My Hometown Means the Sea

Posted by on Nov 14, 2018 in COMMERCIAL, DOCUMENTARY, Narrative, News, Video | No Comments

MY HOMETOWN MEANS THE SEA: A NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR’S POEM is a short film that has been commissioned by the Washington Post. The film was part of Anna Fifield’s in-depth story on North Korean defectors, who made a living in Seoul.

The film portraits young poet Eun-jeong Oh (26), who left Kyongsong (on the east coast just south of Chongjin in North Korea) in 2009. In an interview with Anna Fifield she describes her life back home and how she ended up writing poetry:

“My dad was a sailor, and he had alcohol problems, but still, I had a happy childhood. I used to swim in the sea every morning and every afternoon after school. My forehead was always white because of the salt from the sea. But then my mom left and my father was killed in a traffic accident, and my sister, who is 11 years younger than me, went to live with our grandma. I was living by myself in our family house. Then in 2009, I escaped, too. In North Korea, I had read only one novel, which I’d borrowed from a neighbor. It was all torn and there were pages missing, but it was all I had. In South Korea, I was always reading. At college, I discovered a wonderful Korean literature professor whose way of teaching was very emotional, and I ended up taking three classes with him. The whole time, I was writing down little notes in my phone. I didn’t even know that the notes I was writing were poetry. I was just scribbling spontaneously.”

“One fall day, I saw a maple tree with red burning foliage on campus. It was so beautiful, but I knew it would all be gone by the following week. Thinking about that made me think of the last time I saw my sister. At the time, I didn’t even know what a metaphor was, I just wrote. The biggest motivation for me behind writing poetry was missing my sister so much. I was so full of hurt, I was overflowing with hurt, and I had to let it out onto the page. It was a whole new world to me. I felt like each cell in my body was coming to life. My first book came out in 2015. It’s called “Calling Home.” I was invited onto a TV channel, and I gave poetry readings. That’s how I was selected as a rising poet, and I was asked to contribute to another collection. A lot of my works are related to North Korea. I have such fond memories of there. Even though there is oppression, there were also moments of happiness, and I don’t have to deny those times. People are hungry and life is hard, but the essence of humanity is the same.”

I would like to thank MIN JOO KIM, JOYCE LEE, JESSE MESNER-HAGE who together produced the film, UDO LEE, who recorded sound and ERIN PARICK O’CONNOR, who edited and color graded the film. The music is by APM MUSIC.

PLASTIC GIRLS competing at Indie Memphis

Posted by on Nov 2, 2018 in DOCUMENTARY, Narrative, Video | No Comments

Plastic Girls at Indie Memphis Film Festival

We are incredibly honored to announce that PLASTIC GIRLS will screen in the Documentary Shorts Competition as part of the 21st edition of the INDIE MEMPHIS FILM FESTIVAL. The event takes place between the 1st and 5th of November in Memphis, Tennessee. INDIE MEMPHIS itself has been voted both as one of “The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” and as one of the “50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee” by MOVIE MAKER Magazine.

About Plastic Girls

PLASTIC GIRLS is the last film of a Korea related trilogy following BIKINI WORDS and LAST LETTERS. What unites the 3 films is a strong focus on issues related to space and architecture, but each film itself stands out with an individual subject matter. PLASTIC GIRLS is the most quirky out of the 3 films. The presented mannequins are unique to Korea and the film explores through them a clever way to address gender issues in Korea without flatly denouncing the society itself.

For more information about PLASTIC GIRLS please read a very thorough interview on film blog DIRECTORS NOTES, which dives into some of the ideas behind and the making of this film.

Screening Times

PLASTIC GIRLS will screen along with the A LIFE ON THE LINE by Lea Suzuki, BABY BROTHER by Kamau Bilal, BLACK 14 by Darius Clark Monroe, MIEDO DE MONOS by Michael Arcos, NORMAN NORMAN by Sophy Romvari, SALTWATER  BAPTISM by Jared Callahan & Russell Sheaffer, THE DREAMER by Manjula Varghese and THE TRAVELER TAKAMURE by Jing Niu at the following date and venue:

* Sat, Nov 3rd, 01:00 PM at Theatreworks @ The Square – 2085 Monroe Ave, Memphis TN 38104

For more information about screening times, venues and the festival in general, please visit the INDIE MEMPHIS FILM FESTIVAL website.

