Born in 1964, Kim Mirye is a documentarian who captures and encourages the possibilities of change and reflection by putting on the screen in a sympathetic light those who have been strategically fragmented and obscured by capital and power. Her feature documentaries such as WE ARE WORKERS OR NOT? (2003), NOGADA (2005), STAYED OUT OVERNIGHT (2009) and SANDA (2013) have created sensations at prominent domestic and international film festivals and community screenings, despite not being released in theaters. SANDA won the Best Korean Documentary Award at the 5th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival. LOOKING FOR THE WOLF, which talks about searching for the root cause of violence, international peace, and expanding solidarity, is her fifth feature film and first theatrical release. 

LOOKING FOR THE WOLF
(aka EAST ASIA ANTI-JAPAN ARMED FRONT)
dir. Kim Mirye, 2018
74 min. South Korea.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, APRIL 14 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, APRIL 29 – 10 PM

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A blast shook the office buildings in Tokyo on August 30th, 1974. A time bomb had detonated and blown up part of the headquarters of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, leaving eight people dead and hundreds injured. The ‘Wolf’ cell, a unit of the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, claimed responsibility. Others, claiming to belong to the cells ‘Fangs of the Earth’ and ‘Scorpion’, carried out a series of bombings, targeting major corporations. Deeply conscious of Japan’s imperialist heritage, the members of the horizontal network EAAJAF were committed to ending the history of Japanese capitalist exploitation in Asia. More than 40 years have passed since then. Some members are no longer in the world, others remain incarcerated, while still others remain at large. In search of traces of these revolutionaries, the Korean documentarist Kim Mirye makes a painstaking trip through the Japanese archipelago, from the day-laborer district in Osaka to the northern marshes of Ainu Mosir (known as Hokkaido). Looking straight in the eyes of those who came together in support of the EAAJAF, despite the glaring shortcomings of the group’s project, she challenges us to discover what is left unthought and unimagined within our notions of Japan and East Asia.

NOGADA
(NoGaDa)
dir. Kim Mirye, 2005
89 mins. South Korea.
In Korean with English subtitles.

SUNDAY, APRIL 3 – 5 PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 16 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 – 7:30 PM

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Following the footsteps of her father, a construction worker, the director draws the portrait of a very particular social class: the Nogadas or Day Labourers; who go from one construction site to another. Complete social outcasts, they are the scorned base of the pyramidal system that rules the construction sector in South Korea and Japan.

“My father worked as a construction worker all his life, often traveling across the country and even abroad in search of work. In South Korea, people like him were pejoratively called ‘nogada’ and discriminated against, excluded from the basic protection as workers under labor rights. The film takes on a journey to uncover the structure of domination built on ‘nogada’ at its base, tracing it back to the Japanese colonial period in search of solidarity with those who have fought against the unending discrimination.” – Kim Mirye

KIM MIRYE‘s work has constantly zoomed in on the experience of exclusion in the everyday life of ordinary people, compelled by their energy. While her films investigate a nd uncover the structural and historical roots of their dehumanization, they invite viewers to share in the protagonists’ perspectives on life, prompting them to reflect on their own grasp of life in relationship to others and the world. Her films have won awards at Fribourg International Film Festival (2004) and DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (2015).