Film Industry People Rally Behind Screen Quota
Published on | Source
By Joon Soh
Staff Reporter
Film People for Alternative Measures, a civic group composed of members of the film industry, held a rally in Seoul on Tuesday to show their intention to fight a potential reduction to the screen quota system.
Led by the group's co-chairmen, actor Ahn Sung-ki and director Jung Ji-young, about 600 people met at 10 a.m. at Zooooz Theater in Kangnam, Seoul, and demonstrated their support for the maintenance of the current quota system, which requires local theaters show domestic films 40 percent of the time.
The group also confirmed their opposition to the United States' demand to reduce the quota as a condition for a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with South Korea.
Earlier in the month, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that it was considering adjusting and possibly reducing the quota. Though the ministry has yet to go public with concrete details about Possible Changes, members of the film industry began last week to come up with a plan of action of their own.
Among the participants at the rally were filmmakers Lee Hyun-seung and Yim Soon-rye; Lee Tae-won of Taewon Entertainment; and Lee Chun-yon of Korea Association of Film Art and Industry. Many actors and actresses did not take part in Tuesday's event but are planning to do so at a larger rally scheduled for July 1, which will take place at the start of a three-day conference of South Korean and U.S. businesses at Shilla Hotel in Seoul.
National Assembly members Choung Byoung-gug from the Grand National Party (GNP) and Lee In-young from the Uri Party also spoke out in support of the quota at the meeting.
Later in the afternoon, representatives of the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images (CCDM), another organization in support of the screen quota, and the Film People for Alternative Measures, met with 12 Uri Party National Assemblymen belonging to the Culture and Tourism Committee to discuss the state of the screen quota. The groups wished to confirm the assemblymen's support of the local film industry and the importance of the quota system.
The group also plans to meet with committee members from GNP and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in the near future.
Despite the efforts of the film industry members, however, recent surveys have found that public support for the screen quota has decreased since last year. A survey of 1,780 Internet users last week by the Web site Maxmovie (www.maxmovie.com) found that around 57 percent of the respondents still supported the maintenance of the current quota system, a drop from the 71.6 percent support it received in the same survey of 3,863 people last September.
A similar survey last week of 849 users by Film 2.0 magazine (www.film2.co.kr) and the portal site Daum (www.daum.net) found only 36.2 percent of respondents to be supportive of maintaining the current quota system.
Staff Reporter
Film People for Alternative Measures, a civic group composed of members of the film industry, held a rally in Seoul on Tuesday to show their intention to fight a potential reduction to the screen quota system.
Led by the group's co-chairmen, actor Ahn Sung-ki and director Jung Ji-young, about 600 people met at 10 a.m. at Zooooz Theater in Kangnam, Seoul, and demonstrated their support for the maintenance of the current quota system, which requires local theaters show domestic films 40 percent of the time.
The group also confirmed their opposition to the United States' demand to reduce the quota as a condition for a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with South Korea.
Earlier in the month, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that it was considering adjusting and possibly reducing the quota. Though the ministry has yet to go public with concrete details about Possible Changes, members of the film industry began last week to come up with a plan of action of their own.
Among the participants at the rally were filmmakers Lee Hyun-seung and Yim Soon-rye; Lee Tae-won of Taewon Entertainment; and Lee Chun-yon of Korea Association of Film Art and Industry. Many actors and actresses did not take part in Tuesday's event but are planning to do so at a larger rally scheduled for July 1, which will take place at the start of a three-day conference of South Korean and U.S. businesses at Shilla Hotel in Seoul.
National Assembly members Choung Byoung-gug from the Grand National Party (GNP) and Lee In-young from the Uri Party also spoke out in support of the quota at the meeting.
Later in the afternoon, representatives of the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images (CCDM), another organization in support of the screen quota, and the Film People for Alternative Measures, met with 12 Uri Party National Assemblymen belonging to the Culture and Tourism Committee to discuss the state of the screen quota. The groups wished to confirm the assemblymen's support of the local film industry and the importance of the quota system.
The group also plans to meet with committee members from GNP and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) in the near future.
Despite the efforts of the film industry members, however, recent surveys have found that public support for the screen quota has decreased since last year. A survey of 1,780 Internet users last week by the Web site Maxmovie (www.maxmovie.com) found that around 57 percent of the respondents still supported the maintenance of the current quota system, a drop from the 71.6 percent support it received in the same survey of 3,863 people last September.
A similar survey last week of 849 users by Film 2.0 magazine (www.film2.co.kr) and the portal site Daum (www.daum.net) found only 36.2 percent of respondents to be supportive of maintaining the current quota system.
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