Tone Glow Presents "Rotating Signals: The Contemporary Korean Avant-Garde"
Throughout July and August, Tone Glow presents 10 short films that present the current landscape of Korean experimental film
Tone Glow is excited to announce "Rotating Signals: The Contemporary Korean Avant-Garde," a program of 10 short films highlighting the current landscape of experimental film in Korea, as well as from those in the Korean diaspora around the world. The past few years have shown a renaissance in Korea’s local film scene, due in no small part to legendary filmmaker Lee Jangwook leading workshops at SPACE CELL in the early 2020s, which inspired and taught younger filmmakers to create innovative works on 16mm. This would lead to the founding of different organizations, including Lothringen, who staged the ABBFF Byeongyeong Film Festival in 2024, and Sorigrim, which has hosted numerous screenings since their founding last year.
Notably, the latter is a venue for this year’s EXiS, the annual Korean experimental film festival currently spearheaded by Inhan Cho. Some of the films in this program have been shown at (or will show at) EXiS, while others represent the different strains of Korean filmmaking as it has been shaped by the different institutions and communities where directors attended and/or currently live. This event does not intend to showcase the entire breadth of the Korean experimental film scene today, but instead provide a snapshot during a crucial time in its history. As such, this program is being shown in multiple cities around the US as a celebration of the Korean avant-garde’s growth and unceasing creativity. All films will be shown digitally. Most cities will be showing the entire 10 films, others will be showing a smaller selection—check local venues to find out more information and to buy tickets.
Film Program
Program 1
Heehyun Choi, A Dark Room (2025, b/w, silent, 10 mins)
Hyoin Kwak, Spoken Word (2023, b/w, silent, 4 mins)
Chae Yu, Rotating Signals (2025, color, sound, 10 mins)
Go-Eun Im, Shadow-Forest (2025, color, sound, 28 mins)
Hyeisoo Kim & Luuk Schröder, Long Sand and Water (2023, color, silent, 5 mins)
TRT = 57 mins
Program 2
Jiyong In, Bye, Snark, Boo-Jum! (2024, b/w, silent, 8 mins)
Kyujae Park, Geomeunyeo (2025, b/w, sound, 3 mins)
Il-hwan, Pyohaerok (2025, color, silent, 14 mins)
Kyujae Park, Buseok (2024, b/w + color, silent, 18 mins)
Chul-woong Jang, Lord (2024, color, silent, 14 mins)
TRT = 57 mins
Tour Dates
Check venue websites for ticket links. This list will be updated.
Chicago: July 2nd at Elastic Arts (Ticket Link)
Atlanta: July 8th at Commune
New York: July 27th at Life World
Seattle: July 27th at Beacon Cinema
Los Angeles: July 30th at Whammy
Austin: July 31st at We Luv Video
Houston: August 1st at Basket Books & Art
Honolulu: August 9th at Aupuni Space
Santa Fe: August 22nd at No Name Cinema
Dallas: August 23rd at Spacy
+ more TBA
Artist Bios
Heehyun Choi is a moving image artist and educator based in South Korea and the US. Her practice is grounded on the interest in the physicality and virtuality in projected images, the unseen beings outside the camera frame, and the subjectivity and variability of the act of seeing. Choi received her BA in Art&Technology at Sogang University and MFA in Film & Video at California Institute of the Arts. Her films have been screened internationally including at Edinburgh International Film Festival, 25 FPS Festival, Images Festival, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul (EXiS), and Ann Arbor Film Festival where she received the Mariam Ghani Juror Award. She is the recipient of 2024 KAFA (Korea Arts Foundation of America) Award, WNDX x NIMAC Experimental Moving Image Award, AHL Foundation Artist Fellowship, Alison Doerner Fund for Women Pioneers in Filmmaking, the Lightning Fund by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Hyo In Kwak was born in 1998, Seoul. He studied film and is interested in invisible things.
Chae Yu is based in Seoul, South Korea and is interested in experiencing different expressive positions in sound and image. Her films trace the rhythmic continuity of bodily gestures, exploring how they connect with transient places where relationships between individuals dissolve. Her films have been presented internationally in various film festivals and venues.
Go-Eun Im is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Seoul and Amsterdam. She explores the features of cinematic language to interweave the dialectical relations between history and memory. In search of poetic languages for feral thought and sensation, she has created various mixed-media installations, performances, and workshops. Her works have been presented at EXiS (Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul, 2023), the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2021), the OB/SCENE Festival (2021), Emerging Other (ARKO Art Center, 2016), and the Asian Film & Video Art Forum (MMCA, 2015), among others.
Hyeisoo Kim is currently following the Research Master in Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam, focusing on sexuality and care through post porn politics. She collectively engages with different cultural projects based in the Netherlands and South Korea. Over the Last 8 years, she has worked at Filmhuis Cavia in Amsterdam as a programmer, collaborating with diverse communities and filmmakers. She is a co-organiser of the Porn Film Festival Amsterdam and Climate Performers.
Luuk Schröder is an artist and researcher living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is interested in the social and ecological repercussions of media technology and its supporting infrastructure on our world. By orchestrating unfamiliar confrontations between bodies and media equipment, his installations invite materially informed experiences. Luuk is currently doing an artistic PhD at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and teaches sculpture and artistic research at the Minerva Art Academy.
Jiyong In was born in 2001. He currently lives in Seoul and makes digital films.
Park Kyujae is a South Korean filmmaker who primarily works with analog film media, exploring visual perception, materiality, and poetic imagery through 16mm filmmaking. His works have been screened internationally, including at Pesaro Film Festival, ARKIPEL (Jakarta), Prismatic Ground (New York), and EXiS (Seoul). His films are distributed by Light Cone in Paris, France. He also translates films for festivals and cinematheques and organizes screenings and events.
Il-hwan is a filmmaker/programmer based in Seoul. He is also the founder of the film collective Lothringen. His film works have been presented through various exhibitions and screenings in South Korea. His film works primarily explore experimental documentary forms, combining static long-take landscape images with historical found footage.
Chul-woong Jang is a filmmaker based in Seoul. He is interested in experimenting with the structure of film.