Bikini Words at Arlington Film Festival

Posted by on Nov 1, 2018 in COMMERCIAL, DOCUMENTARY, Narrative, Video | No Comments

Bikini Words at The Arlington International Film Festival

We are incredibly honored to announce that BIKINI WORDS by Nils Clauss will screen in the International Shorts Program of the 8th annual Arlington International Film Festival. The festival takes place from November 1st to November 4th 2018 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About BIKINI WORDS

BIKINI WORDS is the first film of a Korea related trilogy, which is followed by LAST LETTERS and PLASTIC GIRLS. What unites the 3 films is a strong focus on issues related to space and architecture, but each film itself stands out with an individual subject matter. BIKNI WORDS talks about new vocabulary that evolved during the rapid industrialisation of South Korea throughout the 1970s and 1980s amongst the factory workers to put names to the radically new aspects of their urbanised lives.

To date BIKINI WORDS has screened at several international film festival and won Best Short Documentary at the Lift-Off Season Awards 2016.

For more information about BIKINI WORDS please read a very thorough interview on film blog DIRECTORS NOTES, which dives into some of the ideas behind and the making of this film.

Screening Time

BIKINI WORDS will screen in the International Shorts Program along with the CLASH OF MORALITY by Vinay Pujara, CUBEMAN by Linda Dombrovsky, LIFE AFTER GUANTANAMO by Esteban Cuevas and DANKE by Antonio Sequeria:

* Fri, Nov 2nd, 9:28 PM at Capital Theatre – 204 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02474, USA

For more information about screening times, venues and the festival in general, please visit the ARLINGTON INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL website.

if … | Opening film World Congress of Architects

Posted by on Apr 11, 2018 in COMMERCIAL, Narrative, News, Promo, Video | No Comments

Being fathers of young kids ourselves, we get to see the creativity of our children up close every day. There is something precious about it. As Picasso said “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist as we grow up.”

We felt that the best way to respond to the call for ideas from the International Union of Architects (UIA), who wanted a film to open the 2017 World Congress of Architects in Seoul, was to take the attendees back to the beginning of their own creative journeys. To take a fun look at nerdy kids, the ones who can sit for hours, even in the age of the iPad, and become engrossed in their drawings and their lego and, ok so we’re back on the screens, their Minecraft worlds. Our aim was to revisit the creative spark in it’s purest form.

We decided we could tell this story best as a kind of inquiry using talking heads interviews to lend some authority to the children’s point of view. We used these interviews along with vignettes where we took some of the kids out into the city and engaged them somehow in an architecturally related task. We were keen to include kids from different parts of the world to reflect the international make-up of the audience. Luckily Seoul has also become so much more international that we were able to find all these kids who are growing up in the city. Many of them have been in Seoul for several years, they speak Korean as well as their mother tongue and go to school with Korean kids.

Seoul as a city is also a fantastic place for architectural diversity, with a great selection of historical, traditional, functional, residential, infrastructural and contemporary constructions to explore. Thank you very much for your interest if…!

Nils Clauss & Neil Dowling from CONTENTED

PLASTIC GIRLS | CINEQUEST Spotlight Trailer

Posted by on Feb 14, 2018 in DOCUMENTARY, Narrative, News, Video | No Comments

To pay tribute to our participation at CINEQUEST, one of the top worldwide festivals, Udo Lee, In-ah Shin and I made this short and fun spotlight trailer.

PLASTIC GIRLS has been selected as part of the 28th edition of CINEQUEST FILM & VR FESTIVAL among 1750 entries from more than 120 countries. The film will screen in the Short Film Competition at the following dates and venues:

* Sat, Mar 3, 12:25 PM at 3 Below Theaters & Lounge (formerly Camera 3 Cinemas) – 288 S 2nd St, San Jose, CA 95113
* Mon, Mar 5 8:15 PM at Century 20 Redwood City (Screen 10) – 1627, 825 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City, CA 94063
* Sat, Mar 10 10:00 AM at 3 Below Theaters & Lounge (formerly Camera 3 Cinemas) – 288 S 2nd St, San Jose, CA 95113
* Sun, Mar 11 10:45 AM at Century 20 Redwood City (Screen 11) – 1627, 825 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City, CA 94063

CINEQUEST FILM & VR FESTIVAL has been voted as “Best Film Festival (of the nation)” in a 2015 poll by the readers of USA TODAY and the HUFFINGTON POST includes CINEQUEST in a list of the “10 Best Film Festivals you’ve never heard of“.

