Gwangju Video: The Missing

In the spring of 1987, a 14-year old runaway boy ended up in a college campus and made it his home. He grew up on campus under care of students activists. They call him "Poliboy."

On December 3, 2024, in Seoul, the President of South Korea Yoon Sukyeol declares the martial law. Troops move toward the National Assembly to seize control. Meanwhile, citizens rush to the National Assembly to block the troops, while lawmakers break through police's barricades at the main gate, climb over the walls to attend the session that lifts the martial law.

The expressions of democratization are usually interpreted by elites from two different parties but neglect the real faces/ life of every individual among the resistance rally. The director (a confused twenty-something) looks back upon the 40-year-history of democratization of Taiwan through the life experiences of two old-timers (who are grass-root rebels). He attempts to discover what causes their actions and decisions to be lefties, and what are their limitations.

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.

Choi Jinbae from Korea and Nyein Thazin from Myanmar are an international couple. They married seven years ago in Mandalay and, after a ceremony in Korea, planned to return. But COVID-19 left them stranded in Seoul. One day, a photo arrives from Myanmar showing a village destroyed by the coup. Urged by fellow Myanmar people to share their country's reality with the world, Choi picks up a camera. An ordinary family's life is suddenly thrust into questions of pain, solidarity, and the ethics of bearing witness.

The title Good Light, Good Air is oddly paradoxical. Keenly working at the point where his artistic identity and persistent attention on modern Korean history meet, director Im in this film focused on where the history of oppression and struggle intersect between Gwangju and Buenos Aires. In both cities, a great number of people who fought against the dictatorship were slaughtered and disappeared. The people of both societies still live with that trauma. When the testimonies of the victims of the two cities cross over, the film gives us chills as the eerie history of the two is very similar. Through Good Light, Good Air, director Im asks us how we will remember the past from where we stand right now.

The movie is a compilation of the movie "Wilderness" in which a member of the airborne unit who killed a girl during the Gwangju Democratization Movement burned himself to death with remorse and "Mr. Kant's Presentation", the story of a man who wanders around as a result of torture after participating as a civilian army.

KIM-GUN searches for the whereabouts of a young man whose identity has sparked a national controversy over the 1980 May 18 Gwangju Uprising. Starting with the vague memories of those who had crossed paths with him during that time, the film tracks down those who participated in the Uprising as “Citizen Soldiers.” It also traces KIM’s final steps, based on photographic clues found in the firearms he carried and the “Surveillance Truck No. 10” in which he rode. By identifying KIM-GUN, we believe that we can find valuable leads to resolving the ongoing controversy over May 18. Why did a nameless young man join the Uprising? Why did he take up arms? Where has he gone afterwards? It is the answers to these questions that the film seeks.

Names of Revolution recalls the memories of those who participated in the struggle to rewrite the history of the “Busan-Masan Democratic Protests,” which has been under-represented in modern Korean history. As the then college students, seamstresses, mold technicians, combat police, workers, bus drivers, advertising planners, and photojournalists pour out their memories from over 40 years ago before the camera, vivid words come to life.