This year, KAFFNY will hold its first Narrative Shorts Competition. One short will be awarded the Jury Award of $500 by a panel of esteemed industry insiders. The jury currently consists of award-winning filmmakers Benson Lee and Dai Sil Kim-Gibson and respected arts critic and curator Dong Sin Hahn.
The shorts competition will feature the eight films. Click here to learn more about them.
Our jury panel:
BENSON LEE, FILMMAKER
Benson Lee is an award-winning Korean-American fi lmmaker whose work has been theatrically distributed worldwide and aired on HBO, Cinemax and the Sundance Channel. His popular documentary “Planet B-Boy” debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 to strong reviews and was released in select theaters across the U.S. His fi rst feature, “Miss Monday”, fi lmed in London and premiered in the feature competition at the Sundance Film Festival where it received the Special Jury Prize for Best Actor. Lee also co-produced the documentary “Black Picket Fence” which received the Jury Award at the Full Frame Film Festival and was released by Seventh Art Releasing.
DAI SIL KIM-GIBSON, FILMMAKER
An active voice in independent fi lmmaking, Kim-Gibson was born in Northern Korea and came to the United States in 1962. She was a senior program offi cer at the National Endowment for the Humanities and director of the media program of the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1988 she resigned from the New York State Council on the Arts and went on to produce and direct an array of award-winning fi lms such as “Sa-IGu”,” “A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans”, “Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women”, “Wet Sand: Voices from LA” and “Olivia’s Story” (an offi cial selection of the Toronto International Film Festival). Her most recent fi lm, “Motherland” had a sold out premier at the 11th Pusan International Film Festival in October 2006.
DONG-SIN HAHN, ARTS CRITIC & CURATOR
Dong-Sin Hahn, an arts critic and curator, received a M.F.A. degree in Film Criticism from Columbia University. She has organized “ Kim Ki-Duk,” “Shin Sang-Ok: Korean Filmmaker,” “Im Kwon-Taek: Master Korean Filmmaker “ and numerous film festivals since 1984. She is currently working on Korean women fi lmmakers with Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Dong-Sin Hahn is the founder of OPEN WORK, an arts organization whose mission is to promote Korean artists and their work to the US forum.
WOO JUNG CHO, ENTERTAINMENT ATTORNEY, PRODUCE & SALES AGENT
Woo Jung Cho represents independent film directors, producers, and production companies. Currently she is also serving as outside general counsel to Arthouse Films. Her producing credits include Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela and Lest We Forget. As a sales agent, she has worked on such acclaimed films as Daughter From Danang (Academy Nomination for Best Documentary, Sundance Grand Jury Award), É Minha Cara/ That’s My Face (Outfest Grand Jury Award, Berlin Film Festival Prize), My Flesh and Blood (Sundance Grand Jury Awards), Flag Wars (Full Frame Film Festival Filmmaker Award & Peabody Award), and State of Denial (Official Selections for Sundance and Hot Docs Documentary Film Festivals). She is also on the Film Panel for the Princess Grace Foundation awarding grants for undergraduate and graduate film projects. She is currently developing a documentary feature about Korean-American avant-garde artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha.
HISAMI KUROIWA, PRODUCER
Hisami Kuroiwas founded her New-York based film development and production company, Media Space, in 1984. Through Media Space, she has developed, financed and produced films such as When Pigs Fly by Sara Driver; Flirt by Hal Hartley; Smoke by Wayne Wang, (Winner of the Silver Bear Award and Fipresci Award at the Berlin International Film Festival); Blue in the Face by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster (Winner of the Audience Award at the Locarno International Film Festival); Bent by Sean Mathius (Winner of the Critics’ Award at the Cannes International Film Festival); Sunday by Jonathan Nossiter (Winner of the Grand Prix and Waldo Best Screenplay Awards at the Sundance Film Festival); and Miss Wonton by Meng Ong (Winner of the Fipresci Critics’ Award at the Locarno International Film Festival). She produced a feature documentary, History of Sex, about the photographer Andres Serrano and directed by Michael Coulter. Her recent multi-media project, Looking for Alfred by Johan Grimonprez, won the Kussel Media Award in Germany and the Audience Award at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. Lately, She produced the documentary, “Kool: dancing in my mind” by Riobert Wilson and Richard Rutkowsky. She has successfully distributed independent films in Japan and the U.S. from the mid-1980s to the present day. She is also an independent photo curator, and has published photography books through Parco, with shows at the Seibu Museum in Tokyo.
