By the end of the 1970's, however, the principal opposition party, the New Democratic Party under Kim Young Sam, had engaged in a political struggle against Park. Kim Dae Jung and his followers, represented the active dissident students, intellectuals, and progressive Christians who engaged in direct struggle against the Park regime. Following this, unrest grew among the Korean people which culminated in Park's assassination on October 26, 1979. Afterwards, South Korea went through rapid changes. There followed a competition for power, student upheavals in the bigger cities, a military take-over, a massacre at Kwangju and the emergence of a new authoritarian order. Since Park had concentrated virtually all political power around himself, his assassination created a political vacuum. Lieutenant General Chun Doo Hwan, the head of the Defence Security Command was responsible for conducting the investigation of Park's assassination and asserted control over the Army on December 12, 1979. Combined with increasing social and labour unrest and economic instability this set the scene for the military's concentration of power and ended up in Chun's presidency in August 1980.

This was not the only factor influencing the revolutionary upheavals in Korea. It was also the suppression of civil rights and the abuse of human rights which people were no longer prepared to tolerate. The ordinary citizens united with the manufacturing workers and the students who had learnt about western representative democracy in university to join the demonstrations which eventually led to the collapse of Park's military government.

Park declared a state of emergency under the pretext of communist threat from the North, in 1972. All democratic rights and civil liberties were suspended and in their place he imposed a new social order which he called Yusin (English: restoration). Under the Yusin system, Park established himself as a dictator. The Korean National Assembly became merely an alibi for democracy. Unions, universities, churches and the media were put under surveillance by the Korean CIA and the riot police were used to control students. There was even a network of spies which infiltrated the population to control public opinion. These measures served to strengthen the already strong public opposition to Park and his policies. Students took to the streets in anti-Yusin demonstrations. By the mid 1970's, labour union membership was increasing at a fast rate, reaching one million by 1978. Park could not completely ban labour unions because of Korea's relationship with the USA, which would have been opposed to such an action. Workers in the 1970's, supported by students, intellectuals, and Christian groups, were becoming increasingly active.

This was when the Minjung underground movement started to manifest itself. One of the reasons for the appearance of a new underground movement on the political front, was that Park's economic development plan was based to a large extend on low wages and the suppression of labour through both physical force and an oppressive legal structure. In the 1963 presidential election campaign Park had created a myth of affluence that aimed to give the working class a stake in a future industrialised, strong Korea, binding the new urban classes to the hegemonic order. Government and management propaganda constantly reinforced this myth which appealed to patriotism and urged to greater heights of production. In the 1970's this myth was dismantled. In reality, economic inequalities had not been destroyed and the realities of continuing inequalities were apparent. Park was forced to announce the implementation of Emergency Measure No. 9 in May 1975. This law made criticism of the president. There followed a series of arrests, prolonged detentions, forced confessions taken under torture and executions. It was during this period when the Minjung Movement became firmly established as an underground political and cultural opposition to the dominant power. By 1979, the movement had begun to take on the character of an underground institution in South Korean society. It had its own organisation. Works by dissident musicians, writers and artists became icons of the new subculture and gave it both emotional strength and intellectual substance.

The political and social unrest during the late 70's and the growing of the Minjung Movement resulted in student demonstrations. In early May 1980, students demanded that the 'remnants of the Yusin system' be removed from government posts. The student protests were initially concerned with campus affairs. As soon as the new semester began in March 1980, students on various campuses began to demand the removal of professors that held close ties to the Park regime, and of university owner-presidents who had gained large profits by operating their institutions. The students held rallies and on-campus demonstrations and in some cases occupied college offices. As a result of the unrest, many university presidents were forced to resign. The students also demanded autonomy from government control and the release of Kim Dae Jung, who by that time had been imprisoned for political activities. They also demanded the guarantee of labour rights and the protection of farmers' rights. By May 21, 1980, angry Kwangju citizens joined the students and began seizing arms from police stations and army stockpiles and succeeded in driving the army out of Kwangju. The demonstrations came to an end by the violent involvement of the military. Many people were killed. Others were driven underground as activists. On May 27, General Chun sent in the 20th Army Division which invaded the city which aimed their weapons against the demonstrating public. The number of dead was witnessed to be around 2,000.

