[Interview] Sewol documentary “In the Absence” receives Oscar nomination

Filmmaker Yi Seung-jun, director of “In the Absence,” a documentary about the Sewol ferry tragedy. (Kim Jung-hyo, staff photographer)

Director Yi Seung-jun recalls painful process of creating the film

Filmmaker Yi Seung-jun, director of “In the Absence,” a documentary about the Sewol ferry tragedy. (Kim Jung-hyo, staff photographer)

Yi Seung-jun clearly remembers the events of “that day”: Apr. 16, 2014.

“I was in the middle of editing a documentary, and I had gone out onto the porch to get some fresh air when I looked at my phone and saw the news about the Sewol [ferry sinking]. I was worried, but then I saw the update that ‘everyone on board had been rescued,’ and I felt relieved. It was only later that I learned it wasn’t true,” he recalled on Jan. 15 while speaking to the Hankyoreh at its office in Seoul’s Mapo District.

Many of his colleagues made their way to Jindo Island near the site of the sinking. As distrust toward the media establishment reached its peak, independent media producers decided to make their own records. Yi also received a request, but did not make the trip. Part of it was due to his being busy with the late stages of documentary production. More than that, however, he lacked the confidence.

“I didn’t really watch the news. My daughter was in her first year of middle school at the time, and I couldn’t bear even to see the kids on the street in their school uniforms. I didn’t have the confidence to pick up a camera and film them,” he recalled. The experience left him with a sense of indebtedness.

Yi has excelled in the past with “human-focused documentaries.”

His work had received global recognition, with his “Planet of Snail” -- a documentary about the love between two disabled people -- winning top honors in 2011 at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, which has been called the “Cannes of documentaries.” In late 2016, the US documentary production/distribution group Field of Vision suggested that he make a documentary on the candlelight demonstrations for the impeachment of then President Park Geun-hye. After discussing the idea with producer Gam Byeong-seok, he made another suggestion: why not talk about the Sewol tragedy that partially triggered the demonstrations?

“I saw it as an opportunity to repay the debt in my mind,” he explained.

Focus on pain and tragedy rather than establishing the “truth”

Rather than attempting to establish the “truth,” he decided to focus on the torment of that fateful day. He received vast volumes of footage from the scene from participating colleagues in the “4/16 Archiving Team”; with the help of family members, he acquired videos from the mobile phones of students who died in the sinking. He interviewed divers and the relatives of victims. As the events of the day are calmly reconstructed, what emerges at the roots of the pain is the “absence of the state” -- children being allowed to die by state organizations, none of which functioned properly in the tragic. For this reason, the 29-minute documentary was given the title “In the Absence.”

After the documentary was completed in September 2018, a screening was held for the victims’ family members. Many found it difficult to even see the ship; some walked out midway through. After it was over, one family member approached Yi.

“I want you to go overseas and share this with people,” the family member said. Yi promised that he would.

In November 2018, the film received the Grand Jury Prize at the film festival DOC NYC. The New Yorker noted that the video had registered more than 2.4 million views on YouTube.

“I was worried about whether the US viewers would understand, but when I went to see the screening, I saw that my fears were unfounded,” Yi recalled.

“You can hear the murmurs at the parts where the captain is fleeing by himself or where they’re at the Blue House looking for a video to report to the president. They see what the problems are,” he said.

“Everyone’s eyes are red when the lights go up after the screening. People say things like, ‘We’ve had similar things happen to us’ and ‘I want other people to see this.’”

Making Korean film history alongside “Parasite”

The DOC NYC award meant the documentary was automatically submitted for review for the Academy Awards. On Jan. 13, it was officially listed as a nominee for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 92nd Academy Awards -- joining director Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” in a first-ever accomplishment for South Korean films.

“I have mixed feelings,” Yi said. “I was happy [to be nominated], but I didn’t know if it was really something to be happy about [given the tragic subject matter]. I reassured myself with the thought that I was lucky to be able to keep my promise to the family members.”

News of the Oscar nomination has prompted renewed interest in the Sewol tragedy at home. The video can currently be viewed on YouTube with a search for the title “In the Absence.” One of the comments reads, “It’s hard for me all over again after watching it. This is a trauma of our times. But continuing to suffer like this is the only way to remember without forgetting.”

Yi said, “What scares me most is when people say it’s ‘time to stop now.’ How can we stop when the scars haven’t yet healed? If we become numb to it, it’s destined to happen again. That’s why we have to keep talking about, no matter how painful it is.”

By Suh Jung-min, music correspondent

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