38 Stars
Animation, 4K Video, Sounds of monsoons in july and noises of joy at the han river on a summer night in 2021, south korea, 08:08 Minutes, 2021-2022
directed & performed by C. ryu
to see the full film please contact me at c.ryu.portal@gmail.com
The 38th Parallel or the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is the name of the border between North and South Korea. This border was drawn by the US Military at the armistice of the Korean War (the Forgotten War) in 1953, cutting a country into two pieces. The US Military quickly aligned themselves in South Korea taking up land, space, psyche, and interweaving themselves into family narratives of migration, escape, and reverence.
A line was drawn in the land but the line was never a line but a sphere, 38th parallel. With this new border, families were divided, two nations that were one became forever at war, and fantasies of the West grew as the United States were seen as ‘saviors’. When did a parallel get demeaned to a line? Thinking of the impossibility and foolish human desire to consistently conquer, even the celestial, 38 Stars uses visual riddles and purposeful sonic mistranslation to unravel imperial illusions.