PIFF

The 15th annual Pusan International Film Festival began last week, so for the past few days Haeundae has been pretty bumpin. Every hotel along the oceanfront is booked solid right now, and miscellaneous tour buses and limos have filled the city.

It's been really cool for me to watch press coverage of the events so far, and funny to see the Koreans go crazy for a plethora of Asian celebrities who I have no idea about. It also gives great perspective on our regular dose of American celebrity-obsessed culture.

Many screening venues have been set up across Busan, but the majority of showings will take place right in Haeundae. There is also one outdoor screening park, where up to 4,000 people can gather to watch a handful of films being screened on a massive outdoor projector. That's where I'll be Wednesday night, when my friend Stacy and I see a Canadian/South African film titled The Big Bang Club.

The Big Bang Club is "a realistic human dramatization of the activities of four photojournalists who documented the horrors of Apartheid". The main plot of the film is woven together by various love stories, actually based on the writing of two Pulitzer Prize winning authors (I'm paraphrasing here).

Aside from the fact that the film looks amazing, it's a fantastic choice for the outdoor stage. I'm very happy that a film with this content was selected to screen at the largest of the PIFF's venues. Working at the Centum School sometimes makes me worry about the general impression of African people in Korea. There have been a few cases where the subject of geography (African geography in particular) has come up in class, and all my kids can tell me is that 'people there are poor'. They also seem completely oblivious to the fact that caucasian people live in parts of Africa as well. Normally I would brush this off as pure 'kid speak', but after chatting with a few Korean teachers about the issue, I no longer believe that's the case.

But, more on this later.

Right now I am very excited for my Wednesday night plans! I'm also secretly happy to be catching a Canadian flick - it'll be a little taste of home. On that note, I am off to the gym. Happy Thanksgiving Canada! I miss you!