South Korea’s film industry is producing movies and original series eagerly anticipated by the global audience, and it is now arguably considered one of the few countries outside the United States to have captivated the world’s hearts and minds through pop music, TV dramas, and film. Similarly, the exponential growth in the South Korean film industry has been mirrored by increasing interest from the press and academia all over the… Read More

IMAGE CREDIT: Docu+ Zero Waste is a timely documentary film that explores the current recycling efforts in South Korea through the personal stories of six changemakers. These individuals are advocates for a circular economy who fight against the ongoing plastic waste pollution crisis in the country which has been aggravated by the recent global pandemic. To better understand how so many recyclables end up in our ocean and landfill, director… Read More

Image credit: Lotte Entertainment | The story begins in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic disaster. What if our apartment complex is the only building left standing after a devastating earthquake? Produced by Climax Studio, the production house known for their creative storytelling and exceptional directing in Netflix's Hellbound and D.P., Concrete Utopia is "a dystopian disaster movie with a difference" that makes you think, "if I were in this… Read More

The Korea Society is thrilled to sponsor the screening of the award-winning short film Take Me Home, followed by a Q+A with director Liz Sargent and the film team at Marlene Meyerson JCC. Anna is an adult with a Cognitive Disability living with her mother in Midland Florida. When her mother is unresponsive, she calls her sister for help, but without the language to be believed, Anna is brushed aside.… Read More

World-renowned South Korean directors, including Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon Ho, cite Kim Ki-young as being the greatest Korean influence on their work. When Yuh-Jung Youn won the best supporting actress award at the 2021 Oscars, she thanked Kim Ki-young, the “genius” director of the first film she starred in, 1971’s Woman of Fire. During his thirty year career, Kim Ki-young produced thirty-three films and became revered by critics within… Read More

Specially Processed American Me, an autobiographical performance by Jaime Sunwoo, delves into her Asian-American upbringing and her family's encounters with the Korean War through the unconventional lens of SPAM, the canned meat. This surreal piece examines the military's association with SPAM, its importance in the Asia-Pacific region, and its impact on Asian cuisine; employing music, shadow play, and cooking as creative mediums. With a blend of humor and somber tragedy,… Read More

From music to film to television and streaming series to food, K-content is dominating the world stage. With remarkable achievements across several artistic disciplines and ever growing popularity of its creative talents, South Korea is in the center of a cultural moment. Some observers may be surprised by this K-phenomenon, but the global success of South Korean cultural contents is due to a combination of various factors at work for… Read More

The Korean-born, German-educated, life-long New Yorker, Nam June Paik (1932-2006) coined the phrase “the electronic superhighway” long before the Internet was born. A consummate shape-shifter — classical composer, subversive trickster, pioneer of experimental “interventions” (he called “action music”) and, according to friends, speaker of nine languages (all badly). Paik’s influences ranged from Hegel to Schoenberg, from traditional Korean dance to Buddhism, space travel, and beyond. Debut filmmaker Amanda Kim’s captivating,… Read More

Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema by culture writer and screenwriter Karen Han is the first definitive critical and visual survey of the Academy Award–winning South Korean writer/director who has been making critically acclaimed feature films for more than two decades. Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema by culture writer and screenwriter Karen Han is the first definitive critical and visual survey of the Academy Award–winning South Korean writer/director who has been… Read More

"A powerful indictment of systemic racism and the criminal justice system" – The Chicago Reader “Extraordinarily moving... what documentary filmmaking should strive for” – RogerEbert.com Join us for the riveting documentary FREE CHOL SOO LEE, opening at IFC Center on August 12. A MUBI Release, this revelatory Sundance selection from journalists Julie Ha and Eugene Yi chronicles the story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean-American whose wrongful murder conviction ignited… Read More