Byun Young-joo is a South Korean film director whose films explore issues of women's rights and human rights. She is best known for her trilogy documenting the present and past lives of the Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, and known as “comfort women.” Her films helped advance the women's demands for a formal apology and compensation from the Japanese government and broke new grounds for Korean feminist cinema and documentary filmmaking.

Helpless (2012) addresses important social issues through the vehicle of a psychological mystery/thriller that revolves around a man gradually learning about his financée's dark past after she mysteriously disappears. The film is written and directed by Byun Young-joo based on the bestselling novel “Kasha” by Japanese writer Miyuki Miyabe. The novel was translated to English in 1999 under the title "All She Was Worth."

Habitual Sadness (1997), the second film in Byun's documentary trilogy on the comfort women of Korea, was initiated at the request of the women who asked Byun to film the last days of a survior. Habitual Sadness uses contemporary footage of the women bearing witness to a horrific period of the their own lives, and is a testament to their strength as they replace their painful memories with the warmth of communal life.

Byun Young-joo is a founding member of the women's feminist film collective, Bariteo. Her feature film Ardor was presented at the Berlinale in 2003 and her box office hit Helpless won her the Best Director Award at the 2012 Paek Sang Arts Awards. She received her law degree from Ewha Womans University and completed her graduate studies in Theater and Film at Chung-Ang University. 

Helpless
Wednesday, Oct 11, 2017, 6:00 pm

Habitual Sadness 
Thursday, Oct 12, 2017
6:00 pm Reception (RSVP Requested)
7:00 - 9:00 pm Screening followed by Q&A with Director Byun Young-joo

126 School of Information Sciences (501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign)