Leading documentary festival in Asia, The DMZ Docs is promoting the message of peace through the artistic but honest lens of a documentary.
Proclaiming the
message of “Peace, Life, and Communication” this festival was created to
transform the DMZ from a symbol of conflict and division, to one of hope and
peace. Due to the history of the DMZ, there is no better location for promoting
the message of peace through featuring human stories through the artistic but
honest lens of a documentary.
The screenings are
open to the public, along with a variety of performances and educational
programs to further allow more visibility into the documentary film-making
industry.
The DMZ
International Documentary Film Festival has grown into a leading documentary
festival in Asia, by not only screening documentaries, but also by supporting
endeavours like planning, development, and post-production with subsidies for
up and coming filmmakers. The Planning
and Development Fund selects Korean and Asian projects in the planning and
development stage to support (up to 20 documentary projects), paving the way for
Korean and Asian productions to build their quality.
History
The DMZ
International Documentary Film Festival, also known as DMZ Docs, was launched
on October 22-26, 2009 and screened 74 films from 35 countries. DMZ Docs
showcased the latest domestic and international documentaries in the
competitive and non-competitive categories.
Participation from
local and international documentary filmmakers has continued to increase every
year. Since its inception, the event has grown and garnered more international
interest, with the 11th edition of the show screening 151 films from 46
countries.
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| Korea Docs Night on 11th DMZ Docs |
Program
The
programs consist of various categories of competition, International, Asian,
Korean, Short and Youth categories. Other parts of the program focus on special
awards for outstanding documentaries. In the international category, the issues
tackled by the documentaries are so versatile, from the mundane to the truly
shocking cases of human suffering.
The Korean category
presents documentaries dealing with various aspects of the Korean culture and
society. Subjects dealing with problems in the socio-economic level,
minorities, multicultural families, environment and tragic accidents. There is
also a special section presenting documentaries about North Korea, North Korean
refugees, their lives and stories of conflict, peace and hope.
The Asian
documentaries category includes documentaries from Asian filmmakers, aiming to
bridge the cultural gap and promote better understanding and insight into the
diverse cultures.
After the festival,
DMZ Docs also holds more free public screenings of the documentaries throughout
the Gyeonggi Province, Paju and Goyang, to encourage growth within the
community, and promote its message of “Peace, Life and Communication''.
Jury
The 1st edition of
DMZ Docs featured three members of the jury on their panel and with the
increase of categories and awards, the jury group has increased to reflect the
event’s growth. The 11th edition had three jury members per category namely
International, Asian, Korean, Short and Special awards categories. The diverse
jury consists of Korean and international film-makers, industry experts,
documentary production and distribution company owners etc. who make the
selections of the winning documentaries.
Awards
Awards are bestowed
upon the winning documentary in their specific competition category. The 1st
edition of DMZ Docs only included the White Goose Award, Special Jury Award,
Audience Award and Jury special mention awards. As the event progressed in the
last decade, more awards categories were added to match the ever growing
documentary participation from all over the world.
● Grand Prize/ White
Goose Award (Cash prize - 15 Million KRW) : Awarded to the
best film in the International Competition category.
● Special Jury
Award (Cash prize - 7 Million KRW and trophy) : Awarded to the
second best film in the International Competition category.
● Asian Perspective
Award (Cash prize - 10 Million KRW) : Awarded
to the best film in the Asian Competition category.
● Best Korean
Documentary Award (Cash prize - 10 Million KRW) : Awarded to the
best film in the Korean Competition category.
● Special Jury Award :
Korean Competition Category (Cash prize - 5 Million KRW) : Awarded to the
second best film in the Korean Competition category.
● ADF Feature
Documentary Award (Cash prize - 10 Million KRW) : Awarded to a feature
film dedicated to the expression of the Korean culture or multicultural
society in the (International/Asian/Korean) Competition category.
● ADF Short Documentary
Award (Cash prize - 5 Million KRW each) : Awarded to two short
films in the Asian and Korean competition category.
● Youth Competition:
Best Youth Documentary Award (Cash prize - 1 Million KRW each) : Awarded to best
creative and exceptional movies in the youth films category.
● Brave New Docs Award (Cash
prize - 3 Million KRW) : Awarded to a Korean
document with an excellent theme.
● Beautiful New Docs
Award (Cash prize - 3 Million KRW) : Awarded to a
Korean documentary with excellent aesthetics and visuals.
● Emerging Documentary
Filmmaker Award (Cash prize - 3 Million KRW) : Awarded to
a Korean documentary with a new perspective.
● Audience Award (Cash
prize - 3 Million KRW) : Awarded to a
favourite film selected by the audience.
● DMZ Arts Contribution
Award (Cash prize - 500,000 KRW) : Awarded to an artist
whose Korean film was chosen for its achievements in various categories.
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| Increasing popularity of DMZ Docs |
11th DMZ
International Documentary Film Festival: Continuous Growth
DMZ Docs have initiated many platforms to
help the documentary industry’s growth. With the DMZ Docs Pitch, DMZ Docs
assists up and coming documentary projects with production and investment
opportunities, creating a platform for them to pitch their projects. DMZ Docs
Match is a business meeting platform which organized 1:1 meetings to connect
the industry key players and bolster the documentary industry and productions
in Asia.
DMZ Docs has also created another platform,
DMZ-POV to enable critics to voice their opinions on the screening
documentaries.
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival
has launched educational programs 'DMZ Todak Todak for Youth' and 'Youth
Documentary Production Workshop for Youth' catering to youths who wish to
hone their skills as a future documentary director.
The 12th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival
is scheduled for September 17-24 2020. [Check out more details on the offical DMZ
Docs website]
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