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The Sense of Violence

Forum 2025
© Mooyoung Kim
Kim Mooyoung analyses the visual material in his found footage film with almost scientific precision (newsreel images, architectural images, film images; images of the enemy, images of women, images of the family), exposing traces of memory of the war of images that began during the Korean War and took on new forms under President Park Chung-hee in the 1960s and 70s. Via images and narratives, state-supporting anti-communist ideologies were built from the ground up. In its artistic portrayal, the censors asked for the real violence to be adorned with feelings of sadness and moral superiority, or to disappear completely. Rigorously edited, The Sense of Violence traces propaganda-fuelled hatred and its camouflaging in the archives to write an alternative film history. An off-screen female narrator comments and reflects on the patterns in which violence has been preserved – in which it is hidden. And at some point, not only do insights become tangible, the pain that propaganda has engraved in the hearts and minds of generations does too. A rich and fabulously argued film that searches for memories that ideology has not reproduced.
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by Kim Mooyoung (Director, Screenplay)
with Kim Sung-Chil, Jun Mi-kyung, Yun Yong, Choi Ji-won South Korea 2024 Korean, English 114' Colour & Black/White International premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Kim Sung-Chil
  • Jun Mi-kyung
  • Yun Yong
  • Choi Ji-won

Crew

Director Kim Mooyoung
Screenplay Kim Mooyoung
Cinematography Kim Mooyoung
Editing Kim Mooyoung
Music Matutamtada Worramet
Sound Design Kim Mooyoung
Producer Kim Mooyoung
Executive Producer Kim Mooyoung

Produced by

Void Space

World Sales

Void Space

Photos

Kim Mooyoung

© Lee Young-jin

Kim Mooyoung makes films and engages in research-based media exhibition work. His first feature film, Night Light (2018), was screened in the Vision section at the Busan International Film Festival and won the Passionate Staff Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival and the Best Cinematography Award at the Wildflower Film Awards Korea. Kim’s experimental short documentary Gold Dragon Mountain (2021) was invited to the Seoul Independent Film Festival and the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.

Filmography

2013 concrete 2016 Land Without People 2017 Day and Night; short film 2018 Bam Bit (night light) 2021 Hwang Ryong San (Gold Dragon Mountain); short documentary 2024 The Sense of Violence

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025