CinemAsia Film Festival is from the 6th till the 11th of March 2018.
Interview by: Feargal Agard | FilmLAB participant: Daan Vree.
Film: Hangul Blues (2018) | Genre: Drama | Languages: Dutch, Korean.
I am Daan Vree.
“I am Daan Vree, writer and filmmaker. I am the creator of two short fiction films: Adopted (2012) and Hangul Blues (2018) in which I have converted my experiences and thoughts about adoption into fiction films. Since 2009 I have been occupying myself with filmmaking. At the Media Fund I have followed the course ‘Kind & Kleur’ (Child & Color), a course for screenwriting for youth dramas. I have also followed practical film courses at Open Studio and Bromet Filmschool, and in 2012 I was one of the CinemAsia FilmLAB participants with my film ‘Adopted’. After that I started working for CinemAsia Film Festival, as a film programmer and later as a FilmLAB producer I was involved in 12 short films.”
Hangul Blues (2018).
“I left CinemAsia in 2017 to focus on my own projects. My project Hangul Blues is about 28-year-old Petra, her life is turned upside down when she receives a letter and photo from her birth mother from Korea. She is determined to meet her and ambitiously attempts to learn the Korean language. As her struggle with the strange characters start to dizzle her, it is the 8-year-old ‘einzelgänger’ Gwan Mok, who just moved from Korea to the Netherlands, who teaches her an important lesson in life.”
“In my films I always try to talk about the theme of adoption from a surprising angle. My first short film Adopted is about a Chinese couple who would like to adopt a blond Dutch boy, but the Chinese grandmother can not accept it. I wanted to raise the question why non-white families almost never adopt children from a Western background, whereas the opposite happens a lot more.”
“It does not seem easy to be adopted.”
“Hangul Blues is about the feeling of loss. Every adopted person always carries the feeling of loss: you have lost your family, but also your original language and culture. This is most noticeable when you try to learn that language and find out that you can not catch up with the lost time anymore. The film is partly inspired by my own experiences at the Korean School when I tried to learn Korean right before my trip to Korea. In my opinion, films are not about a series of events, but about making your audience feel how something is. My cousin has seen the first version of the montage. His reaction was disarmingly simple: “It does not seem easy to be adopted.”
“The unique thing about FilmLAB.”
“The FilmLAB of CinemAsia has given me the opportunity to make this film.The FilmLAB is the only platform in the Netherlands that stimulates filmmakers with an Asian background to tell stories of the Asian diaspora.The makers know that world and the themes from their own experiences. You can see that in the films. Through FilmLAB you also get to work with professional partners in terms of cameras, light, sound processing and color-grading.That really adds value to the quality of your film. The unique thing about FilmLAB is that the film will premiere after a short production period during the festival, which is really a huge added value for me.”
“I do not know yet what the future will hold.”
“My dream was to make a short film. I have accomplished that right now. I do not know yet what the future will hold. During the creative process of a film, I always get new ideas, which I have all noted down in my notebook. I am curious what will come from this. Hopefully I can surprise myself again. That could be a new film, but also a book or something else.”
Foto en interview door Feargal Agard.
Check http://cinemasia.nl/en/ for all information about CinemAsia Film Festival 2018.
