San Diego Asian Film Festival 2008

During WWII, eight Korean girls survived kidnapping, torture and sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army. They returned home, only to spend the next sixty years outcast by society. These eight women are among an estimated 200,000 victims. Now in their eighties, the women continue to fight for justice, even as their time is running out.

In HOUSE OF SHARING, first-time director Hein Seok captured the candid lives of these eight survivors for over a year, as they shared their life stories through heartfelt words, paintings and songs. During their seemingly hopeless ordeals before and after the war, the women find a collective strength in their outrage. Also revealed is a hidden side to these women, who are simply called halmoni (grandmother). They are lively, loving, and unexpectedly humorous. It is all the more poignant as the halmonis are rapidly failing in health.

In the end, HOUSE OF SHARING captures a personal portrait of some of the last living “comfort women,” who are living legacies to the atrocities of war, and the strength of the human spirit

Preceded by WIAMBU – COMFORT WOMAN Directed by James Bang USA/S. Korea | Korean & Japanese w/ E.S. | Video | 2008 A seventeen-year-old Korean girl is brought to a Japanese military camp during WWII, where her catastrophic future awaits.

Co-presented by:
Thomas Jefferson School of Law - Center for Law and Social Justice
CSUSM Women's Studies Program
Gabriella Network - San Diego
San Diego Women's Film Festival
UCSD Kamalayan Kollective