Byun Youngjoo, born in 1966, may have completed a Bachelor’s degree in Law at the prestigious Ehwa Womans University, but it was in film, at Chung-Ang University, that she decided to continue her studies. As one of the founding members of the feminist film collective Bariteo (in 1989), she was in charge of the cinematography for the <Every Little Grass Has Its Own Name> (1990) and <Children of Ours> (1990), which documented the sexual harassment in the workplac...More

Byun Youngjoo, born in 1966, may have completed a Bachelor’s degree in Law at the prestigious Ehwa Womans University, but it was in film, at Chung-Ang University, that she decided to continue her studies. As one of the founding members of the feminist film collective Bariteo (in 1989), she was in charge of the cinematography for the <Every Little Grass Has Its Own Name> (1990) and <Children of Ours> (1990), which documented the sexual harassment in the workplaces that white-collar women were experiencing. Byun’s directing debut came when she joined director Kim Dongwon’s documentary studio PURN Production and made <Living as a Woman in Asia> (1993), a documentary that presents itself as some sort of report on prostitution in Asia, with a special focus on sex tourism in Jeju Island, Korea. This first film prompted her to dedicate her next documentary feature, <The Murmuring> (1995), to the residents of a nursing home for women who were forced to sex slavery for the Japanese Army during WW2. Financed with the help of citizens, who were invited to each purchase 100 feet of the 16mm film reels, the film was the first independent documentary to be shown in regular theaters in Korea and resonated even in Japan, where it took the Shinsuke Ogawa Award for Best New Asian Director at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. Byun continued to film comfort women and released two follow-ups to that film in 1997 and 1999, thus forming a trilogy of works on that topic spanning five years. Her first fiction film <Ardor> (2002) portrayed the suppressed emotions of a woman caught in an extramarital affair. She then moved to youth drama fare with the <Flying Boys> in 2004. In 2008, she returned to documentary filmmaking by taking part in <My Love, Korean Cinema>, commissioned by the Korean Film Archives, as well as with <Wise and Sensible Ways to Remember the 20th Century>, which looks back at the changing landscapes of Seoul in the second half of the 20th century through her interview with renowned novelist Park Wansuh. Byun made a strong impression once again when she released the mystery film <Helpless> (2011), starring Kim Minhee and Lee Sunkyun. The film, which touches on some of the issues the director explored in her documentaries, received much acclaim and won her the Baeksang Art Award for Best Director (in the Film category), and she was later named Woman in Film of the Year by the Women in Film Korea association.Less