Past screening

LKFF 2021: Sister J

Directed by: Lee Soo-Jung
Runtime: 1hr 37min Year: 2020

Details

Directed by: Lee Soo-Jung
Runtime: 1hr 37min Year: 2020
Country: South Korea
Topics: Sociopolitical

Sister J reflects on the experiences of workers who have been marginalised, fired from their factory jobs.

Lee Soo-jung’s documentary centres on Lim Jaechun or “Sister J”, as the director fondly calls this middle-aged worker. The film compassionately documents Lim Jaechun’s attempts to rebuild his life after being made redundant from his job of over three decades making guitars in a rural factory, capturing the great emotional toll of not only being laid off, but also the prolonged struggle for justice.

This quest sees him take to activism through art as he sings, writes, and performs to raise awareness of his situation. In his attempts to regain employment at the factory, Lim Jaechun begins living in a tent on the factory site over a period of almost ten years. Lee Soo-jung captures his shifting character through this process of creativity and protest, creating a portrait which speaks to a wider culture of labour activism.

Screening as part of the London Korean Film Festival 2021.