Director: Mark Jeremy Kaplan Producers: Mark Jeremy Kaplan, Nefise Oskal Lorentzen
Description:
We live in a MAD world—we live with the threat of nuclear warfare, where mad stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. Where the theatre of war shifts across the globe and is part of our reality, no matter who we are or where we live. We are all at risk and all, to some extent, implicated. Which is why South African filmmaker, Mark J Kaplan went to Jeju island, off the South Korean mainland. This ecologically unique island is a paradise with a dark side. Where a Cold War genocide just after the Second World War has been followed by a new and different kind of massacre, the construction of a massive naval base that has devastated the environment and placed the islanders in the cross-hairs of a potential future global conflict between the two world superpowers: the US and China. Through the memories and actions of a range of political activists, religious leaders and artists the film explores the interconnectedness of past, present and future and the universal relevance of a village resisting an empire.
Biography:
Grey Matter Media producer/director, Mark J Kaplan is a politically engaged filmmaker who was held in solitary confinement and deported from Apartheid South Africa. He is an Emmy Award winner. (The Lion’s Trail). International awards including Best International Documentary at One World, 1999 (Where Truth Lies) and Award of Excellence, 2006, The Society for Visual Anthropology, USA, (Between Joyce and Remembrance). The Village Under The Forest received the Audience Award for Best South African documentary at The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, 2013.
