2021 3rd KIEFF
[한국어]
9-11 September
On-line Event [Starts 0:00 (KST) Sept. 9]
The Korean Society for Visual Anthropology (KSVA), founded in 2017 and incorporated as a Not-for-Profit organization in 2019, is excited to organize the Korea International Ethnographic Film Festival (KIEFF) to share with the larger audience many possibilities and meanings of ethnographic film. We are delighted to screen 7 films selected from the 2020 KIEFF Student Selection. A total of 436 films from 73 countries in Africa, Americas, Europe, and Asia were submitted and the selection committee selected the 7 films that showed most excellent qualities of ethnographic film by filmmakers in anthropology and media studies.
Please join us in recognition and celebration to appreciate the hard works and talents of young filmmakers who revealed intimate and in-depth stories and experiences of daily life that can only be filmed through strong rapport in the field. Especially, the selected films includes films that show different aspects of globalization and climate change present in small and individual lives. The selected films will provide critical views of the filmmakers who investigate the differences of lives that take place in different parts of the world and the common issues that we all face.
Regrettably, the Third KIEFF International Ethnographic Film Festival will take place on-line due to the pandemic of COVID-19. But I find comfort knowing the fact that this may be a good opportunity to more people interested in ethnographic film in the world to see the excellent ethnographic films by student filmmakers.
Kijung Lee | Festival President
KIEFF 2021 YouTube Playlist
Film 1 – La Madonna Del Mare (Bride of the Sea) YouTube link : https://youtu.be/lazSRX3DUDc
Valentina Lanci | 2019 | Norway | 30min | Color
Anna Maria has been fishing since she was five years old. Today she is 83 years and the oldest Italian fisherwoman. Born and raised in a village along the Adriatic coast, her family was one of many fishing families in the village. Her father taught her the traditions, art and the knowledge of fishing, and this tradition still holds a strong bond within her.
Director Biography: Valentina Lanci is an Italian photographer and journalist currently living in Norway. <La Madonna del Mare> is her first documentary project realized within her Master program in Visual Anthropology at UiT- University of Tromso. The documentary explores the everyday life of the oldest fisherwoman and filmed, edited and subtitled by herself.

Film 2 – Wave of Saviour YouTube link : https://youtu.be/ifKq8z0yrvA
Ricky Rahadi | 2019 | Indonesia | 16min | Color
A community called RPAI (Ambulance Escorts Volunteer Indonesia) whose activities are to guard the ambulance where it is prohibited in the traffic constitution. But what they do is purely from a soul calling, even if they have to break the law.
Director Biography: Ricky Rahadi, born on 1998 is currently studying in the field of concentration in Broadcasting Communication Science, Telkom University, Bandung. His first work as a director and producer was in early 2017, a short film genre drama with the theme of local wisdom entitled <Tatapan Conscience>. The short film won at IPSMF 2017. <Wave of Saviour> is a short documentary about volunteer ambulance escorts whose operations are in conflict with the Road Transport Traffic Act.

Fim 3 – “Tchoua-tchoua”, survival strategy YouTube link : https://youtu.be/HtdyLMFR-80
Robi Layio | 2018 | Cameroon | 25min | Color
“Tchoua-tchoua”= transaction, in Hausa language; to fend yourself. Portrait of Ali Moulla Koufaïni in his activities at the dry fish market, as head of the family and as youth leader in the locality of Blangoua, on Lake Chad. Metaphor for the resilience of young people to the security crisis caused by Boko Haram.
Director Biography: Robi Layio is a PhD candidate in Visual Anthropology at the University of Maroua. In his works, he is interested in border culture and young people in cross-border dynamics, the citizenships, trans-citizenships and the resilience of young people to the security crisis in the Lake Chad micro-region.

Film 4 – Just Go Fucking Surfing YouTube link : https://youtu.be/FXQZ5T5OD04
Juul Hesselberth | 2019 | Netherlands | 27min | Color
Although more women are surfing, their stories still remain rarely told. What does the marketed ‘sexy surfer girl’ image do with women who never felt like they suited this image? How has this influenced their career and self-esteem? For her ethnographic documentary <Just Go Fucking Surfing> Juul Hesselberth spent three months in Australia, where she followed four female pro surfers whom pursue(d) a surfing career.
Director Biography: Juul Hesselberth (born 1994) is a visual artist/anthropologist based in The Hague. Her work focuses on topics such as sport, gender and social communities. She directed the film <Skaterotopia(2018)> which investigates the multiple forms of inclusion and exclusion present within a skater community’s place within the larger urban environment of Athens that is undergoing significant and fast-paced changes

Film 5 – Home Soon Come YouTube link : https://youtu.be/eF5TbIZv-Ho
Hope Strickland | 2020 | United Kingdom | 22min | Color
Home Soon Come is part of an on-going project with the elderly Caribbean community in South Manchester. The film plays between archival footage of the Caribbean islands, domestic spaces in Manchester and scenes shot in a day centre for the Caribbean elderly. It is a film that sits between past and present, with an emphasis on memory-placing through the people around us and what it means to find ourselves at home.
Director Biography: Hope Strickland is an artist-filmmaker and visual anthropologist from Manchester, UK. Her current work is concerned with archival response, Black feminist thought and postcolonial ecologies. She is currently studying PhD studentship in Social Anthropology with Audio-Visual Media, UCL.

Film 6 – Village in the Sky YouTube link : https://youtu.be/3Q3IqFMEdNI
Ramesh Holbole | 2018 | India | 20min | Color
The village of Aagaswadi is owing to ever occurring drought followed by lack of livelihood options, the village’s youth is forced to abandon home for city life, leaving behind the old and children. Bhimrao digs a well to quench his own as well as his farm’s thirst. This film portrays the people of Aagaswadi and their confrontation with drought and other adversities, as well as relations affected by it.
Director Biography: Ramesh holbole has done Masters in Direction and Screenplay writing from Film & Television Institute of India, in 2020. He is involved in many cultural and social activities and also directed short films. Now he is working on making his first feature length documentary film on famous Indian photographer Sudharak Olwe’s life and journey.

Film 7 – Misioneros del temporal (Missionaries of the rain) YouTube link : https://youtu.be/qMWdJFujQ2Y
Jimena Paz | 2019 | Mexico | 20min | Color
In the central highlands of Mexico, a group of farmers, resisting modernity, keep on with the tradition of rain petition rituals. With enormous responsibility, they assume the mission to protect and restore their sacred sites in order to harmonize climatic balance and assure rains and food for the entire world.
Director Biography: Jimena Paz graduated in Documentary Film (ENAC-UNAM). She has specialized in the area of communication and environmental education through photography, documentary film and teaching. She is directing the documentary feature <Lectores del tiempo(Readers of time)>(edition phase), that show the relationship of indigenous peoples and the environment.