The Kwangju massacre was to became an important landmark in the struggle for democracy in South Korea. It increased hostility and became the focus for succeeding anti-American sentiments. The 20th Army Division had been brought to Kwangju in from the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea, where it was under the command of General John Wickham from the US Army. It was assumed that he knew of Chun's intentions when he released the Division and therefore was an accomplice in the plan. The Kwangju incident also served to strengthen the anti-Chun atmosphere. This mood was intensified by the government's refusal to accept responsibility of the incident.

Throughout the 1980's, unrest grew due to the strict military government violating human rights and imprisoning opponents of the government. In 1986, under Chun Doo-Wan's government, there were more student protests and massive violent confrontations broke out between the police and demonstrators. In the early 1980's, Chun had increased the security forces by tens of thousands of young conscripts who trained as riot police. This intimidated not only the students, but also the average citizens. Students left the universities and went to work in factories to create an alliance between students and workers for political change. Over three thousand students became factory hands during this period.

Generally, the students of the 1980's underwent an ideological shift to the left, unlike their parents, who had been influenced by the Korean War and a fear of communism provoked by the state. They had grown up under General Park's Yusin policy and had been influenced by the Kwangju incident. They saw the threat as coming from their own government and the imperialistic policies of the USA and not like their parents had done, from the North. They believed that the USA had played a major role when Chun seized power by force in 1979-80, and that the USA was equally responsible for the Kwangju massacre. Their suspicions were confirmed when President Reagan invited Chun to the White House in February 1981. This period saw a shift in the blame for Korea's problems.

In January 1987, the death by torture of Pak Chong-chol, a Seoul National University student, became known to the public. It was the first time that the Chun government had admitted to torturing its prisoners. Public opinion had started to turn against the Chun government. After continuing strikes and demonstrations, Roh Tae Woo, the Democratic Justice Party's next presidential candidate, announced on June 29, 1987, an eight point programme of reforms which included direct presidential elections and the restoration of civil rights for Kim Dae Jung and other political prisoners as well as the protection of human rights, the lifting of press restrictions, the encouragement of local and campus autonomy, the promotion of political parties, and a call for social reforms.

Roh Tae Woo became president in February 1988 after having won the election against Kim Dae Young and Kim Young Sam. The Sixth Republic started to offer hope for the establishment of a democratic political system. Since then there has been a considerable freeing of the press which has promoted the publications of new newspapers, journals and books. In addition, the restrictions on film industry have been eased, enabling western audiences to see the politically subversive films of the independent film collectives.

I would now like to describe the evolution of the independent film collectives which started to manifest themselves through the ongoing political struggle in the country. The collectives' members documented these struggles on film to capture the injustices within society.

By March 1982, the first group which focused on critical film-making was founded. It was called the Seoul Visual Collective . It emerged out of the cineclub Yallasung, which had been established in 1980. Yallasung was made up of students from the Seoul National University who produced movies using 8mm film equipment. Their main emphasise was group work. According to a leaflet circulated at that time the student film makers wanted films to be a medium for participating in reality. They should be a "megaphone and poster for society,...and have a right to witness social movements." Films should also "provide a chance to experience communal life...and are ultimately meaningful in that they try to create a new style of social life" . While they saw the mass production of film as artistically and politically a worthless product and instrument of capitalist society, the young independent film makers in Korea created a network on their own.

The Seoul Visual Collective. which followed the cineclub Yallasung made a number of individual and collective short films. Its members came from diverse backgrounds which produced many different approaches to film making. They saw that in order for aesthetic and political i deas to change, they must be free to develop. Therefore they used film as a tool to bring about this change. Gradually, the group focused on current social issues and began their research. The result was a book published in 1983, Toward a New Cinema. It introduced a theory of film for liberation.

