Presented by the News & Documentary Program at New York University
Curated by Sorry Not Sorry Short Film Project

Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the program, Restoring Memory: East Asian Narratives in Non-Fiction Shorts, showcases three non-fiction essay films by Kyuri Jeon, Lee Kai-Chung, and Changmin Lee that explore the layered interplay of history, memory, and identity in East Asia’s wartime legacies.

The three selected films examine the migrating and displaced bodies and locate memories in embodied experiences, artifacts, and affects. Employing diverse experimental filmmaking methods—engaging public and familial archives, carrying out ethnographic fieldwork, and reenacting historical temporalities—these films critically address global colonial histories, inter-Asian militarism, and bodily and psyche manifestations of ideological conflicts. Together, these works constellate a reimagination of East Asia as a site of historical flux, exposing East Asia’s internal entanglements with larger geopolitical forces while recentering local memories and subjectivities within its dynamic cultural and historical landscapes. This program is an effort to foster dialogue and reimagine “Asianness” and its dynamic cultural contexts through the evolving praxes of non-fiction filmmaking.