The 132nd Anniversary of Foundation Day was celebrated with the Ewha Green Movie Festa (EGMF), which was held on May 21, 23, and 24 at various areas on campus.
EGMF, an event where both students and visitors can watch a variety of movies and video art media for free, celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. As a largescale outdoor media art screening exhibition hosted by the College of Art and Design, it is held annually in May by installing 15 large screens around campus to show contemporary art.
The EGMF has included a section called “Ewha Media Art Presentation” (EMAP) since 2001, and it strives to show the artistic characteristics of a single channel media art. The overall aim of EGMF can be illustrated in that by choosing the event’s settings at various places around the university campus, it provides a chance for the audiences to think about both the perspective of women and the fact of an international sensation since the event displays a variety of movies produced from different cultures and countries.
In celebration of Ewha’s 132nd anniversary, the 2018 EGMF made changes for a fresh new start. These reforms entailed extending the scope of the event to the ECC Valley, preparing high supersized screens eight meters wide and 4.5 meters tall, and establishing a new section titled Ewha Film Festival (EFF).
EMAP’s exhibition was divided into two sections, the “media art section” and the “design of image section,” and they were displayed at places such as the backyard of Main Hall and the rooftops of the ECC. Single-channel videos, the main contents of EMAP, are linked with movies, computer graphics, installation art, and web art, which share the means of showing the most concise and basic ideas of art. Selecting the exhibition style of displaying its way out of a closed space into nature, EMAP chose Ewha to provide a new stage for modern visual arts. The unique atmosphere is generated in the fact that the wooded areas of Ewha and the single-channel videos present a prospect of modern visual arts. Widely known in and out of school for its unique characteristics, its expansion to a wider range is in response to its timely mission, which it has learned from its past 10 years of introspection.
The EFF was newly established this year to expand the base of Ewha’s visual arts, and it screened domestic and foreign films, while also examining the current state of contemporary culture. The event was held under a long-term plan to launch the EFF starting next year.
The festival was divided into four main sections. One of the four sections included the International Women’s Film Festival. In this part, a diverse range of movies were screened from different countries, such as Enelle Lindblom, Towheads, Tango Nero, and Printed Rainbow which were produced in Sweden, America, Belgium, and India, respectively. By showing these films, the International Women’s Film Festival aimed to present the development of women’s films throughout the past 20 years. It also strived to deliver messages regarding gender equality and other social issues in modern society.
Other sections displayed ‘Representative Korean Film’ in which both Ewha Cinematheque and the school’s students selected through voting. Furthermore, there was a ‘Shout of Small Movie’ category where it showed short films produced by students of Ewha. During the festival, the film “The Murmuring,” directed by Byun Young-joo (’88, Law), was shown. This film was also sold by The Korean Council, and all of its profits were used to support comfort women.
After the festival, Kim Seonghye, a freshman majoring in Philosophy, offered positive feedback.
“It was great to be able to enjoy cultural activities on campus, and this festival provided us with a great chance to enjoy old works that are not usually seen,” Kim said. “I am also very thankful for this festival for giving students the chance to discover things that they simply cannot acquire from lectures.”
Kim Na-hyun, a freshman majoring in French Language and Literature and a staff member at the EGMF, also commented on the event.
“The EGMF made progress because of the school’s students, from the selection of movies to the site staff, the installation, and the tidying up of the event when it ended,” Kim said. “I believe that it was a unique youth festival only available at Ewha.”