ARTIST'S NOTE

In Jesa I reconstruct the Korean tradition of funerary rites, referred to as jesa, for my grandfather who passed during the Covid outbreak in Argentina. Through this entry point, I document my father’s reaction to his father’s passing. Having shared a complicated relationship where they were estranged for long periods of time during his youth, I try to piece together intimacy in the context of intergenerational trauma.



In the film, I ask my father to remember my grandfather’s favorite song and sing it. It is a song about refugees during the Korean war saying goodbye to each other at a pass in between two mountains, unsure if they will ever see each other again. Perhaps by my father singing, my brothers embracing, my mother and father kissing, and me making this film, we can try to reconstruct these bridges once more, to see one another as we are.

감독의 할아버지가 돌아가신 후 제작된 <제사>는 가족의 친밀함에 여전히 영향을 주고 있는 세대 간의 트라우마를 다룬다. 식민지 경험과 전쟁 이후에 대한 기억이 가족의 친밀한 정도에 얼마나 영향을 주었는지 탐구하며, 노래, 스토리, 과거 회상 등을 활용한다. 그리고 질문한다. 우리가 트라우마 이후 어떻게 함께 해야 하는가?