JANE JIN KAISEN

RETAKE: MAYDAY, 2011

3-channel video installation. HD video. Color / B&W. Total duration: 39:22 min. 

The 3-channel video installation Retake: Mayday takes outset in the U.S. propaganda film Mayday on Cheju-do shot on Jeju Island on May 1st, 1948. This archive film has become a principal visual representation of the Jeju April Third Massacre being the only known moving image representation of the event. However, the film was meticulously crafted by the United States Military Government to skew the truth about the massacre. For the film, various scenes were staged and fabricated to show how alleged communist guerrillas burned Ora Village and killed the civilian residents. In Retake: Mayday, the US propaganda film is shown unaltered as the center video, while the other two videos show a survivor, her son, and a filmmaker. They deconstruct the film’s propaganda and claims to documentary truth and instead, counter-narratives emerge.

Video excerpt: Retake: Mayday

Directed and edited: Jane Jin Kaisen. Photography: Guston Sondin-Kung, Jane Jin Kaisen. Featuring: Kim Dong Man, Song Seung Mun, Koh Nan Hyang