Director Ahn So-yon, proper, speaks along with her grandmother whereas sitting on the garden of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, in a scene from the documentary “The Blue Roof from the Window.” Courtesy of Pronounce me, KBS
For many years, Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul’s Jongno District stood as an immovable monolith of energy, serving as the positioning of the presidential workplace and residence for the reason that Republic of Korea authorities was established in 1948. Nevertheless, for director Ahn So-yon, it was merely the neighboring constructing with the blue roof only a stone’s throw from her childhood residence.
In her documentary “The Blue Roof from the Window,” launched on Christmas Eve, Ahn turns the digital camera inward to doc the 50-year odyssey of her circle of relatives, following three generations dwelling underneath one roof.
Greater than only a private video diary, it asks the general public to consider the individuals dwelling close to essential public landmarks. The documentary exhibits that whereas political exercise and civic participation is essential, they’ll additionally make life very tough for the abnormal residents who dwell subsequent door.
Director Ahn So-yon, middle, speaks along with her grandfather and grandmother in a scene from the documentary “The Blue Roof from the Window.” Courtesy of Pronounce me, KBS
Her grandparents moved to the purple brick home in a neighborhood positioned lower than a kilometer from Cheong Wa Dae within the late Nineteen Seventies. Throughout the years of army rule, the neighborhood was full of safety guards, which stored the world very quiet. As a result of the streets have been guarded so strictly to guard the chief, nobody dared to trigger bother, and even small crimes by no means occurred. Paradoxically, as Korea democratized, the household’s peaceable neighborhood turned the epicenter for loud protests.
By the movie, Ahn reveals how mundane on a regular basis life continued for her household even by way of profound political shifts, in a single scene exhibiting her grandmother’s family ledgers on Oct. 26, 1979, the day of President Park Chung-hee’s assassination.
President Moon Jae-in addresses a crowd of residents gathering close to the fountain in entrance of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Might 9, 2022, his closing day in workplace, in a scene from the documentary “The Blue Roof from the Window.” Courtesy of Pronounce me, KBS
Ahn additionally chronicles the arguments that broke out in her household throughout the 2016 protests, when individuals demanded the resignation of President Park Geun-hye. Whereas many of the nation celebrated this as a fantastic second for democracy, it was a catastrophe for her household as a result of the protesters have been allowed to go inside 100 meters of their residence.
The director shares these advanced emotions with unflinching honesty. She believes within the constitutional proper to protest, however those self same protests made it unattainable to dwell in her own residence. This drawback turned even worse throughout the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. When he promised to maneuver the presidential workplace to Yongsan, the household felt they needed to help the concept as a result of it was the one method to get their quiet life again.
The documentary reaches its emotional climax because the household excursions the Cheong Wa Dae grounds for the primary time after it’s opened to the general public. There, they notice the noise didn’t disappear, however merely moved to a brand new place.
A marketing campaign banner for President Lee Jae-myung, then the presidential candidate of the Democratic Occasion of Korea, is displayed in a scene from the documentary “The Blue Roof from the Window,” that includes his pledge to relocate the presidential workplace again to Cheong Wa Dae. Courtesy of Pronounce me, KBS
“The Blue Roof from the Window” arrives at a pivotal second, as President Lee Jae Myung prepares to return the presidential workplace to Jongno on Dec. 29. This transfer successfully ends the Yongsan Period, which was initiated by former President Yoon Suk Yeol when he moved his operations away from the historic website in 2022.
As President Lee prepares to maneuver again to Cheong Wa Dae, the film ends with the household feeling drained and fearful as a result of the president’s return means the return of police fences and noisy loudspeakers for Ahn and her household.