PLASTIC GIRLS at 28th Cinequest Film Festival

Posted by on Feb 13, 2018 in DOCUMENTARY, Narrative, News, Video | No Comments

Plastic Girls at Cinequest

We are incredibly honored to announce that PLASTIC GIRLS will screen in the Short Film Competition as part of the 28th edition of CINEQUEST & VR FESTIVAL from February 27th to March 11th, 2018 in San Jose, California – the world’s most influential technology center, Silicon Valley. CINEQUEST itself has been voted as “Best Film Festival (of the nation)” in a 2015 poll by the readers of USA TODAY and the HUFFINGTON POST includes CINEQUEST in a list of the “10 Best Film Festivals you’ve never heard of“. PLASTIC GIRLS has been chosen among 1750 entries from more than 120 countries.

About Plastic Girls

PLASTIC GIRLS is the last film of a Korea related trilogy following BIKINI WORDS and LAST LETTERS. What unites the 3 films is a strong focus on issues related to space and architecture, but each film itself stands out with an individual subject matter. PLASTIC GIRLS is the most quirky out of the 3 films. The presented mannequins are unique to Korea and the film explores through them a clever way to address gender issues in Korea without flatly denouncing the society itself.

For more information about PLASTIC GIRLS please read a very thorough interview on film blog DIRECTORS NOTES, which dives into some of the ideas behind and the making of this film.

Screening Times

Along with the feature documentary PURDAH by director Jeremy Guy, PLASTIC GIRLS will screen 4 times at the following dates and venues:

* Sat, Mar 3, 12:25 PM at 3 Below Theaters & Lounge (formerly Camera 3 Cinemas) – 288 S 2nd St, San Jose, CA 95113
* Mon, Mar 5 8:15 PM at Century 20 Redwood City (Screen 10) – 1627, 825 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City, CA 94063
* Sat, Mar 10 10:00 AM at 3 Below Theaters & Lounge (formerly Camera 3 Cinemas) – 288 S 2nd St, San Jose, CA 95113
* Sun, Mar 11 10:45 AM at Century 20 Redwood City (Screen 11) – 1627, 825 Middlefield Rd, Redwood City, CA 94063

For more information about screening times, venues and the festival in general, please visit the CINEQUEST & VR FESTIVAL website.

RUNNER UP. Music Video of the Year

Posted by on Jun 11, 2014 in COMMERCIAL, MUSIC VIDEO, Narrative, Promo, Video | No Comments

Moonchild_poster_Genero-award_s

Great News! The music video MOONCHILD for M83 has been selected as one of the 5 RUNNER-UP videos for the Genero Music Video of the year 2013.

A young girl dreams of going into outer space. When she finally gets there she zaps the evil aliens into a peaceful groove with her ray gun. Follow this link, in order to check out this music video by Nils Clauss and Neil Dowling.

CHOA featured in THE ATLANTIC

Posted by on Jun 5, 2014 in COMMERCIAL, DOCUMENTARY, Narrative, Promo | No Comments

Choa_poster_image_StaffPick_Atlantic

Skating with the Guys. A female hockey player from South Korea describes what it takes to complete. The film was a collaboration between UIC Yonsei University and filmmakers Nils Clauss and Adam Hobbs. Big thanks to the The Atlantic for featuring the CHOA video. Check out the film here.

Finding Joy . Best Feature

Posted by on Apr 7, 2013 in FEATURE, Narrative | No Comments

FINDING_JOY_DVD_art42
FINDING JOY won Best Feature at the LIVERPOOL LIFT OFF and will go on to the sister festivals in London and Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Congratulations to the director Neil Dowling and thanks to the whole crew for all your support! Please click here to view the trailer.