[BIFF Press Release] Busan International Film Festival (58)_(2019.10.25)

Late Deputy Director Kim Jiseok’s memoirs Jiseok is on a Business Trip 

- published in Korean and English

Late deputy director Kim Jiseok’s memoirs Jiseok is on a Business Trip: Eternal Journey to Cinematic World, project led by the Jiseok Film Institute, has been published in Korean and English in honor of the late deputy director and program director Kim Jiseok, dubbed ‘Sentinel of the Busan International Film Festival and the Big Star of the Asian Cinema’ in line with the festival period.

Kim Jiseok, the late deputy director and the program director of the Busan International Film Festival has been a key figure for the festival development that has helped secure its position as Asia’s largest film festival and one of the most internationally renowned film festivals.

The late Kim Jiseok was an important figure in the Korean film industry as well as in the Asian cinematic circles. He tried his best to maintain the festival while the Busan International Film Festival was dealing with a crisis in the wake of the controversy over the cinema blacklist after screening the film The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol in 2014. While the festival was embroiled in controversy, Kim suddenly died of a heart attack during his last business trip to the Cannes Film Festival in May, 2017. Jiseok is on a Business Trip is a collection of records from Kim’s business trips as well as brief thoughts and records over the last nine years. Film festivals across the globe, each nation’s own trends of the film industry, remarkable films and auteurs, along with a selection of insightful and thought provoking ideas can be found in the book. It’s not only a book about business trips, but also a collection of historic records from Asian films of the last decade.

The business travel journal of the late Kim Jiseok was published in time for the kick-off of the 24^th edition of the Busan International Film Festival. As if Kim’s stubbornness and obstinacy were fully reflected, the book contains a large body. Business travel journals excerpted from the reports of business trips from 2009 to 2017 in the title of Jiseok is On a Business Trip were the first to be released. The rest of the records are expected to soon be published. The Jiseok Film Institute is also planning on publishing an Anthology of Kim Jiseok.

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