Political film-making has its roots in post revolutionary film-making in Russia after 1917. Since then, film-makers used film as a tool to transform society several times in history. The New Latin American Cinema of the late 1960's is today the most internationally known political resistance film movement. The independent documentary movement in Korea shares much in common with the films of the Latin American film groups. They both evolved out of an underground movement against the military repressive government in power and are both interested in creating a cinema against the moments of dominant western cinema. The role that the South Korean and Latin American films played within culture and society are to some extend similar. They speak out for the suppressed and make aware of the political and social inequalities within the people's situation. The filmmakers explore film as a political medium and are committed to use film as an instrument of social awareness. Cinema is used as a critical tool to examine and explores alternative modes of production and consumption. The Seoul Visual Collective uses film as an expression of their view on social, political and cultural outlook in Korean society after 1980. Therefore, it seems natural that South American cinema's concept of national liberation should have appealed to the young filmmakers.

It could be claimed that the Seoul Visual Collective improved the public attitude towards film. They introduced new activities around film. Out of it emerged a number of university film groups, which played an important role in creating a national culture: In the late 1980's, the independent film movement grew in various ways. For example, the Labour News Production, the Association of Independent Film and the Institute of National Cinema were established.

In co-operation with the Seoul-based Hyung-Sook, a leading Korean production company of independent films, the Seoul Visual Collective made the film On-Line, a portrait about independent filmmakers in Korea. On the basis of archive footage and interviews with spokespeople of different generations, the past, present and future of the Korean independent film are discussed. It tries to examine whether the filmmakers are allowed to use their new-found political freedom in South Korea.

On-Line was shown in Britain for the first time on 1st April 1998 at the LUX, Centre for Film, Video and New Media, in London. The Seoul Visual Collective made the film available for exhibition not even half a year after its release.

In 1998, the Collective describes itself as a professional film company that produces films and film theories about political independent film. It was founded with the name of Seoul Movie Collective and was the very first group of the political movie reform movement in Korea. Since then they have been continuously producing movie theories. It was not until 1990 that the organisation was recognised under the new name of Seoul Visual Collective and they entered a new phase of development. They see themselves at the "front of field where progressive films are produced and where film theory is constructed" .

The organisation is divided into a production and theory department. In the production department, the planning and producing of documentary films takes place. They also provide the public with information through written material. The production team is present at political events taking place in Korea to be at the forefront of politically activist film-making. It takes charge of public relations and the arrangement of post-production facilities. Education is also integrated into the organisation's ethics. They hold workshops for documentary making as well as running courses which are aimed at mediating the Korean culture through film. The theory department is responsible for the publishing of books and film related theories. They provide education for the visual media by planning and leading film exhibitions. The theory department has published several books about the independent film movement.

The Collective has produced a number of socially and politically critical films. In 1990, they produced The Place for Living and Struggling which dealt with housing problems in South Korean cities. In 1991, The Battle Line about a story of Hyun Dai heavy industry labour union was finished and followed by For The Song Of Ours Which Will Reverberate Through The Oak Po Bay about the ship building industry of Dae Woo and their labour union. In 1993, they made an environmentally aware film with a global video forum called Last Choice for saving the Earth. Later in the year they took on another political theme with A Documentary of the Intensive 54 Days during that Summer which showed the struggle of the labour union of the Hyun Dai precision industry. Since then other films were finished such as Dumeallee: A School Is Opening and May 1980, One Day... which deals with the people's uprising in Kwangju on May 18th 1980. Unfortunately, none of these films are available for viewing in England, yet. Generally, the films lay open the problems and ambiguities in the Korean society and economy in the 1990's.

However, in On-Line, extracts of these films are shown. I found that they try to engage the Korean spectator with historical memories. The outcome of this is hopefully that the viewer realises that the course of history does not happen to them but that they can play an active part to then feel the duty to transform injustice to an all acceptable situation. This process cannot only take place on one level i.e. language or content, but has to be an interplay of both.

The films attempt to stir people up and direct them to a clear consciousness and awareness of socio-economic shortcomings. They belong to a 'free' cinema in the sense that they do not obey any rules and regulations on formal characteristics in the dominant western sense.

As suggested by Janet Wolff, social consciousness and ideology are determined by economic structures. It is through the existence of the economic structure that creative products such as film can develop upon. It was under these circumstances that the film-makers under military government established new approaches in film to mobilise the people and lead them towards political activity. The Collective's members, like other political film-makers in history, used the medium film for social and political transformation. Film was used as a radical and revolutionary tool not only by the Collective of the 1980's but also by film-makers during times of suppression under Japanese colonial rule.

