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[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] "Jecheon" August 15th-16th

As this will be my last article this year about visiting South Korean film festivals firsthand, I'd like to take this opportunity to salute the volunteers. Any film festival you go to, odds are volunteers are doing most of the work, bless their souls, and they can always be easily identified by their matching t-shirts. The ones at Jecheon were especially exuberant. This is no small accomplishment, given the excruciating weather, even when it came to just having casual fun.

Uirimji (의림지) is, a reservoir located a bit to the north of Jecheon. So although these may appear to be natural waterfalls they too, are artifical creations. What's unusual about Uirimji, though, is that no accurate records exist for who created Uirimji even if the purpose (to provide water to local farmlands for irrigation) is pretty obvious. The name too is fairly nonsensical- "Uirim" (의림) is an archaicism for a kind of managerial profession- in other words, reservoir is named after the job title of the person who built it.

The big stage at Uirim was set up for the final showdonw between the various bands who had performed through Jecheon. This being the final such major performance at Uirimji at Jecheon, a judging panel had been convened to...judge the performances. The giant crowd is there, of course, for the very sensible reason of wanting to enjoy the music one last time.

Cubanism was there...again. Maybe I focus on them too much- there were other bands at Jecheon, naturally, and they were all pretty good. But then the competitive element is hard to ignore. An all-girl Korean mambo band is not the kind of thing you see every day, and they stick out pretty heavily. It certainly helps that every single performance they did the audience kept demanding encores.

It also helps that the lead singer is an exceptionally skilled dancer, which as you might guess, is a pretty important aspect to mambo music. I imagine the other musicians are too, except that it's kind of hard to move around when you're attached to a musical instrument rather than a microphone.

Pursuant to all this, it should come as little surprise that Cubanism was awarded the most "Celebrated Performance Award, whatever that means. Which more importantly meant I got a third chance to see them at the closing ceremony. You know, on top of everything else, Cubanism also has a really great wardrobe. If it weren't for their distinctive performance style it would be easy to think they were a completely different band, what with their ever-changing outfits.

And that's all for the excitement at Jecheon. While the days were miserably hot, there was always a kind of decent peace come nighttime, strolling through the outdoors market. Not that this is a special Jecheon thing, of course. Outside of traditional Korean markets, these outdoor malls are a common feature of the landscape in the downtown centers of most of South Korea's smaller towns. The businesses are all the usual corporate suspects, naturally, but the layout is pretty nice. Very walkable with no noisy cars buzzing around. I'm an American so from my perspective this probably seems more unusual than it actually is. 

They do have this special fountain, though, that is fully dedicated to the Jecheon International music and Film Festival, featuring handprints of various esteemed directors who have worked with the festival over the years. The odd apparatus in back is a kind of sprinkler system that's in use for more festive times. Oddly enough I never noticed it being switched on for any official festival events, which is just as well. You can tell a local festival has a strong local reputation when you can find monuments to it in places that only the locals go.

- Article by William Schwartz

 

Previous [HanCinema's Korea Diaries] articles :

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[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Jecheon August 11th-12th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Yeongwol August 8th-10th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Jeongdongjin August 5th-7th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gangneung August 1st-4th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gangneung July 28th-31st

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Bucheon July 26th-27th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Bucheon July 24th-25th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Bucheon July 22nd-23rd

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Bucheon July 20th-21st

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Incheon July 15th-19th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Seoul June 10th-14th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Chuncheon July 7th-9th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Chuncheon July 4th-6th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Wonju July 1st-3rd

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Andong June 28th-30th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Angang June 25th-27th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gyeongju June 21st-24th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gyeongju June 17th-20th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Daegu June 13th-16th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Daegu June 9th-12th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Yeongdong June 6th-8th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Muju June 1st-5th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Geumsan May 29th-31st

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Nonsan May 26th-28th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gyeryong May 24th-25th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gongju May 22nd-23rd

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gongju May 20th-21st

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Asan May 18th-19th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Seoul May 13th-17th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Seoul May 8th-12th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gamgok May 6th-7th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Jincheon May 4th-5th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Andeok May 1st-3rd

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Andeok April 28th-30th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gangjeong April 25th-27th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Gangjeong April 22nd-24th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Seogwipo April 19th-21st

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Seogwipo April 16th-18th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Jeju City April 14th-15th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Jeju City April 12th-13th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Seoul April 5th-11th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Suwon April 3rd-4th

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Suwon April 1st-April 2nd

[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] Seoul March 27th-March 31st

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