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A Single Spark
(Jeon tae-il)

Director in Person
Screening on Film
$12 Special Event Tickets
Directed by Park Kwang-su.
With Hong Kyoung-In, Kim Bo-kyeong, Kim Sun-Jae.
South Korea, 1995, 35mm, color, 92 min.
Korean with English subtitles.

00:00 / 00:00
      A Single Spark (Jeon tae-il) introduction and post-screening discussion with David Pendleton, Nicholas Harkness and Park Kwang-su.

      A Single Spark tells the story behind a crucial event in modern South Korean history: the self-immolation of factory worker Jeon Tae-il in 1971 to draw attention to the appalling workplace conditions faced by many Koreans. Jeon’s suicide is widely credited as key to the unionization of South Korean workers. Rather than a straightforward biopic, the film elaborates on Jeon’s life by supplying a parallel story: a young activist five years later is researching a biography of Jeon while going underground due to government harassment of him and his wife because of their own labor activism. A Single Spark renews the political fervor underpinning Park’s sophisticated filmmaking, resulting in a sweeping epic made with urgent verve and compelling narrative drive. – DP

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