Dongguk University’s 2024 Film Festival took place from February 1st to 4th. Movie screenings, exhibitions, and other events were conducted during the festival.
DUFF is an official event held by the Film & Digital Media department. In more detail, it is a graduation film festival where students get the opportunity to screen their graduation projects. Originally, it was held separately from TIFF (Tiny Film Festival), which is a smaller screening event. TIFF was held once every semester, and DUFF annually, but for 2024 the department had decided to merge TIFF and DUFF together, focusing on DUFF. This year, not only graduation projects were screened, but also movies made by juniors during practical classes.
“DUFF holds a significant meaning to the students of Film department, because it is one of the rare opportunities where they can interact with the audience, and because it sums up all their years in university.” explains General Manager of 2024 DUFF, Bae Soo-been.
Focusing on frame
As you can tell by the catchphrase of the event ‘Catching the Frame’, this year’s concept encompassing the all the events and movies was ‘frame.’ In film, to be ‘in frame’ means that the object is visible to the audience watching the movie because the camera is pointed in that direction and can be seen in the eyepiece of the camera. ‘Out of frame’ means that the object is outside the area that the camera is looking out.
Wandering through frames
Novels communicate through words, art through canvases.
Artworks in this world communicate through their respective mediums.
Movies are no exception. Movies communicate with the world through the screen.
The rectangular frames on the screen serve as the standards of the film, encapsulating a whole world.
In this exhibition, you can glimpse 'beyond the frame.'
Focusing on the process of fellow students' filmmaking and the props and costumes used within, the exhibition guides the gaze beyond the frame, leading to the moment before a film is screened at a film festival.
Through this exhibition, we hope you gain another perspective on enjoying films.
(translation of exhibition introduction)
“We distinguished between ‘in frame’ and ‘out of frame,’ aiming to plan the event in a way that the audience could experience both. The audience could see ‘in frame’ inside the theaters where the movies were being screened, and they could experience ‘out of frame’ in the exhibition halls, where the film making process, film props, and other ‘out of frame’ objects could be observed.” Planning Team Leader Kim Jae-a told the Dongguk Post.
The show must go on!
There were also some struggles the staff had to overcome during the event. Unfortunately, due to the dates of Munhwa Hall construction overlapping with the event, entering gates changed and noise occurred during the screening. “We didn’t know there would be construction on the days of the event. It wasn’t noticed beforehand. We just got to know one day, on site. Luckily, we got lots of help from the people in charge, and the audience also understood the unfortunate circumstances.” Kim Jae-a said.
Despite these challenges, the event wrapped up successfully, with lots of compliments from the audience not only about the movies that were screened, but also regarding the diverse events such as guest visits, exhibitions, snack events, and more.
Although the film festival is a major event for the Film department, students from other departments seem to not know about it. The Dongguk Post encourages students to experience this annual event, appreciating their work and congratulating them into the future. Who knows? You might witness the next Bong Joon-ho starting his very first step, here at Dongguk.
A special thanks to the audience
Thank you so much for attending the film festival for the past four days. We are truly grateful. We are delighted to have been able to showcase the results of the hard work of our 21 staff members, and we hope you found it satisfying. Thanks to the presence and enjoyment of the audience, the film festival was able to shine even brighter. The Dongguk Film Festival will continue in the future! We hope to present our works in an even better environment. Thank you!
From. General Manager of 2024 DUFF, Bae Soo-been
