In the Absence

Nov 9, 2018

0h 29m

★ 7.8

Overview

When the MV Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Field of Vision

Bluebird Pictures

In the Absence Trailers

Cast

Self (archive footage)

Park Geun-hye

Self

Yoo An-sil

Self

Kim Sung-mook

Self

Jeon Gwang-geun

Self

Jeong Bu-ja

Self (archive footage)

Kim Soo-hyun

Self (archive footage)

Kim Kyung-il

Self (archive footage)

Kim Seok-kyun

Self (archive footage)

Park Young-sun

Self (archive footage)

Kim Ki-chun

Self (archive footage)

Kim Gwan-hong

Self

Kim Hye-yeon

In her first feature-length documentary, filmmaker Nam Arum turns her camera on her parents, two members of South Korea’s 386 Generation. The political activism of this generation came to a head in June 1987 with major protests that forced the authoritarian government to hold universal suffrage elections and implement key democratic reforms. Over 35 years later, the filmmaker reflects on the state of this democracy through a warm-hearted family portrait set against the backdrop of the country’s recent history. Using a personal and intimate cinematic style, Arum examines her father's adherence to conventionality as a high-ranking civil servant and her mother's fervent enthusiasm as a feminist activist. In the midst of these two contrasting dynamics, Arum seeks to discover her own role and how she can contribute to social change.

2.0

Film for Blind Poet

Apr 6, 2012

Glauco Mattoso, a blind sadomasochistic poet, agrees to participate in a documentary about his own life, but the conditions he imposes raise difficulties to the work of the young director.

No Image Available

0.0

Apache

Jan 1, 1953

Short about the daily life of the Apaches, including their ceremonies.

7.6

Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle

Mar 3, 2021

Ben Fogle spends a week living inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, gaining privileged access to the doomed Control Room 4 where the disaster first began to unfold.

6.5

A 3 Minute Hug

Nov 20, 2018

As daylight breaks between the border cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, undocumented migrants and their relatives, divided by a wall, prepare to participate in an activist event. For three minutes, they’ll embrace in no man’s land for the briefest and sweetest of reunions.

5.2

Arabian Coffee

Jan 1, 1968

'Coffea arábiga' was sponsored as a propaganda documentary to show how to sow coffee around Havana. In fact, Guillén Landrián made a film critical of Castro, exhibited but banned as soon as the coffee plan collapsed.

7.2

Flesh

Aug 7, 2019

Rare, medium rare, medium, medium well and well done. Through intimate and personal stories, five women share their experiences in relation to the body, from childhood to old age.

7.1

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

Jun 30, 1896

A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.

7.0

Land Without Bread

Dec 1, 1933

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

No Image Available

6.0

The Unfinished Journey

Dec 31, 1999

A short about American life and history produced for the millennium New Year's Eve celebration.

7.6

Titanic's Final Mystery

Apr 5, 2012

The sinking of the RMS Titanic remains one of the most enduring and mysterious tragedies of the 20th century. For decades, investigators and amateurs alike have floated theories for why it occurred and who was to blame for the extraordinary loss of life, but no one answer could fully explain what happened. Until now. To mark the 100th anniversary of the infamous disaster, Smithsonian Channel will premiere Titanic's Final Mystery. The two-hour special investigates a century of theories and uncovers astonishing new forensic evidence that proves the most likely theory for the case.

6.3

High Cities of Bone

Feb 10, 2017

Karlon, born in Pedreira dos Húngaros (a slum in the outskirts of Lisbon) and a pioneer of Cape Verdean creole rap, runs away from the housing project to which he had been relocated.

7.2

The Oceans Are the Real Continents

Aug 29, 2019

Having Cuba as a background, decadent and in crisis, in a black-and-white lacerated by the Caraibic swinging rain, Alex and Edith, a couple in their 30s, live their love story made of small daily gestures, stories from the past, nostalgia, and a deep intimacy.

0.0

Stranger in the City

Jan 1, 1961

Aspects of a London day, including prostitutes on street corners, a striptease show and the 2i's Coffee Bar.

3.4

Birdman

Jul 1, 2015

A portrait of Robert, a troubled but poetic soul struggling with his purgatorial existence in a hackney scrapyard.

5.8

The Long Shadow of Dirty Harry

Jul 23, 2008

An in-depth look at Dirty Harry (1971), featuring interviews with such film artists as Michael Madsen, 'Hal Holbrook', John Milius, 'Shane Black' and John Badham.

6.0

Twenty Years After

Jan 1, 1944

This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.

No Image Available

0.0

Afrocentricity

Aug 1, 2000

On the surface, this collection of shorts by up-and-coming African American filmmakers arrived at a perfect time. The cutting-edge products of the New Black Cinema of the early '90s had disappeared, giving way to embarrassingly stereotypical, scatological fare such as Booty Call and Next Friday. This feature-packed compilation (which includes production notes, interviews with all of the filmmakers, and audio commentary by four) attempts to prove that African American cinema is intent on moving past the lowbrow humor, as six of the seven shorts steer clear of any comedy.

5.6

Quest for the Ring

Nov 29, 2001

No overview available.

0.0

Black Sun

Jul 7, 2019

Underscored by French film legend Delphine Seyrig’s evocative recitation of a Henri Michaux poem, Maureen Fazendeiro’s film is a mysterious, multi-textured portrait of eclipse spectators in Portugal.