Past screening

Korean Film Nights: Time To Read Poems

Directed by: Lee Soojung
Runtime: 1hr 14min Year: 2016
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Details

Directed by: Lee Soojung
Runtime: 1hr 14min Year: 2016
Topics: Personal Stories

A cartography of five individual moments in time. Poetry carries the narration and aesthetics to tell of lives intersecting and life choices made.

Hana, Sudeok, Taehyung, Jaechun and Hamamu; each tell us their stories, interweaving the personal with the social. Lee Soojung’s cinematic intervention is a collage of their testimonies on creativity, mental health, labour activism and gender politics. Personal narratives blend with Lee Soojung’s recollections of times and places of encounter, translating into poetic intersections. The film is a stunning, complex yet inviting poem of experience.

Time to Read Poems marks Lee Soojung as one of the important female directors in recent Korean cinema. Her nomadic look at urban landscapes combined with sensitive yet deeply evocative portraiture makes for a thought-provoking exploration of choices, dreams and existence.

Screening as part of Korean Film Nights 2021: In Transit, a collaboration between Bertha DocHouse, the Korean Culture Centre UK and Birkbeck University.