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Waltz for the Shore

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CHOI Heejin

  • South Korea
  • 2024
  • 19min
  • G
  • DCP
  • color

World Premiere

Synopsis

Haerim visits her grandmother's house on the southern coast, expecting a relaxing day at the beach. Instead, she finds reclaimed land and unfamiliar surroundings. The sea and harbor are now enclosed by private property and bamboo forests. The film captures awkward reunions, canned peaches, a dizzy bus ride, and an overturned umbrella—fragments of her (non)ordinary journey. It explores an identity that belongs nowhere and invites reflection on place and belonging.

Director's Statement

"This film extends from the director's research on urban planning and how failed development projects affect people's daily lives and emotions. Instead of looking at cities from above like traditional planners do, this project listens directly to what residents experience every day. The film is set in Masan, Gyeongnam, where land has been reclaimed from the sea since the Japanese colonial period. It looks at what happened after a large-scale development plan in the 1990s and early 2000s—called the ""Dubai of Korea""—failed completely. This failure left behind empty land and deeply hurt the community. Through the sensory journey of a young woman visiting her grandmother's house, the film captures a community's lingering time—caught between past trauma and an uncertain future. Using the sounds of a coastal summer and subtle moments, it invites audiences to reflect on place, memory, and loss.
 Based on ethical reflection as a researcher, this work does not directly recreate the village's development conflicts. Instead, it was completed through the trust and collaboration of local residents and fellow artists."

schedule

Code Time Theater Grade
Korean Spectrum, Here & Now Shorts 2 2025-08-23 | 10:40 - 12:05 MEGABOX Sinchon 2 GV
Korean Spectrum, Here & Now Shorts 2 2025-08-27 | 13:30 - 14:55 MEGABOX Sinchon 7

Director

  • CHOI Heejin
    Choi Heejin is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Planning at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University. Her work explores development conflicts and women's livelihoods through academic writing and visual media. By combining ethnographic fieldwork, participatory planning, and collaborative filmmaking, she examines affect, infrastructure, and temporality. Her first short film, Waltz for the Shore, received a Recognition Award at the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA) Film Festival in 2025.

Credit

  • ProducerÃÖÈñÁø CHOI Heejin
  • Cast ±èÁ¶, ±è¸»¿¬, ¹Ú´öÀÚ KIM Jo, KIM Malyeon, PARK Deokja
  • Screenwriter ÃÖÈñÁø CHOI Heejin
  • Cinematographer ¿À¼¼ÀÏ OH Seil
  • Editor ¿À¼¼ÀÏ OH Seil
  • Sound °íÀ±Áö KOH Yunji (ÇöÀå »ç¿îµå)