Diaspora: Arirang Road

A group of women climbs a summer mountain situated in South Korea. They are refugees who have settled into South Korean society after fleeing from North Korea. For them, climbing the mountains has been an unavoidable journey for survival - a matter of life and death.

This documentary celebrates the life of former President Kim Dae-joong, who fought for democracy in South Korea and peace in the Korean Peninsula. It marks the 10th anniversary of his passing and covers his challenging journey, from his childhood on an island to his imprisonment, exile, near-death experiences, and ultimately becoming the president.

Tonj, Sudan is the land with only desperation from poverty and war. This is the story about priest also doctor, educator, musician and architect Lee Tae-seok’s work and hidden episode behind.

Tales of the Diaspora is the debut film from xxiivanu productions, and was conceived as a love letter to Pasifika youth around the world, as they navigate the sometimes tumultuous waves of finding and retaining cultural identity whilst growing up away from their homelands.

IM Kwon-taek is a Korean film-maker. He was born in 1934 when his country was under Japanese occupation. When Korean War was over his parents became North Korean partisan, and he ran away from home. He’s made 101 films since he made his debut in 1962 with Farewell Doman River. He tasted the glory at Cannes Int’l Film Festival with Chiwhasun. However making the 102nd film seems harder than ever to this 80-year-old director. His 2 projects have been suspended. He still can’t find chance to make his 102nd film, but spends daily routine free from film-making. This is a recording of years that the film-maker spends without making a film.

This film travels over open books, looted objects and postcards to look for the imperial foundations of the world in which we live. Within this wide landscape the film focuses on the destruction of the Jewish Muslim world that existed in North Africa, making it imaginable and inhabitable again. Narrated in the first person, by an Algerian Jew and a Palestinian Jew, the film refuses imperial histories of those places. Objects held captive in museums and archives outside of the places from where they were looted are only the visible tip of the iceberg of the mass colonial plunder of Africa. The film explores the substantial wealth accumulated through the extraction of raw materials, labour, knowledge and skills, including the “visual wealth” attained by putting people in front of the colonisers’ cameras.

"You belong to the country for the next two years." The film describes Woo-cheol's struggles with becoming part of a group while trying to maintain his individuality throughout his military service period. A humorous yet cynical portrait of military groupism.

Sexual violence against women has accompanied almost every large-scale conflict, yet most of its victims are silenced. One such sad episode is that of the "comfort women," or more accurately, the estimated 200,000 women who were recruited to sexually serve the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. As part of this immense system, many young women from all over Japan's occupied territories in Asia were forced into service where they faced rape, torture and extreme violence at military camps, euphemistically termed "comfort stations.'

Irpinia follows the journey of young West Indian dreamer Dudley as he makes his way to England in the 1960s. At 24 years old, Dudley boarded a ship named Irpinia in search of a better life in England, the so-called motherland. Now 86, Dudley reflects on the exciting journey at sea and the harsh reality that lay ahead of him.