Korea Day #1

I just got back from the International Women's Film Festival in Seoul. It was truly a fantastic trip. The festival flew in about 30 women from all over the world - India, China, the Czech Republic, the UK, U.S., Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, etc. Each of us had an appointed volunteer translator/guide who escorted us wherever we wanted to go.

I arrived in Seoul at 5AM on Thursday. After napping and taking it easy for the day, a group of us met and headed over to the Opening Night ceremony.



This year was the 10th anniversary for the festival. Butch Jamie was in the section called "Queer Rainbow," which began last year. Gay and lesbian issues are not nearly as mainstream in Korea as they are in the U.S. and lesbian films rarely if ever make it to theaters or DVD, so this was a unique opportunity for Koreans to see a movie like this. Other lesbian filmmakers in attendance included Lisa Gornick from Tick Tock Lullaby and Barbara Hammer, who has made several groundbreaking experimental films and did some of the first lesbian-made films in history, dating from 1974.


The evening kicked off with a couple of live performances.






After the shows, we watched a collection of short films that were commissioned by the festival to represent an aspect of women's life in Seoul. The shorts were all made with the idea to be a part of the anniversary program called Ten Ten, which means looking back over the past ten years and looking forward to the next ten. After the screening, we went to a party with an excellent Korean buffet.

Here are a couple of things I learned today about Korea (that I should have researched before my trip):

- You don't tip. Meals out, taxi rides, etc. cost only as much as the actual price (novel idea, isn't it?). There's no sales tax on anything, either. I had a full lunch out with a pork cutlet, rice, soup, salad, etc. for $5 total, easily half as much as I would have paid for it in the U.S.

- You don't shake hands...except when you do. Shaking hands in Korea is tied to status, and the custom is nuanced in a way that I can't say I fully understand. It seems appropriate to shake hands with someone who has the same status as you do, although Korean women seldom do it with each other. Several Korean women at the festival did offer to shake my hand, however I made a mental note to not initiate it since I did that with someone who seemed uncomfortable with it. I think that was possibly because she saw herself as having a lower status than myself since she was a few years younger and was a festival volunteer. This can be tricky for Americans I think, since our culture strives to eliminate status differences among people and we aren't always aware of it.

My first day in Seoul was short but sweet. I managed to get to bed early enough to be up for a full day's worth of sightseeing the next day.