On November 23 there will be in Milan at Spazio Cinema Anteo, the inauguration of the 1° Edition of the Milano Korean Film Festival organised by ItalCinema and Harmonie, association from Seoul and company both of them deeply involved from many year in cross cultural events through arts and cinema.

This is  a date created expressly for the Korean cinema lovers that will have the unique possibility to interact with the director Park Jung-Bum, Director of “The Journal of Musan” and “Height of the Wave”, and the critic Lee Sang-Young, creator of the Jeonju International Film Festival. The event is organised  with the collaboration of Jeonju International Film Festival and Asian Studies Group.

The main aspect to highlight is that the place chosen for this international cultural exchange is Milan, city that represents since years the cultural capital of Italy abroad. All along, Milan is open to new projects that can communicate to its inhabitants the habits and customs of traditions all around the world, not just in order to appreciate similarities and differences, but also to absorb new ways of doing.

It is with this spirit that at the MKFF will be presented the short films of young Korean directors selected among the participants of the “Italcinema Short Korean Films Go To Europe” competition. This project, called “Korea goes to Milan” is only the first phase of a wider experience that will see, a year from now, young Italian directors present their short films at the Italian Film & Art Festival in Seoul. 

Clearly, the main purpose of this project is to focus and exalt the talent as main subject of the international and cultural communication. Along these lines, the aim of the organizers is to fix in the minds of the directors this experience so that they can insert everything they discovered and experienced in Italy, and particularly in Milan, in their future works. The same experience will then be lived by Italian directors, guaranteeing a cultural exchange between East and West to enrich both cultures.

An exchange developed and supported by youthful creativity, one of the main themes actively supported and extolled for many years by Asian Studies Group, collaborating association in the MKFF, via Switch on Your Creativity project.  In fact, a similar experience, in the design sector, has already been tested in 2019 during the Milan Design Week when young Japanese designers were able to exhibit their works at the Superstudio Group spaces. This opportunity was the response to a cultural exchange that took place a year before, during the Italian Design Day, when young Italian designers exhibited their work at the Italian Cultural Institute in Osaka.

Concerning movies, Switch on Your Creativity already promoted contest (during 2nd edition) about short movies from all around the world (mainly as exchange between Europe and Asia) in occasion of Milano Expo 2015.  Cooperating with MKFF is also great opportunity to re-launch open call to Italian directors to present their works for Switch on Your Creativity 7th Edition (2020), selected short movies will be supported for official screening during 12th Italian Film Arts Festival in Seoul.

The continuous realization of projects aimed at spreading the importance of Milan, and of Italy as well, in the world cultural scene are necessary small steps for the recognition of the potential of young people and to adequately support them in their exaltation and realization creativity. A mission, moreover, which is an integral part of the charter of values with which the Switch on Your Creativity project was founded.