This is the story of Duriban, a noodle restaurant in Hongdae in danger of being demolished by big development. That was until the wife of the owner, An jong-nye started a protest. Many artists and musicians joined Duriban to protest against yet another important cultural landmark being torn down by big developers. Using the only weapon at their disposal, art, protesters began holding indie rock shows within the space. This was the first time anything like this protest had ever been attempted in Korea. The documentary shows how the artists, like the tenants themselves, are in a similar situation. Independent musicians don't get paid when they play music, even in what is supposed to be indie music's best days. After they succeeded in pulling off the first show at Duriban, musicians established an independent music maker union to organize themselves. Despite the apparent success of the protesters there is still a lot unresolved. Will the disparate union made up of so many different musicians maintain cohesion in the face of Korea's corporate music monopoly? Will the building tenants be able to go back to life as normal?

Like a writer named Yoo Chae-rim at Duriban which was torn down due to the redevelopment business, a writer lost her restaurant, her means of living. Now she cannot write a novel. Musicians in Hongdae area come into the construction site of demolition and struggle for rights of musicians, building Self Supporting Music Production Association. There are poor artists such as the late Lee Jin-won a singer and the late Choi Go-eun a writer, who ended their lives since they could not get fair compensation. These are the signs to show the situation of artists in our society. I would like to think about the logic of capitalism and a just right of artists through the novelist You Chae-rim who fights against the greedy mind of redevelopment business in her way of writer, and through the musicians in the Self Supporting Music Production Association who bring out a question for the right to live and to work of musicians.

The 7th Jecheon International Film & Music Festival