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Documentary ㅣ JEONJU Lab: Feature Length

Family ID(Working title)

MA Minji
Korea 80min 4K Color/B&W Documentary
Production StatusScenario Development
Goal of ParticipationProduction Company Meeting, Fundraising, Mentoring, Feedback
Production budget372,450,000 KRW
Budget Required362,450,000 KRW
Secured budget
  • JEONJU International Film Festival[First Fund Grant] : 5,000,000 KRW
  • Shangma Pictures[Self-funding] : 5,000,000 KRW
LOGLINE

Amidst COVID-19, I lost my mother. While sorting her belongings, I found a note that hints at the secret of my birth.

SYNOPSIS

My mother, who cherished me as her late-in-life daughter, passed away from COVID-19. Among her belongings, I discovered a note hinting at adoption, setting me on a journey to uncover the secrets of my birth. Another identity, another name. Surprising revelation of sisters despite being the only daughter. The harsh reality of being abandoned by biological parents just for being born without balls.

In an instant, the beliefs I held as 'truth' collapsed like dominoes. I split from my long-time boyfriend and faced gender identity confusion. It hit me hard that my dreams of a conventional family were more hers than mine. In all the chaos, I admitted to myself and fully embraced my identity as a queer. With my non-binary partner, I discovered a newfound sense of love, building a family that feels authentically ours.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

In this film, I aim to explore the process of seeking my biological parents from a feminist lens and uncover the gendered nature of adoption. Additionally, I intend to shed light on the stories of women unable to bear children or sons and the plight of children abandoned or killed due to being female against the backdrop of a patriarchal society with ironic complexities.

Meanwhile, this film portrays love towards my mother, Haesuk, who gave me my true first name, 'Minji.' Inheriting her greatest legacy, 'love,' I strive to build my own family, just as she did. Creating this film is a process of accepting and mourning her death. Also, I aim to delve into Haesuk's 'love' not as a mother but as a person, contemplating how to carry forward this love in my own life as an adoptee.

INTERVIEW
What inspired you to start this project?
Two years ago, when my mother passed away from COVID-19, I discovered a secret about my birth that I never knew. While sorting through her belongings, I stumbled upon a note related to adoption. It was like a scene from a movie of a single piece of paper falling in slow motion. After that, everything I believed to be true began crumbling rapidly. I started questioning marriage, my desire for a traditional middle-class family, and my gender identity. As a documentary filmmaker, I felt compelled to capture it all. People around me kept asking, "Did you film it?" The truth is, it wasn't until after my mother's death that I couldn't shake the question of how to build my new family. At its core was Haesuk, who had already begun forming a new family through adoption before me. I wanted to understand who she was not as my mother but as a person and contemplate how to inherit her legacy of love. That's when I earnestly began planning this film.
Is there any emotion you want the audience to feel after watching this film?
Since the Korean War, Korea was notorious as a 'baby-exporting country' until the early 1990s. Looking at the gender ratio of adoptees, it's evident that there's a significantly higher number of girls. This is deeply connected to a deep-seated cultural preference for boys. This film aims to uncover the gendered nature of adoption from a feminist lens. Following the stories of women unable to bear children or sons and the plight of children abandoned or killed due to being female against the backdrop of a patriarchal society with ironic complexities. Additionally, this film is also a poignant romance exploring how love transcends generations, shaping our legacies. I want to mourn the absence of cherished ones in our lives and contemplate how to remember and inherit their legacy. I hope the audience can laugh and cry together while watching the film.
DIRECTOR
MA Minji
Director Minji Ma(they/them) studied fiction filmmaking as an undergraduate and documentary filmmaking in graduate school. They engage in projects that intersect art and activism through the medium of visual language. Ma’s first feature documentary Family in the Bubble (2017) explores Korea’s city development history in the 1980s through a family. It is a Korean and Finnish co-production and a Grand Prize winner of the EBS International Documentary Festival. Their second feature documentary Grounding is in the post-production.
A Journal from Seoungbuk (2014), Family in the Bubble (2017), Little Nomads (2020)
PRODUCER
KOH Jooyoung
She is an independent director of performing arts who directed and produced projects such as Camino de Ansan (2015-2019), Theater Practice Project (2018-), and Plan Q Project (2019-2023). She was the Co-Program Director of TPAM (Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama) from 2016 to 2020. She strives to stay between what is drama and what is not, between what is theater and what is not, and between what is art and what is not.
Shocking Family (2006)
CONTACTblackdrat@gmail.com
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