Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Filmes

Dictee
Writer
This text explores the dislocation between mouth and language in the Asian diaspora. It charts both the breakdown and breakthrough of language vis-a-vis the mouth.
At the Bottom of the Sea
Thanks
A filmmaker travels to South Korea to document the rising feminist movement responding to brutal patriarchal norms and a spy cam epidemic. Leading up to the protest of December 22, 2018 in Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, the filmmaker journeys throughout rural and urban areas of the country, interviewing women of different generations and backgrounds: their private and public lives.
Re Dis Appearing
Director
The artist speaks a word, which is quickly echoed in French, so that the words are only barely comprehended. Simple images — a bowl, a photograph of the ocean — appear and disappear.
Permutations
Director
The artist's sister is the subject of this structuralist film. Cha herself appears in a single frame.
Vidéoème
Director
In this meditation on speech and language, Cha juxtaposes English and French words to form new relationships and meanings.
Mouth to Mouth
Director
English and Korean words appear on the screen, a mouth forms the shape of an "O," then opens and closes. Is this the beginning of language? In this early videotape, Cha isolates and repeats a simple, physical act — a mouth forming the eight Korean vowel graphemes — so that this ordinary action becomes something primal and riveting.
Secret Spill
Director
In this work, which documents a performance/installation, the tension derives from the ruptures between what is heard, what is seen, and what is ultimately not seen.
White Dust from Mongolia
Director
White Dust from Mongolia is a project by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha including a film and artist book. Neither were completed. Theresa and James Cha visited Korea in 1980 for 3 months, May-July. While in Korea they filmed White Dust from Mongolia. James shot the footage. The footage includes shots of Seoul, rooftops, a women's university, train station near the university, forest, market, the Secret Palace, airplane ride in amusement park, and hotel fire. The film scenario for White Dust from Mongolia suggests Theresa intended to edit the footage shot in Korea and add additional images and text.