GUARDIANS, 2024
Single channel film. 4K. Color / Stereo sound. Duration: 12 min.
Guardians takes place on one of Jeju Island’s many volcanic cones, locally referred to as oreum. On its lush grassy top sits an ancestral grave enveloped by a lava stone wall. A group of children arrive at the burial mound carrying with them kkokdu, Korean wooden funerary figures which used to adorn funerary biers and served to guide and accompany the dead on their journey. Representing different characters –entertainers, guardians, caregivers, real and imaginary animals– the figures attest to a desire for the departed to enter the other world safely and surrounded by joy. As the children animate the figures, their interactions become expressions of the fleeting nature of life and the relationship between nature and the human world.
Guardians trailer
Acknowledgments: Children: Heo Seoyoon, Heo Yoonwoo, Juno Hitchcock-Yoo, Park Sevon, Park Soha, Sia Rodriguez, Lihan Rodriguez. Production: Incisions. Concept and Editing: Jane Jin Kaisen. Director of Photography: Guston Sondin-Kung. Line Producer: Soyoung Kwon. Production Coordination: Yo-E Ryou. Music: Lior Suliman. Guqin: Wu Na. Colorist: Edoardo Rebecchi. Sound Engineer: Yoram Vazan. Production Assistance: Theo Bu. With special thanks: Hong Boram, Park Cheayoung, Heo Sooho, Han Yunseon, Eunju Yoo, Grant Hitchcock, Inhai Seo, Rodriguez Lazaro, Ahn Hyekyoung, Yongji Hyun. With Support From: The Danish Artistic Research Funding Programme, Ministry of Culture and the Danish Arts Foundation.