Screening of "A Single Spark" with English subtitles and interview with director Park Kwang-su this Saturday

This Saturday, April 4, at 2pm, the Royal Asiatic Society Cinema Club and Seoul Film Society will have a free screening of the 1995 Park Kwang-su film "A Single Spark" (아름다운  청년  전태일) with English subtitles at Seoul Global Center's Haechi Hall, on the 5th Floor of M Plaza in Myeong-dong. The screening will be followed by an interview and question and answer period with director Park Kwang-su.

The film is based on the life of Jeon Tae-il, who tried to improve the conditions of workers in the garment factories of Pyeonghwa Sijang near Dongdaemun, where he worked in the late 1960s; I've written about him here. Though he was only able to attend school up to middle school, he eventually came to understand that the Labour Standards Act offered workers protections, but when media attention (by the Kyungyang Shinmun and Donga Ilbo) failed to make any difference he and his coworkers held a protest on November 13, 1970 in which Jeon suddenly set himself on fire. This led politicians to take up the cause of labour standards and inspired the rise of unions, particularly by female workers, throughout the 1970s. An anonymous biography of Jeon was pubished in 1983, written by law student Jo Yeong-rae, who spent six years on the run, wanted by the government for student activism. The film weaves the stories of Jeon and Jo's lives together, with Jeon's life filmed in black and white, and Jo's (set in 1975) filmed in colour. It won the Best Film Award at the 1995 Blue Dragon Film Awards.

After the screening, the film's director, Park Kwang-su will take part in a 90-minute Interview and Question and Answer session after the screening.

While the screening is free, the there will be an admission fee of 7,000 won (5000 won for students) for the interview with the director to cover the cost of the interpreter, etc.

1. 2pm to 2:10pm – My introduction
2. 2:10pm to 4pm – Film screening
3. 4pm to 4:10pm – Interval
4. 4:10pm to 5:40pm – Interview and Question and Answer with Director Park Kwang-su.

Directions to Seoul Global Center's Haechi Hall can be found here and here, and more information about the film is here , and the screening, here.