Tribeca Film Festival takes Planet of Snail

Published on 2012/03/14 | Source

The 8th Tribeca Film Festival has announced its upcoming selection to include South Korean director Yi Seung-Jun's "Planet of Snail", a documentary about a deaf and blind man, his wife with a spinal disability, and their unique story.

"Planet of Snail" has been selected to Tribeca's World Documentary Feature Competition. The film will be making its North American premiere there. The festival will be held in New York City, April 18 – 29, 2012.

Last November, at the 24th International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), "Planet of Snail" won the top VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary. International sales agent CAT & Docs also sold the film to Dogwoof in the UK where it is expected to get a theatrical release.

Korean production company Creative EAST co-produced "Planet of Snail" with Japanese broadcaster NHK, in association with Finnish public broadcaster YLE and the Finnish Film Foundation. The film was funded in part by grants from the Sundance Documentary Fund, Cinereach Documentary Grant, and the EBS International Documentary Festival (EIDF) Fund.

The film has three versions – the earliest was as the Opening Film of the 2010 EIDF at about 70 minutes running time. The second was a broadcast version for NHK, and the third is the theatrical version which is understood to be doing the festival rounds now.

"Planet of Snail" is also due for theatrical release in Korea on March 22. See an interview with director Yi Seung-Jun in this month's "Korean Cinema Today" webzine at http://koreanfilm.or.kr/webzine/sub/interview.jsp?mode=A_VIEW&wbSeq=12.

Yi's other documentary credits include "Children of God" (2008) and "Flowers, Two Women's Story" (2007) and "Invisible War - India Bihar Report" (2000).

Amongst others, the Tribeca Film Festival has also programmed "Postcards From the Zoo", directed by Indonesian writer-director Edwin, a graduate of the Busan International Film Festival's Asian Film Academy (AFA). The film is in Tribeca's World Narrative Feature Competition and it also screened in the Berlin film festival's Competition earlier this year.