Synopsis

It took very long time to meet them. From May 2012, I visited leprosy rehabilitation villages located in Pocheon, Uijeongbu, Namyangju and Yonchon. Whenever I politely bowed and tried to break the ice, they started refusing my camera and closed their mind so tight. I wandered around for 6 months just like that. My work, initiated in the spring, lost its way till late fall without finding a character. Sangrock village in Yangdong was my last hope. Seen from my failed experiences, I put my camera in my bag and carried meals for cows there and sometimes I played films for villagers as a companion. A year passed. I hesitated for a long time, but finally asked Lee Sang-bong, an elderly man in the village, about the shooting, and his answer went like this; “For us, it is better to be forgotten in ignorance. Young people have better understanding, I’ve heard, but old people are still biased against the disease. I understand you, but it may stir up a hornet’s nest.” I understood what he said, but they were born, have lived and are living. It made me question why should their meaning be distorted or hidden. I was somehow afraid. If I drag people hoping to be forgotten into the world, they should shine in my film. Can I make my film that well? After I went through tormenting time even more severe than I wandered around looking for the character for my film, I asked again. Lee answered. “Alright. Shoot. Times are already gone and I have nothing to lose more.”I filmed and edited hoping to show the elders’ lives as they exist. But now, releasing the film to the world, I am scared. Finding the elders quietly smiling after watching my film, there is nothing to hope in my life.

Director

• 

  PARK Myung-soon
  

  He’s working as one of director in Purn production since 2010.
  
  Gangjung interview project (2012)
  Farmer-being (2011)

Credits

• DIRECTOR/EDITOR/MUSIC   PARK Myung-soon
• PRODUCER   KIM Jun-ho
• SOUND   KIM Won
• CAST   LEE Sang-bong, LIM In-ok, OH Byung-soon, WOO Geum-hwa

Contact

• Contact   Purn production
• Tel  +82 2 823 9124
• Email  docupurn@docupurn.org