Seoul Visual Collective

A man will happen to fall into a situation in which he is obliged to make a hard decision in life. And he will face it willingly on some occasion, no matter how it may be risky. Although knowing that he is sure to lose, he bets everything on it.

Such was the case of Doomeal villagers 6 years ago. In 1994 Ministry of Education made a policy to shut up schools which didn't have more than 100 students, because, it said, it isn't economical to manage such schools. While more than 700 schools were being closed nationwide, no one, however, protested against it.

People, who were almost inhabitants of rural areas and whose children were going to those schools, stayed quiet, because they thought it's no use to contest with government. But Doomeal villagers didn't submit without showing any gestures of dissent. They are all ordinary petty farmers living hard lives. But they knew what is precious. So they didn't hesitate to put into practice their thoughts. No matter what the result was, their fights were brilliant. All other people applauded them.

The documentary was not just a record of them but a kind of tribute. And six years have passed since then. There have been this and that changes in Doomeal village; Some old men were dead and some baby born. Boys and girls repeated graduation and entrance. A sniveling child has grown at puberty with its face pimpled. And some left the village.

Actually these are not changes but just phenomena of the flow of time. I believed that the brilliance would last long even though it became dimmer and dimmer. And I expected that the defeat would not denigrate their pride, for such was their pride that they said "we won at the very point that we uprose!" However, I was not right. The farmers cherished the hope that they would make a new school on the site where the closed school had stood. But even it was frustrated owing to money.

The hope vanished away together with the school! There seems to be neither school nor hope in Doomeal village now. Then... is it all? What remains? I was confused as if I had lost a prop to depend on. But it was not all! A thought occurred to me that what led them to fight is more important than the fight itself. Look! They joke and laugh when their hope fell flat. What makes them so? Observing the farmers for about 6 years, I've asked myself a lot. And meanwhile my interest shifted from school to life and time. Time passes and a man embraces something in his life; it's from the earth and nature if he is a farmer.

In the beginning of this project, I had no clear idea what and how to make but just had the intention to record the everyday lives of Doomeal. I feel time in Doomeal and learn life from the villagers staying there and getting closer to the village. When I go to Doomeal, I don't visit the place any longer where the school stood once. Instead I listen to the sound of breathing of the village and smell at the scents of human beings. I wish to deliver a visual letter of Doomeal to people outside with this film. And above all I hope to disclose the wound which the farmer don't want to be seen, for it is the very essence of the brilliance.