppression that took place. “I hope the film will bring public attention to the petition to have [the imprisoned evictees] pardoned on Liberation Day this August and to ensuring that a parliamentary investigation to determine the truth about the Yongsan Disaster takes place in September [when the next session of the National Assembly opens],” said director Hong Ji-yu.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_entertainment/539431.html

* "Mysterious tragedy"?? We just called it "The Yongsan Massacre"... more detailed reports about it you'll find here (Indymedia, Feb./March 2009)!!
And my first contribution about the Yongsan Massacre can find here (2009.1.20).
 

** For more info please check out:
☞ "두 개의 문" 상영관 및 시간표 안내

 

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Candle light vigil campaign throughout major cities for Peace in Gangjeong and on the Korean Peninsula from June 28(in Gangjeong) until July 27(in Seoul):

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"노동자, 구럼비, 쫓겨나는 사람이 하늘이다"
"Workers, Geureombi, Forcibly Expelled Residents... are all the SKY!"

[SKY_ACT] 공동행동 시국회의]에 여러분을 초대합니다
SKY_ACT is a collective action meeting, and you are all invited!!

 
언제? 6월 28일 목요일 오후 1시
When: June 28(Thursday), 1pm

 
어디서? 정동 프란치스코 교육회관
Where: Franciscan Education Assembly Hall

 
김진숙, 문정현, 박래군 초호화 캐스팅!!!
With: Kim Jin-sook, Father Moon Jung-hyeon, Park Rye-goon, Cho Ho-hwa...
 

* SKY_ACT란? What is SKY_ACT?

 
S 쌍용 (Ssangyong Motors)
K 강정 구럼비 (Kangjeong, Geureombi)
Y 용산 (Yongsan "redevelopment" area)

 
쌍용 해고자와 비정규직 문제, 강정마을 해군기지 건설 반대, 용산참사 진상 규명 등의 사회 문제를 직접행동으로 해결하는 시민들의 공동연대입니다.
"SKY" wants to  promote collective solidarity among citizens to find direct solutions to the social problems of the Ssangyong Motors layoffs/mass dismissals, the construction of the Naval Base in Kangjeong Village on Jeju Island, and the Yongsan disaster...

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Here you can watch an impressive documentary about last Saturday's memorial service for comrade Lee Sang-hyeon (aka "Hong Gil-dong in the Forest"):

Dear comrade Sang-hyeon, we'll always keep in mind your fierce efforts to support the struggle of the exploited and oppressed class! You've been always on the frontline of the people's resistance, often enough despite your own suffering... Dear dongji, we'll keep you in our mind FOREVER!!
 

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[6.24] The 1st "Weekly Solidarity Street Concert"(*), nearby Daehanmun in downtown Seoul, to support the struggle of the victims of mass dismissals at SsangYong Motors and elsewhere in S. Korea... was performed by comrade Ryu Geum-shin:

* The "Weekly Solidarity Street Concert" will be held every Sunday evening at least until the beginning of August...

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이상현동지(Comrade Lee Sang-hyeon) 1주기 추모제 안내.
6.23일 오전11시 마석 모란공원 추모관(납골당)
많은 동지들 오셔서 외롭게 간 상현이에게 막걸리 한 잔 따라주시면 고맙겠습니다.

  
생전 그의 사진들입니다. 위에 긴 링크주소를 클릭하시면 보실 수 있습니다.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.403983772981271.95193.100001089541847&type=3
(페이스북 로그인 하셔야합니다)

Comrade Sang-hyeon (aka "Hong Gil-dong in the Forest"/숲속홍길동) supported the struggle of migrant workers in S. Korea for almost 10 years... Here you'll find the links to almost all of his documentaries, related to the migrants' struggle! 
 

Dear comrade Sang-hyeon, we'll always keep in mind your fierce efforts to support the struggle of the exploited and oppressed class! You've been always on the frontline of the people's resistance, often enough despite your own suffering... Dear dongji, we'll keep you in our mind FOREVER!!

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No comment!! (^^)

Well, ultimately it's up to you, how you wanna to interpret it and you're free to imagine whatever you want (hostage-taking, morbid infantility, child molestation etc...)!!!^^

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Yesterday evening in downtown Seoul (nearby the City Hall): Sacked Cort/Cor-tek guitar manufacturing workers (for more info please check out: Cort Guitar Workers ACTION!!) performed a solidarity concert to support the Jaenueng Sit-in Struggle Collective(JSSC). Today JSSC is since 1,644 days in a fierce, but almost ignored street protest (more background info about the struggle you'll get here)!!

Related contribution (incl. videos):

☞ [6.12] CORT/Cor-Tek workers in solidarity with Jaenueng Sit-in Struggle... (JinboNet, 6.13)

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With last Saturday's "Day of Hope and Solidarity" more than 2000 workers, activists of resistance and solidarity organizations and citizens celebrated in Seoul the end of the "Solidarity Week With the Victims of (Capitalist) Exploitation and (Mass) Dismissals".

But while my last contribution(6.17) about the 'event' was mainly focused on 'visual' impressions... here you'll get now a detailed written report (incl. a few pics):

[June 16] "Day of Hope and Solidarity" in Seoul:

“The workers are the Sky. The Gureombi Rock is the Sky. People are the Sky”
 

On last sunny Saturday, about 3,000 citizens gathered in Seoul, to express their solidarity to the Ssangyong automobile workers of which 22 workers have made suicide for the post trauma of the long hard period strike and extreme difficulty after lay-off without any compensation from the company.

The event was, “Day of Hope and Solidarity: Let’s walk together, let’s live together, lets’ laugh together,” co-sponsored by the Nationwide Committee for the Victims of the Ssangyong Automobile Workers and several independent newspapers/progressive internet magazines.

Not only Ssangyong workers but also many workers from various unions in strike due to lay-off and irregular jobs gathered to the Yoido Park in front of the National Assembly, Seoul. There were also Hanjin Heavy Industry workers who are still struggling for months despite the negotiation success with the company the other day. The company has not kept the promise and it is told that about 150 people who have ridden in the Hope Bus to express solidarity for the Hanjin workers last year have been accused by the prosecutors.

And there were also people from the Gangjeong village, to express solidarity to the workers and appeal for the struggle against the Jeju naval base.

"Shinzzakkot", a music band composed of the activists in Gangjeong, and who made a performance, was those of them.

A citizen in an yellow Gureombi shirts was told to say: “I want to stop state power from Yongsan, Ssangyong automobile to the Gangjeong village with our solidarity. Despite difficult situation, I want to solve it with our joyful songs.”

Fr. Mun Jeong-Hyeon said, “The state power speaks for corporations like the Samsung C & T. To make oppression powerless, there is only a way that we gather together.”

 
A traditional medical doctor said, “Hope grows not in front of desk but in our most desperate fields. I feel hope by many people’s gathering. The Gangjeong villagers have gotten lots of stress during the process of the blast on the Gureombi Rock.
 

The march of 8km from the Yoido park to the Duksou palace, center of Seoul, from 2 to 5pm was stopped by the police. Four people are reported to be arrested on the day...
 

   (Source: "No Naval Base on Jeju!"/Choi Sung-hee)