Documentary screening of "Comfort" and Conversation with the Director Emmanuel Moonchil Park

*No registration required*

 

The Centre for the Study of Korea, University of Toronto and the Korean Office for Research and Education, York University in partnership with OCADU University's Art & Social Change, Faculty of Art presents:

 

 

 "COMFORT 보드랍게" (2020), tells the life story of KIM Soonak, a survivor of the "comfort women system" and so much more. After the war, she engaged in the US military camptown sex trade, and also worked as a maid. Weaving interviews of activists, archive footage, animation, and the recital of testimonies, the film reconstructs the life stories of the late KIM Soonak. It won the Documentary Award at the 2020 Jeonju International Film Festival and the Beautiful New Docs Award at the 2020 DMZ International Documentary Film Festival.

 

Emmanuel Moonchil Park is a filmmaker based in Daegu, South Korea. His films over the last decade have offered insightful and nuanced social commentaries on gender and activism. His first feature, MY PLACE (2013), tells the story of his sister's single motherhood and his family's reverse migration from Canada to Korea. It screened at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in 2014 and has won multiple awards including the Jury Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival. BLUE BUTTERFLY EFFECT (2017), traces the anti-THAAD peace movement in Seongju, where local residents and activists organized a fierce opposition to the US military's installation of an anti-ballistic missile defense system. It won the Best Documentary award at the 2017 Jeonju International Film Festival. QUEER053 (2019) tells the remarkable story of how Daegu, a notoriously conservative city, became the site of an annual queer culture festival second only to Seoul.

 

This is the first event in a programme series connected to the exhibition of The Statue of the Girl of Peace at OCAD University by the artists Kim Seo-Kyung and Kim Eun-Sung. The statue is a symbol of the flight for justice led by surviving 'comfort women' and their allies for redress from the Japanese government.

 

 

The Statue of the Girl of Peace is on view at OCAD University (100 McCaul Street) in the main lobby from January 5 - April 28, 2023.

 

Oil on fiberglass-reinforced polyester (FRP) and stone powder 160x 180x 125 cm

2017 (The original bronze statue 2011)

 

On Wednesday, January 8, 1992, thousands of protestors rallied in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea to demand redress from the Japanese government for the large-scale system of sexual servitude setup and operated by the Japanese Imperial rule during World War II. The Japanese military abducted an estimated 200,000 girls and women from across the Asia-Pacific region who were euphemistically called “comfort women” and forced into sexual slavery. In 2011 the artists installed the bronze ‘Statue of Peace’ in front of the embassy where it remains today. The statue is a powerful symbol of the redress movement, there are version of the statue sited around the world, from Germany to the United States, Australia and Canada.

 

The Wednesday Demonstrations have turned into a weekly protest in Korea and are led by the remaining survivors. The Statue of the Girl of Peace was created on the occasion of the 1000th protest as a tribute to the spirit and the deep history of the Wednesday Demonstrations, which continue today. The survivors' ongoing fight for justice is a fight against militarized gender-based sexual violence everywhere.

 

The empty chair beside the statue is an invitation to you to sit beside the Girl and support the call for redress for the so- called ‘comfort women’. Please take a photo and share it on social media using the hashtags: #statueofpeace #justiceforcomfortwomen