Desperately building against the inevitability of time, a restless young woman is awaiting another upcoming loss. Soon after the director moves into her 22nd house, she gets a phone call that her Grandma, who lives far away, is in a critical condition. Elsewhere, a huge apartment made of sand is being constructed as the tide rolls in, while she belatedly tries to build a relationship with her Gran. As the camera sensitively observes how we wait for the upcoming days, the film embraces the fragility of life, full of uncertainty. 

selected screenings:

- Open City Documentary Festival 2020, London, UK / UK short film award nominee
- DMZ Docs 2020, Goyang, KR / short docs award winner ︎︎︎Programme Note
- Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2020, York, UK
- IDFA 2020, Amsterdam, NL / competition

- Cairo Int'l Film Festival 2020, Cairo, EG / competition
- AFI Docs 2021 by American Film Institute, Washington, D.C, US / competition
- Equinoxio Film Festival 2021, Bogota, CO / competition

*Email for the screener / Watch the full film on True Story

Director, Producer and Editor: JiYoon Park / with YoungJa Kim, TaeYeon Kang / Executive Producer: Emma Davie / Cinematographers: Julian Triandafyllou, JiYoon Park / Sound Designer: Simon Howard / Colour Grading: Julian Triandafyllou / Sand Sculptor: Jack Handscombe / Sound Recording: Simon Howard, JiYoon Park

    

© JiYoon Park. unauthorised copying is prohibited for this film & still images.

   

   

    

The film interconnects disparate images—my grandmother’s hospital, her impermanent house, and the process of building a sandcastle that is not even likely to barely survive from the waves of the ocean. This whole process seems to be a desperate attempt to delay the moment of sadness in the near future as much as possible. It is a film about the coming loss, but at the same time, about hope as well. Losses are always with us even in this moment, but here, by properly looking and documenting the process, I wanted to share that life is not in such an emptiness as we think it is. It was an intent to connect the far future and the distant past, overcoming the current context of loss or uncertainty by leaning on that vastness of time. - director’s notes

"The short film ‘The Way We Wait’ uses the traces of space and corporeal disappearance to talk about memory and vital fragility."  (...) "Through narrative and visual conventions, JiYoon Park establishes the possibility of shaping time through the camera despite the inescapable course of nature: the tide that is approaching." (...) "Imagination, dreams, memories and daydreams are key factors for the creation of the image. From the dream story, the filmmaker weaves the images to expose the fragility of time and being." (...) "In a phenomenological narrative of accompaniment and the moment, grandmother and granddaughter support each other; the past no longer matters and the future will flow." (...) - written by Daniela Ruiz Cerquera (Correspondencias Cine) ︎︎︎read the full article (in Spanish)

Hearing upon the news that her grandmother is in a critical condition, the director juxtaposes her grandmother’s footage and the process that a small sand apartment is built on a quiet beach. There may not be any logical relevance between the two images. However, a loose correspondence can be found in building a relationship in a limited time before death and building a sand house that will soon be collapsed. The two images aren’t just what they appear to be but represent an attempt to compensate for the loss in her absence in the future while the completed sand building alludes to the fact the grains of sand will be swept away by the waves. The film attempts to perceive the external from the personal, and the incompleteness of the present from the present reality. - written by Lee Minho(DMZ Docs) 

Shortly after moving into her 22nd house, Ji-Yoon Park receives a call: far away her grandmother is in the hospital, in critical condition. Too late, the director realizes that she should have nurtured her relationship with her grandmother earlier. “I’ve always been chased by time,” the restless young woman says. “I’ve needed to run harder not to be swallowed.” Now, she doesn’t know how to spend time with her grandmother. “So I was left holding the camera.” In parallel with scenes at the hospital, on the seashore an apartment building is being sculpted from sand—in vain, as its destruction is inevitable. The tide is approaching and slowly nibbling at the foundations. This house of sand mirrors events at the hospital. Sensitively observing as she awaits the imminent loss, the filmmaker embraces the fragility of life, with all its uncertainty. “What I grasp today, easily shatters tomorrow.” - written by IDFA 

   

Once Upon a Time 

2020, 5min 

   

A film poem in which human consciousness intertwines with the element of water. It visualises the eternal clash between the urge to look back and the awareness of space and time ahead. - written by Ji.hlava IDFF  

selected screenings:

- Ji.hlava International Doc Film Festival 2020,  Jihlava, CZ / competition
- Alchemy Film & Arts Festival 2021,  Hawick, UK 
- Pragovka Gallery 2021, Prague, CZ / exhibition screening
- Lago Film Fest 2021, Revine Lago, IT / competition ︎︎︎Programme Note  
- NOWNESS Experiments 2023, watch the full film / online publishing
- TAPE Collective 2023, with UCL Film Soc’s Fest London, UK ︎︎︎Programme Note

