If Korean film fans in New York weren’t already spoilt enough as news broke that the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) would be screening 17 Korean features and shorts in June and July, now the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has followed suit by programming five features for a brief Korean film showcase in August. Suddenly, it looks like the Big Apple is heating up for a summer of Korean film.

 

Leading the quintet, which will screen as part of MoMA’s long-standing ContemporAsian series, will be CHUNG Ji-young’s National Security. Following a much-buzzed premiere during last fall’s Busan International Film Festival, the critically praised film debuted on the international circuit as part of the midnight lineup of this year’s Fribourg International Film Festival before going on to screen at the Udine Far East Film Festival in the Spring. Now the film, which follows the illegal detainment and torture of a political activist during the oppressive CHUN Doo-hwan administration of the 1980s, will have its North American premiere at MoMA, where it will screen daily from August 5-10.

  

 

 

  
Another film hot off the festival circuit, JANG Kun-jae’s Sleepless Night, will join it for screenings on August 9th and 11th. Following an awarded bow at last year’s Jeonju International Film Festival, the much-loved low-budget indie has screened at almost two-dozen events worldwide to date.

 

Joining these films for single screenings during the weekend of August 10-11 will be another trio of festival favorites. LEESONG Hee-il’s queer drama White Night debuted at Jeonju before screening in the Vancouver and Berlin International Film Festivals among others. LEE Ji-seung’s female revenge drama Azooma bowed at Busan before picking multiple awards in places such as Nevada, Beloit and Costa Rica International Film Festivals. Finally, JEON Soo-il ’s new indie El Condor Pasa recently opened in Korea, following its gala presentation premiere in Busan last October.