Lights, Camera, Action! The South Korean Film Industry and Busan's Post-industrial Regeneration

From its humble beginnings as an independent film festival started by cinephiles in 1996, the Busan International Film Festival has become the leading film festival in Asia. This talk will discuss how the Festival’s international soft power and the global success of South Korea’s film industry played a pivotal role in Busan’s post-industrial regeneration masterplan. The Busan Metropolitan Government’s entrepreneurial efforts to develop a film and visual culture hub went on to earn South Korea’s second largest city its designation as the UNESCO Creative City of Film in 2014. The performativity of festival space as a public stage for sidewalk activism crucially shone a spotlight on a series of controversies that not only directly impacted the Film Festival, but also the film industry and the whole nation.

Registration required at: Lights, Camera, Action | St Cross College.