Another international cinema event joins in on the trend of carrying out its activities online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This time it’s the Jeonju Film Festival (JIFF), recognized as the center of independent film in Asia and the broadest window of avant garde cinema in the entire world. JIFF had set its 21st edition for April 30th through may 9th, but postponed the encounter to May 28th to June 6th, and boasts a high national presence in several of its categories.
In the space entitled Masters is The Tango of the Widower and its Distorting Mirror, directed by Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento, produced by Chamila Rodríguez and Galut Alarcón. This feature film was begun by Raúl Ruiz in 1967 in Chile, and concluded now by his companion Valeria Sarmiento alongside production company Poetastros. The film, which kicked off the Forum section at the Berlinale this year, revolves around a man whose wife appears to him as a ghost.
Joining the film by Ruiz is I Never Climbed the Provincia by Ignacio Agüero, produced by Macarena López and defined by its author as “a state of wandering”. It is about the filmmaker’s relationship with the corner of his home street, where a new building has changed neighborhood life and blocked the view he had of Provincia Peak in the Andes mountain range. This film was the winner of the Jury Prize in the International Competition at the 2019 Marseilles Film Festival.
Showing in the Jeonju Cinema Project section will be Nona. If They Soak Me, I’ll Burn Them by Camila José Donoso, produced by Mimbre Producciones and co-produced with Brazil, France, and South Korea. It tells the story of Nona, an atypical homemaker who lives in self-imposed exile in a coastal town, in a mysterious forest where strange wildfires take place that are attributed to the Devil. Presenting in the same category is The Play by Alejandro Fernández Almendras, produced by Veronika Finkova and co-produced with Czech Republic, France, and South Korea, a film that tells the story of a theater director and his professional and romantic rejections.
Also de movie Death Will Come and Shall Have Your Eyes by José Luis Torres Leiva, produced by Catalina Vergara at Globo Rojo and co-produced with Germany and Argentina, which premiered at the recent edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival. The film stars Amparo Noguera and Julieta Figueroa, and shows the desire to talk about death while distancing itself absolutely from cliches and stereotypes. While in the World Cinema – Documentary section, Harley Queen by Carolina Adriazola and José Luis Sepúlveda will have its Asian premiere, a documentary about a woman yearning to find her identity in a life nuanced by being a dancer and a mother in the Bajos de Mena neighborhood of Puente Alto in Santiago.
Expanded Cinema will show the world premiere of Something is Burning, directed and produced by Nicolás Tabilo, Victoria Maréchal, and Macarena Astete, co-produced with Argentina, a piece based on the protests in Chile following the public transportation fare hike in October, 2019.
Since 2000, JIFF has introduced a series of new, emerging filmmakers to the world scene. In addition, Jeonju Project Market has dedicated itself to supporting independent film projects, distributing and promoting numerous Korean and foreign films. Industry Video Library and Industry Screening, meanwhile, have provided exclusively international guests, including the world’s festival programmers and film professionals.
