Once Upon a Time (2020, 5’)
A film poem in which human consciousness intertwines with the element of water. The film resists a closed life narrative by negating a reductive assessment of one’s history. / There is a waterfall somewhere without a sign of human activity. Through the shiny surface of the rapid torrent, words emerge and approach closer to the centre. A tape machine whirs, the nostalgia is relentless. The film tactically presents the transformation of water through the use of on screen texts.
A film poem in which human consciousness intertwines with the element of water. The film resists a closed life narrative by negating a reductive assessment of one’s history. / There is a waterfall somewhere without a sign of human activity. Through the shiny surface of the rapid torrent, words emerge and approach closer to the centre. A tape machine whirs, the nostalgia is relentless. The film tactically presents the transformation of water through the use of on screen texts.
- Ji.hlava International Doc Film Festival 2020 & Echoes of Ji.hlava IDFF 2021, ‘Fascinations’ experimental film competition World Premiere, Jihlava, CZ
- Alchemy Film & Arts Festival 2021, ‘A Human Certainty’ Hawick, UK
-
Pragovka Gallery 2021, special screening with ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Prague, CZ
- Lago Film Fest 2021, ‘New Signs’ experimental film competition Revine Lago, IT ︎︎︎Programme Note
- NOWNESS Experiments 2023, online publishing & watch the film
- TAPE Collective 2023, programme with UCL Film Soc’s Fest ‘Tracing Entanglements’ London, UK
<<A film poem in which human consciousness intertwines with the element of water. The leitmotif flowing through the entire work is memory, the eternal clash between the urge to look back and the awareness of space and time ahead. The river flooding the film not only gives it a temporythmic structure but is also a reminder of the eternal natural order.>> - written by Ji.hlava IDFF
<<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)
︎watch the full film
<<A film poem in which human consciousness intertwines with the element of water. The leitmotif flowing through the entire work is memory, the eternal clash between the urge to look back and the awareness of space and time ahead. The river flooding the film not only gives it a temporythmic structure but is also a reminder of the eternal natural order.>> - written by Ji.hlava IDFF
<<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)
︎watch the full film
<<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)
︎watch the full film
(Describing the moments when the body and mind become unexpectedly overwhelmed by memories. The words and sentences fragmentarily interfere; the sounds incessantly surge and disappear in a moment; the images keep moving. - director’s notes)
(Describing the moments when the body and mind become unexpectedly overwhelmed by memories. The words and sentences fragmentarily interfere; the sounds incessantly surge and disappear in a moment; the images keep moving. - director’s notes)
© JiYoon Park. Embedding, unauthorised copying and replication are prohibited for this video & images.
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