The Description of Bankruptcy
KOREA / 2006 / Korean / Color / Video / 61 min
Director, Editing, Producer: Lee Kang-hyun
Photography: Lee Kang-hyun, Kim Kyung-man, Goo Sun-hee
Sound: Hwang Se-eun
Music: Kang Min-seok
Lighting: Kim Kyung-man, Goo Sun-hee, Kim Jin-sang
Production Company: Independent Film Chung-Nyun
Distribution Company, Source: Indiestory
Background radio-talk-show chatter and news programs were made for the tide of moving crowds in which everyone’s every move is seen but no one is looking, and which flood the gaps between the high-rise buildings in foggy Seoul. People working like crazy only to be swallowed up by debt, the 386 Generation who fought for democratization in the struggles of 1987 waxing nostalgic, the national economy ballooning even as it forgets its victims in the name of creating a better society. When the layers of posters that are the surface of society are ripped off, what will we see underneath? With a rhythmical editing style and indifferent, ironic narration, this film turns the dry climate that threatens to evaporate individuals from society into a poetic guerilla video.
[Director’s Statement] The Description of Bankruptcy juxtaposes the lives of the public who experienced devastation after the Asian financial crisis of 1997 with the general situation in Korea. Rather than seeing the problem as something particular to the times, the film treats it as part of a universal suffering that people perpetually experience when capitalism tries to protect itself from crisis. The Description of Bankruptcy was made in the hope that it will be used in the fight against the source of such suffering.
Lee Kang-hyun
A member of the independent film group Chung-Nyun. His short film Casual Workers—Trade Union of Contractor to Hanra Heavy Industry (2000) was screened at the Seoul International Labor Film & Video Festival. The Description of Bankruptcy was shown at the Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival, the Seoul Independent Film Festival, and the Jeonju International Film Festival. |