Busan West Asian Film Festival, November 11-13

October 5, 2011

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY, IN CONTINUED PARTNERSHIP WITH THE BUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (BIFF), WILL PRESENT THE BUSAN WEST ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 11-13, 2011

Influential Director Bong Joon-ho to Receive Busan West Icon Award and Present Opening Night Film – The North American Premiere of “The Host” in 3D

Orange, CA (October 5, 2011) – Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, recognized as one of the premiere film schools in the United States, in continued partnership with South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Asia’s largest film festival, is proud to announce the Busan West Asian Film Festival, November 11-13 in Orange, Calif. Busan West presents a unique filmmaker showcase that brings select Asian films and filmmakers from BIFF to the U.S. to create a new platform for heightened recognition outside of Asia. This year the festival organizers are excited to welcome internationally acclaimed writer/director Bong Joon-ho (Mother, The Host, Memories of Murder), as the Busan West Icon Award recipient.

Over the course of three days, Dodge College will host a showcase of contemporary and classic Asian films selected primarily from the 2011 Busan International Film Festival by Dodge College Professor Nam Lee, an expert in Pan-Asian film. The Busan West program features a special opening night event and a closing night reception, all designed to showcase Korean and Asian culture through food, music, and décor. Q & A sessions led by notable film scholars will guide the audiences in conversation with several of Asia’s top film directors who have committed to participate at Busan West and personally introduce their films.

Bong Joon-ho will be honored with the Busan West Icon Award for his career that is not only seminal but has also influenced other filmmakers worldwide. Bong Joon-ho is one of Korea’s most celebrated filmmakers, whose popularity and acclaim in the U.S and Europe has elevated his stature in the global landscape and earned him icon status among fans and peers in the industry.

Bong Joon-ho will present his hit film The Host in 3D to open Busan West on Friday, November 11^th, following the award ceremony. The screening marks the North American premiere of The Host in 3D. He will also participate in an exclusive Busan West Master Class where he will discuss the crafts of writing and directing with Dodge College students.

Constantly working to be a hub of cinematic education and exploration in Southern California, this is just one of many steps for Dodge College to bring one-of-a-kind opportunities to students and other film enthusiasts in the area. By celebrating the cinematic accomplishments of the vibrant and emerging Asian cinema, the school aims to contribute to the growth of international understanding among nations.

“In our increasingly interdependent global society, the language of film offers one of the most direct ways in which peoples of different cultures can come to know one another, both in their differences and similarities,” says Robert Basset, dean. Thus the growing popularity of international cinema is no surprise. Audiences worldwide hunger for the visual and visceral experience of other cultures that-short of the experience of travel itself-only film can provide.”

The event marks the second venture between Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and BIFF to introduce the culture, look and feel of Asia’s largest film festival to an American audience and celebrate the vibrant and emerging Korean and Pan-Asian cinema. In 2009 the two parties united for the inaugural “Pusan West.” The popularity and success of this first-of-its-kind event planted the seeds for its return in 2011 with an expanded scope.

Busan West events will be held at Marion Knott Studios on Chapman University’s campus in Orange, CA.

Additional Busan West announcements will be made in the coming weeks. For more information on the event and tickets please visit www.busanwest.com.

About Bong Joon-ho

Born and raised in Daegu, Bong Joon-ho decided to become a filmmaker while in middle school, perhaps influenced by an artistic family (his father was a designer and his grandfather was a noted author.) He majored in sociology in Yonsei University in the late 1980s and was a member of the film club and studied the works of filmmakers such as Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Imamura Shohei. In the early 1990s, he completed a two-year program at the Korean Academy of Film Arts. While there, he made many 16mm short films and his graduation works Memory in the Frame and Incoherence was invited to screen at the Vancouver and Hong Kong international film festivals.

In 1994 he directed the short film White People and his first feature film was Barking Dogs Never Bite — part comedy and part cruel social satire, shot in 2000. He became widely known in his home country for his next film Memories of Murder, based on the true story of the country’s first known serial murders. He attained both commercial success and critical acclaim through this film. The Host in 2006 was seen by a record ten million people in the country and was well received by the Cannes Festival.

In 2008, he participated in the omnibus movie Tokyo ! (segment “Shaking Tokyo”) with Michel Gondry and Leos Carax.

His most recent film is Mother, the story of a mother who struggles to save her son from a murder accusation, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival in 2009. He is planning to direct Le Transperceneige, an adaption of Jean-Marc Rochette and Jacques Loeb’s graphic novel of the same name.

Bong served as a member of the World Dramatic Jury for the 27^th Sundance Film Festival and was the head of the jury for the Caméra d’Or section of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

About Chapman University:

Chapman University, founded in 1861, is one of the oldest, most prestigious private universities in California. Chapman’s picturesque campus is located in the heart of Orange County – one of the nation’s most exciting centers of arts, business, science and technology – and draws outstanding students from across the United States and around the world. Known for its blend of liberal arts and professional programs, Chapman University encompasses seven schools and colleges: Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics, Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Schmid College of Science, College of Performing Arts, School of Law and College of Educational Studies. Named to the list of top universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and the Princeton Review, Chapman University enrolls more than 6,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students.

Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts:

One of the premier film schools in the country, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts offers students the unique opportunity to learn filmmaking in a hands-on environment modeled on a working studio. The college is comprised of the Sodaro-Pankey Undergraduate School of Film and Media Arts, offering degrees in film production, film studies, screenwriting, creative producing, television and broadcast journalism, public relations and advertising, and digital arts; and the graduate Conservatory of Motion Pictures, offering M.F.A. degrees in film production, film and television producing, production design, and screenwriting, and an M.A. in film studies. Two joint M.F.A. degrees in producing are also offered in conjunction with the business (M.F.A./M.B.A.) and law (M.F.A./J.D.) schools. Dodge College is housed in Marion Knott Studios, a state-of-the-art, 76,000-square-foot studio and classroom building that provides students with 24-hour access to sound stages, edit bays, Dolby surround mixing, a motion capture stage and more. With an Oscar and Emmy-award winning full-time faculty that boasts more feature film credits than any other film school, Dodge College is where students learn the entertainment business from the inside out.