The 2014 MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) Film and Video has opened to the public. MMCA Film and Video provides a place not only to experience modern art and films that have already interpenetrated and blurred the boundaries of each genre, but also to enjoy their entertaining fun as the most popular arts. Films attract audiences as they create a dramatic reality and produce the magic of empathy to take the audience deep into a story. There is, on the other hand, a new type of film. Films of this type abandon a familiar plot and open up a new window. These films do not offer dramatic pleasure but search for the very nature of film itself, and this is the beauty that is not yet explored and that we can discover.

MMCA Film and Video built three theme sections based on three different criteria, 'Thinking Cinema,' 'Cine-magic,' and 'Open Cinema,' reflecting a variety of expectations that an audience has for movies. 

The primary topic of “Thinking Cinema” is 'The Art of Non Fiction'. The purpose of this section is to get people to think about the way a documentary film shows things existing in the real world, and matters that happened in the past and are happening now. In that respect, the 5th DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival last year had a number of movies that are fit to be discussed in 'The Art of Non Fiction'. While being sponsored by the DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival, MMCA Film and Video finally opened  'The Art of Non Fiction_DMZ Docs Special Screenings'. 

The films to be shown in this special screenings approach realism in diverse ways, making us think about the gap between fact and reality. A fact may be hidden beyond reality and it may be uncomfortable to disclose the fact. A few brave directors sometimes chase a covered–up fact in a movie, but the fact is often processed as a truth that someone has hidden. A truth is subjective and emotional, which sometimes makes a blunt documentary even more fictional than a fiction is. The captured reality may reveal its fictional nature depending on the observer’s point of view, and the reality may be disclosed by the observer’s interpretation. The skills of non–fiction, i.e. the way of speaking, that a documentary possesses seem like walking on a tight, thin rope between reality and fiction in a dangerous but pleasurable way. “Reconversion (2012)” follows the passage of time condensed in building structures, and “Leviathan (2012)” obsesses over the imbalanced rhythm that the raw, bold image in a reality imparts. “Captivity (2012)” carves an image of lasting silence that carries engraved light and shade, and “Let’s Dance (2013)” reenacts the emotional wounds of a memory in a fictional way. “Tour of Duty (2012)” does not give up the modest view of a real person, while “PRISMA (2013)” transforms the image of a space where careless moments continue into an inner contemplation. 

'The Art of Non Fiction_DMZ Docs Special Screenings' encompasses not only documentaries of masters including Jean–Luc Godard and Ken Loach, but also young directors who now embark on their search. Let’s meet 'The Art of Non Fiction' that offers a rich range of movies from ones that realize the reality to ones that search for the inside of reality. 

*image (left)
Hyung-joo Kim 
The Basement Satellite, 2013
HD, Color, 110min. 
courtesy of Hyung-joo Kim