This 2024 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) is my fourth time as a guest.
To be in BIFAN, the largest, most innovative, and game-changing festival in Asia, is fun and educational.
Fun because it's also a time to relax after excruciating heat and heavy creative and journalistic workloads back home.
Educational and informative because I was exposed once more to foreign cultures that constitute the diverse landscapes of global filmmaking.
Here at BIFAN, I get to be reoriented of the various ethos of multiculturalism in and outside the creative spheres of filmmaking.
My five-day stay in Bucheon taught me to be more adjustable to any situation.
At the Korean Manwha Museum (high tech and comprehensive repository of comics and cartoons that permeated Korea in historical progression), I attended the Masterclass of filmmaker Mitani Koki, a legendary Japanese director of comedy and mystery. Although it was all Japanese and Korean languages in the discussion I still enjoyed listening to him and his facilitators sans translator but it was through their gestures that I discerned their explanations.
Outside, there were Koreans of all shapes and sizes and one female Korean was so generous she lent her precious selfies with me.
At the Webtoon Convergence Center, a multiracial film community was vibrant one has to be gregarious and open enough to familiarize with them.
Please standby for more of my reports on the 28th BIFAN on various platforms of OpinYon newspaper.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #BIFANAwards