º»¹® ¹Ù·Î°¡±â ¸Þ´º ¹Ù·Î°¡±â

DMZ Docs Industry Projects



My Missing Aunt

YANG Juyeon

  • Korea
  • 90min
  • DCP
  • color/black and white

Synopsis

I don¡¯t want to become like my aunt. Like her, I was born as the eldest daughter and was put in the role of the ¡®good big sister¡¯ by my family. I was used to my younger brother standing in front of me at family gatherings, and I always felt that there was no place for me in this house. The night before I graduated college, in a drunken confession, my dad told me about his sister who committed suicide 40 years ago. It was the first time I had heard about this. Since then I have been afraid her misfortune would be passed on to me. To face this fear deep inside of me, I decided to make a film about my missing aunt. Blending animation, archive footage of South Korea as well as my own journey, I attempt to make visible the part of my family story that has been erased. To question the place of women in Korean society and to find my own place. 

Review

When I brought up the story that I had a faceless and nameless aunt I didn¡¯t even know, people often told me similar stories about their aunts. It comforted me that my aunt was not the only one whose life had been erased. But at the same time, whenever I heard these kinds of secret stories of women, a question came up in my mind - why are the tragic protagonists of such family secrets often women in so many cases? Through this film, I want to say that it was not their fault that the tragedy was caused. Although my aunt died 40 years ago, the discrimination women face simply as beings born as women has not disappeared within patriarchal systems. But my explorations became harder to trace and explain. Discrimination towards women has become a trivial and inconspicuous thing aligned with the word ¡®private¡¯, and it has seemingly become a stingy and petty thing to discuss. I want to bring this invisible discrimination to the surface through this film, My Missing Aunt. By recounting the life and death of my aunt, who was forgotten as taboo, I try to break the chain of tragedy. 

Director

  • YANG Juyeon

     

Credit

  • Producer°­»ç¶ó KANG Sarah
    °íµÎÇö KO Duhyun