Through government influence on film, society changes correspondingly and film as a cultural product evolves out of historical development. This is true for every society which produces films. Janet Wolff suggests a non uni-directional approach to the production of art. Art does not evolve from social and political factors only, but instead is an interplay of both. She suggests that art as a cultural product reflects back on itself and this contributes to its own transformation and transgression. She argues that art as political and radical instrument is historically determined and that there is no contradiction between the view that art is socially and ideologically constructed, and the view that artistic and cultural intervention in politics is a possibility. She investigates into the relationship between social, ideological, cultural and political influences on art.

This is the starting point for the film Collective which places itself outside of conventional consumption and creates something new which emerges from the people. Although the structure of the Korean film industry today does not leave much space for independent films, the Collective has found a different channel to mediate their ideas to the people. They unite the process of production and exhibition and run screenings at the same site where the post production facilities are located. Their films are also shown at universities and public meetings. The output of the films of the Collective shows that film-makers were present when events such as the ruthless clearing of slums occurred. The films were copied on videotape in large quantities and distributed independently.

Today, the term 'independent' is no longer synonymous with the cinema movement as such. In the past, especially in the 1980's, the cinema kept pace with socio-political movements and therefore belonged to a social movement rather than practising film as an art. The situation has changed now. Independent Korean film today tries to search and find its own logic and aesthetic. However, in spite of these changes, much is still wrong in Korea. One of the main problem which young filmmakers face is censorship which restricts freedom of speech. The climate in Korea is still one of political intolerance. As a result, independent filmmakers sometimes become political dissidents and are oppressed by the authorities.

Korean independent documentary film collectives have the difficulty of publicly exhibiting their films. However, I think it is this intolerance by the government which nurtures the film movement and the constant search for change and transformation of society. Like the New Latin American Film movement, the independent documentary movement seeks to oppose the dominance of Hollywood models of production and reception. The film-makers invented alternatives to traditional systems of production, distribution and exhibition which are capable of altering existing patterns of cinematic culture. The task of independent Korean films is not to generate profit but to expose the socio-economic circumstances. The film collective's aims are to overcome the great distance between production and exhibition typical for Hollywood.

The films are based on a collective team instead of on an individual as in dominant cinema. Therefore, multiple points of views are disclosed by the producing collective who as a group are more objective compared to the art or Hollywood cinema director. Today however, the government tries to push young film makers from the collective into commercial film making to help and contribute to the growing film industry. This is also were members of the film collective and former members which have become directors for art house films disagree. In the eyes of the Seoul Visual Collective the directors that sell out to more commercial film making should not claim the title of independent film makers.

The film collective today use easy portable digital equipment which allows them to be more mobile than with analogue film equipment. All the material shot in the 1990's was filmed with digital video cameras. This allows quick editing of material and therefore a faster production process. When filming political gatherings or demonstrations they used more than one camera when filming. This way they have automatically bridged the gap of subjective representation. By using several cameras, different perspectives of the same event can be shown from various angles. Through this approach to recording images, the collectives end up with films that do not only differ in content but also in language from the mainstream films. Generally, digital equipment is widely used in Korea because of the advances of the electronics industry in Asia. Korea is an important manufacturing centre for video recorders and digital equipment. People are closer to technological innovations and digital equipment is integrated in their lifestyle due to the economic boom in the electronics industry during the 1980's. Having Japan as an economical role model, Korean industry and politics focus on competition and leadership in the electronics industry on the world market. The young filmmakers have employed this technological advancement to their advantage. They are using the establishment of the technological industry to produce a counter attack on the politics of the state. The independent documentary film movement could only have occurred at this moment in Korean history when film equipment was widely available. When in earlier times of crisis, the suppressed made use of the spoken or written word, with the advent of mass media and therefore easy portable video equipment, the collectives started to use this new medium to express their antagonism.

top		conclusion
index I		chronicle of events
index II	email	bibliography & refernces

� saltmucus 1999