From the publication of his first book, My Pilgrimage to Western Art in 1992 to My Pilgrimage to Japanese Art in 2022, many Koreans, particularly artists, have responded to the ‘blade-like’ sharp sentences of a Zainichi Korean essayist Suh Kyung-sik. The troupe ‘Seoulkedam’ was one of them, and as the company has been focusing on diverse diaspora in metropolis Seoul, it is natural for them to meet Suh Kyung-sik, a Zainichi Korean diaspora. The artistic director of the troupe, Yoo Young-Bong recalls his time studying abroad in Japan in the 1990s and realizes that Chosun University, a Korean ethnic school in Japan, was located right next to the Japanese university he attended at the time. He was not aware at that time, but seeing it comes back after a long period of time, the word ‘fateful’ does not seem so strange. After the play, the talk session will be held.

Perhaps for many people, a sense of belonging is as natural as air. But for someone, it is something to pursue desperately. The desire of belonging of people who have lost their homes for various reasons, such as war, persecution, and overseas adoption, is unimaginably deep. The film Belonging (2021, Paul Wu) tells stories about people on a journey of searching for their belongings. Abdul Wahab, who is from Syria and naturalized in South Korea, Sony and Jacob Jorgenson sisters, who were born in Korea and adopted to Sweden at an early age, and an Egyptian refugee couple Sarah Ahmed and Musab Darwish. We would like to talk about the sense of belonging of people who lost their homes and refugees because of the war. After watching Belonging at DIAFF Academy. Abdul Wahab, the Director of Helpsyria who has fled from Syria and has been naturalized in South Korea will join us for conversation.

LEE Saegil

Communications Associate of UNHCR Representation in the Republic of Korea. His work is to raise public's awareness of refugees. In particular, he works as a producer of UNHCR Korea's self-produced documentary films such as Belonging. Through these films, he tries to let more people understand who refugees are by telling truthful stories of refugees in a cinematic way.

Abdul Wahab Al Mohammad Agha

The Director of Helpsyria, also working for the civic group Helpsyria, which was founded on June 13, 2013 to help people suffering from the Syrian war. He worked as a lawyer back in Syria, and currently completed a PhD in Law and is working on his thesis at Dongguk University in Korea. He is a co-author of Introducing My Friend Abdul Wahab (co-author).

The DIAFF feature film meets writers of the DIAFF special book, Usual Us. Park Seolyeon, the author of “For the Case of Kim Su-jin,” and JO Woori, the author of “Bouquet and Bridesmaid,” will watch Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee together and talk about the novel, film, and diaspora.

PARK Seolyeon

PARK Seolyeon was born in Cheorwon. She wrote novels such as Magic Girl Retires, The Shirley Club, The Job of Martha, The Girl in the Air, and the novel collections such as Your Mom’s the Better Player, Welcome to the Comic Heaven, and My Hormones Made Me Do It. She won the Hankyoreh Literature Award and the Young Writer Award.

JO Woori

JO Woori has been publishing novels since 2011. She is interested in topics such as women, queers, and labor. She has published Run a Relay, Team Play, My Girl and Girl Friends, Last Love, etc.

The DIAFF feature film meets writers of the DIAFF special book, Usual Us. Han Jung Hyun, the author of “Gi(期), Wait for You,” and HWANG Mogua, the author of “Green Letter,” will watch Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Wife of a Spy and will talk about the novel, film, and diaspora.

HAN Jung Hyun

Han Jung Hyun started her writing career with the Dong-A Ilbo’s annual Spring Literary Contest in 2015, won the Today’s Writer Award in 2019, the Queer Literature Award in 2020, the Young Writer Award, the Bu-Ma Democratic Protests Literature Award in 2021, and the Modern Literature Award in 2022. Her full-length novels include Let’s Call Me Marilyn Monroe, Juliana’s Tokyo, and the novel collection Girl Celebrity Lee Bona.

HWANG Mogua

Hwang Mogua is a member of the Science Fiction Writers Union of the Republic of Korea. In 2019, she debuted with “The Moment Arcade,” the winner of the short story category at the 4th Korean Science Literature Award. The work “Augmented Infatuation” from the anthology Big Star was produced as part of MBC Cinematic Drama SF8. She published her first full-length novel The New World We’ll Meet Again and her short, Faces of the Night. Hwang won the 2021 SF Award for “Homecoming, Better Late Than Never.”

A war is going on in Ukraine right now. People around the world are talking about using biochemical weapons and nuclear weapons as well as the possibility of World War III. In this time of crisis, what is the possibility for ‘art’? What is the significance of existence in art? It’s a difficult problem, but something we want to think about with everyone.

Suh Kyung-sik

Suh Kyung-sik was born in 1951 in Kyoto, Japan as the Second generation of Zainichi Koreans living in Japan. He is a writer and honorary professor after retiring from Tokyo University of Economics last year. His major books include My Pilgrimage to Western Art, Boy’s Tears, Finding Primo Levi, a Witness of the Ages, The Diaspora Journey, Dancing at the Boundary (co-authored by Tawada Yoko), etc.

It has been 10 years since Diaspora Film Festival started in 2013. During the decade of rapid change in domestic and international circumstances surrounding DIAFF, it can be said that the festival has been breaking through sharp issues of the time with cinematic language. This forum will examine the future of the DIAFF, the first film festival to focus on ‘Diaspora,’ which began in Incheon, the city advocating diversity and hospitality. It will be a place to share the history of Incheon, the first harbor city in Korea where immigration began, as well as the discussion on the contemporary meaning of the word ‘diaspora’ in the form of a film festival. The forum will review the history of the past 10 years of the DIAFF and discuss why it should be held in Incheon while seeking broad ways of strengthening local connections with other Incheon-based film festivals. It will be an opportunity to picture the future based on the 10-year history of the DIAFF being with contemporary diaspora groups, while talking about the 'hope of coexistence' through film.