These are our six recommended short films from the EBS International Documentary Festival which will take place from August 19 – 25, 2024 in Goyang and Seoul, South Korea. The festival will also take place on the Korean TV Channel EBS1.

An Asian Ghost Story by Wang Bo – Hong Kong, Netherlands | 2023 – 37 minutes

This film is about haunting memories of Asia’s late 20th century modernization. The story begins in 1965, when the United States imposed an embargo on the hair trade, known as the Communist Hair Ban. In each wig resides a ghost from the imperial past. (EIDF 2024)

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Dear Mom by Ha Le Diem – Vietnam | 2024 – 17 minutes

Song, an 11-year-old Hmong girl, has spent the past six years trying to come to terms with her mother’s absence while growing up in the mountainous northwest of Vietnam. In the form of a letter written by Song herself, the film offers a glimpse into the emotional travails and social challenges faced by children. (EIDF 2024)

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Island in Between by S. Leo Chiang – Taiwan | 2023 – 20 minutes

From Taiwan’s frontline, filmmaker S. Leo Chiang interweaves lyrical glimpses of local life with his own struggle to negotiate ambivalent ties to Taiwan, China, and the United States. The film explores Taiwan’s uneasy peace and contemplates its uncertain future. (EIDF 2024)

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Love Death Dog by Gwon Dong-hyun, Kwon Sea-jung – Korea | 2023 – 18 minutes

A Japanese scholar who visited Korea in the early 20th century left behind a large number of dry glass plate photographs. The narrator comes across a picture of a dog in the collection and traces its history back more than a hundred years. (EIDF 2024)

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Making a Map About Invisible Mountain by Jeong Jinah – Korea | 2024 – 14 minutes

This documentary features a dialogue between a goblin (an alien) revisiting Earth after 45 years and myself, an alien life researcher, shedding light on the once bustling camp towns of Bosan-dong, Dongducheon; Anjeong-ri, Pyeongtaek and Hyundeok-myeon. Traveling with the goblin in search of an individual, “I” discover glimpses of the relationships—represented by water and oil—between the residents near the army base and the U.S. military, a day in the life of an STD camp, the historical context of the land adjacent to the base that was excavated and filled in, and finally reach Sangpae Mountain in Dongducheon, where the U.S. comfort women are buried in a potter’s field. (EIDF 2024)

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Queen’s Crochet by Cho Hanna – Korea | 2023 – 35 minutes

Hanna, who was taught to knit by her grandmother Chunja fifteen years ago, has now grown up and turned her room into a world of crochet. Unable to escape her past, Hanna decides to capture her past experiences and emotions in mandalas by creating Mandala Madness, the pinnacle of crochet. Singing and dancing, she reflects on the meaning behind her grandmother’s crochet, as her song ends with the words, “Chunja can be anyone.” (EIDF 2024)

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For more information, please visit: https://www.eidf.co.kr/eng