"Good Films in Theaters Longer"... The 'Slow Cinema' Movement

[Anchor]

Many of you have probably experienced the disappointment of a movie you really wanted to see leaving theaters too quickly. To ensure that good films can be watched for a longer time, creators and audiences are launching the 'Slow Cinema' movement.

Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung has the story.

[Reporter]

Unearthing hidden modern history,

[Then we have no choice but to fight with our lives on the line.]

Looking back at the lives of a composer and lyricist couple who wrote immortal masterpieces,

[When everyone hears it, they say, 'This is that song, this is my song.']

Paying attention to teenagers whom society overlooks,

[Can I learn welding here?]

[Hold this up to look from next time.]

These are entertaining and meaningful independent films that were released in the fall of last year.

Though they are not blockbuster films like "The Odyssey," these movies, which play the role of salt and light in our society, disappear even from the few theaters screening them within two to three weeks of release.

[Park Bong-nam / Director of "1980 Sabuk": Completing a film is possible through the tenacity and effort of the director and production team, but theatrical screenings have nothing to do with our capabilities...]

Movies that took years of painstaking effort to make are ending their runs without ever properly seeing the light of day.

Filmmakers and audiences have stepped up to change this reality.

It is aptly named the 'Slow Cinema' movement.

The idea is for filmmakers and audiences to unite so that good movies can be enjoyed in theaters for a long time.

It is a method where audiences, moved by a desire to share the film with others, rent out theaters through sponsorships to screen the works.

[Yang Hee / Director of "Words Whispered by the Wind": There have been around 60 rental screenings since the end of the theatrical run, and most of them record sellouts. We are meeting audiences truly slowly.]

On the 2nd, a screening of "3rd Year, 2nd Semester" was held at the request of vocational high school students, inviting even adults,

[Kim Hye-jin / Audience member: The emotional impact of the movie is so great that I hope it can be shown right in our neighborhood, and since the vocational high school students suggested watching it together, we are preparing a screening.]

The day before yesterday (the 21st), a "Slow Cinema Day" event was held at a theater in Seoul, where three films were screened back-to-back.

The production teams of the three films are determined not to hand them over to OTT platforms until at least the end of the year, continuing their slow theatrical run.

(Camera: Kim Hyun-sang | Video Editing: So Ji-hye | Design: Seo Seung-hyun | VJ: Oh Se-gwan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.