   

In Once Upon a Time, Ji-Yoon Park juxtaposes a video sequence of serene flowing waters with the filmmaker’s own struggle to revisit her past via running onscreen text. Park’s film deals with self-image, resisting a closed life narrative by negating a reductive assessment of one’s history. The ambiguities of reliving memory while longing to move towards a reconciliation foster multiple temporalities of healing. - written by Marius Hrdy(Alchemy Film & Arts Festival)

The words and sentences fragmentarily interfere; the sounds incessantly surge and disappear in a moment; the images keep moving. - director’s notes

   

   

  

    

   

© JiYoon Park. unauthorised copying is prohibited for this film & still images.

     

      

   

   

    

A conversation with a suicide hotline worker in South Korea plays over footage of everyday life. Text, image, and voiceover combine to produce a stunning and moving portrait of the often thankless work of care. - written by San Diego Asian Film Festival

A very effective and moving exploration of the role of a telephone counsellor. Good use of abstract imagery which allows full engagement with the subject matter. - a comment from the doc alliance platform

There are no human faces throughout the film. Instead, there are places and movements that help audiences imagine the story of the interview better. It was all part of making intangible things observable. - director’s note

‘Out of Place’ revolves around a fictional concept of escaping the earth. Surviving both as Korean and Asian women, we try to escape with a novel voyage from this Earth to another planet. When the bizarre statistics on us gather on this new planet, the voices from the ones who breathe here with one another form echoes, which continue as a round.

Screened as part of the Korean Cultural Centre’s Open Call exhibition ≪Ordinary World≫
- Korean Cultural Centre Germany 2023, Berlin, Germany 
- Korean Cultural Centre UK 2024, London, UK 
- Korean Cultural Centre France 2024, Paris, France 

    

   

    

‘Out of Place’(2023) deals with the action of ‘seeing’ itself through optical instruments and asks what truly is to perceive the women’s lived experiences. - director’s notes 

     

      

Flying laundry, bus stops, shapes of sand, people and their voices. It’s a portrait of a place and an experiment to find a way to precisely portray a place without words. Filmed in North Berwick, Scotland.

날아다니는 빨래, 버스 정류장, 모래의 모양, 사람들과 그들의 목소리. 한 장소를 어떻게 언어 없이, 정확하게 담아낼 수 있는지 탐구하기 위한 실험이자 공간에 대한 초상. 스코틀랜드, 노스 버윅에서 촬영했다. 

    

This experiment is based on the sound I recorded while editing 'The Way We Wait'. The recording of machinery was also used as part of the film. I recorded and arranged the sound to create a certain atmosphere inside the film.

‘우리가 기다리는 동안에'를 편집할 때 직접 녹음한 사운드를 기반으로 한 실험. 기계 소리를 녹음한 이 사운드 역시 영화의 일부로 사용되었다. 영화 내에 특정한 분위기를 만들어 내기 위해 이 사운드를 녹음하고 배열했다. 

    

It’s an observation of the process of making glass artwork. By documenting the process of making fragile glasses by two glassmakers, this film focuses on the complex relationship between the maker and the artwork.

유리 작업물을 만드는 과정에 대한 관찰. 두 명의 유리 공예가가 깨지기 쉬운 유리를 만드는 과정을 기록하며, 만드는 사람과 작업물 사이의 복합적인 관계에 주목하고 있다.

    

The film defamiliarises everyday objects and creates extraordinary tension from them.

영화는 일상의 사물들을 낯선 방식으로 보여주고, 그것들로부터 기이한 긴장감을 이끌어낸다. 

     

Spaces and places are consumed like instant foods these days. They are easily being substituted or changed in a  short time. The relationship between the place and people is superficial and temporary. The film reflects on this relationship by combining the sound of chewing instant foods and the images of places.

[이름없는 장소들] 공간과 장소는 인스턴트 음식처럼 소비된다. 짧은 시간 안에 쉽게 대체되고, 쉽게 변한다. 장소와 인간의 관계는 피상적이며 일시적이다. 영화는 인스턴트 음식을 먹어치우는 소리와 장소의 이미지들을  연결 지으며, 장소와 인간의 관계성에 대해 돌아본다. 장소의 짧은 역사를 기록하며, 그 공간을 살아가는 사람들, 또 살았던 사람들의 시간을 보여준다. 그리고 이를 통해 장소가 품은 것들, 그 장소가 품은 시간들을 들여다보려 한다.