These are our ten recommended feature documentaries 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.

A Perfect Day by Chae Rada – Korea | 2024 – 75 minutes

From spring to fall of 2023, a documentary film crew spent five months at a hospice hospital in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, observing “the hospice and the people in it” to shed light on the role of modern medicine and how we as a society view the needs of the dying. What do those who suffer the pain of illness and are at the end of their lives need? What makes us human in the face of dying and death, and what gives someone the possibility of a “day”? (EIDF 2024)

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A Table for Two by Kim Boram – Korea | 2022 – 89 minutes

“So you and I would live in parallel forever?” Chae-young is diagnosed with anorexia due to her extreme refusal to eat. Feeling vaguely guilty, her mother Sang-ok delves into her own past to uncover the root of her daughter`s illness, but struggles to grasp the reason behind it. “I had thought of hundreds of scenarios, but what you just told me is far from what I expected.” Years pass and the long overdue conversation between Chae-young and Sang-ok begins. (EIDF 2024)

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Fanatic by Oh Seyeon – Korea | 2021 – 87 minutes

One day Oppa became a criminal. I, who used to be a seongdeok [successful fan], went through conflicting emotions. Anger, sadness and a little embarrassment. I remembered my friends, his fans. Some say they are angry because they trusted and supported him the most, while others say that true fans will be there for him until the end. Can we continue to be a fan? No, can we stop being a fan? Nowadays, which is a hard time to love someone to our heart`s content, I`m going to listen to the fans who are suffering because of the love they gave. (EIDF 2024)

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Free Chol Soo Lee by Julie Ha, Eugene Yi – USA | 2023 – 86 minutes

In 1970s San Francisco, 21-year-old Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee is racially profiled and convicted of a Chinatown gang murder. After years of struggling to survive, investigative journalist K.W. Lee takes a special interest in his case, sparking an unprecedented social justice movement. (EIDF 2024)

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Johatsu – Into Thin Air by Andreas Hartmann and Mori Arata – Germany, Japan | 2024 – 86 minutes

In Japan, people vanish without a trace with the support of so-called “night moving” companies, which help people to disappear from their current life. Known as the Johatsu, or “the evaporated,” these people leave everything behind to start a new life somewhere else. (EIDF 2024)

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My Missing Aunt by Yang Juyeon – Korea | 2024 – 80 minutes

One winter night, Juyeon receives a phone call from her father. “Don’t end up like your aunt,” he says in a drunken, slurred voice. That day, she learns for the first time that she had an aunt who committed suicide 40 years ago, and begins to follow her aunt’s trail, which has become a shameful family secret. Remembering the women who have been erased from history, Juyeon sets out to find her aunt’s lost voice in the form of an animated film. (EIDF 2024)

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The Making of a Japanese by Ema Ryan Yamazaki – Japan, USA, Finland, France | 2023 – 99 minutes

Located in one of Tokyo’s sprawling suburbs, Tsukado is one of the largest public elementary schools in Japan. In the nation’s unique education system, children are tasked with running their own school to teach community values and how to play a role in the group. The film intimately captures one school year and the magic of childhood with precious moments of joy, tears and discovery as they learn the qualities necessary to become part of Japanese society. (EIDF 2024)

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The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Mudir – Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar | 2023 – 96 minutes

Young Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir wants to know why she has only one photo from her childhood, and why the girl in the picture isn’t even her. She decides to explore the past and its mysteries by creating a handmade replica of the Casablanca neighborhood where she grew up. There, she begins to question the stories her mother, father, and grandmother tell her about their home and country. (EIDF 2024)

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The Teacher Who Lived Before by Lee Gyudea – Korea | 2024 – 57 minutes

After a heartbreaking experience at school, a teacher took her own life. Her father, a potter, was devastated and could not fire his kiln for a long time. 15 months after his daughter`s death, he finally fires the kiln again. As he watches the flames, he begins to sing a song in her memory. Through the very personal story of the deceased teacher`s family and an artist, this documentary delves into the challenges of the education system in South Korea and reveals the path to healing. (EIDF 2024)

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Voices by Jee Hyewon – Korea | 2024 – 87 minutes

Starting in 1948, for seven years and seven months, Jeju Island was an island of death. The South Korean army and police massacred more than 30,000 islanders and burned down their homes in the name of rooting out communist partisans. Countless women suffered and endured unspeakable ordeals during the Jeju 4.3 Uprising. Following the path of a dedicated Jeju 4.3 researcher, this documentary brings the experiences of the women of Jeju out of the shadows. It is a journey back to the cruel times they faced, and a séance ritual that brings their silenced voices out into the world. (EIDF 2024)

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