ABSTRACT
With typical verve and wit, in his interview with Hyunseon Lee on 14 February 2019, Hong-joon Kim reflects on the South Korean film industry and the concept of Korean cinema as ‘national cinema’. Based on his experiences attending numerous international film festivals in Europe and his involvement in various South Korean film festivals such as BIFF, BIFAN, the Chungmuro Musical Film Festival, and the Gangneung International Film Festival, where he is currently an artistic director, Kim gives us an insightful view of globalizing film culture and the place of Korean cinema within it. His view of the filmmaker as an inherent system will be supplemented by critical thoughts on Korean film history, film distribution issues, the medium of film as cultural assets, and the unique system of the film festival and its transformative function. For Kim, the film festival is not just a cultural event. The film festival not only provides a cultural benefit, but also as a part of an industry, it gives something the industry needs.
