Director: Minki Hong
Script: Minki Hong
Producer: Todd A Henry
With: Six anonymous gay men
South Korea, 30 minutes, 2023, Korean with English subtitles

Festivals:
Wicked Queer: The Boston LGBT Film Festival 2023
Korea Queer Film Festival 2023
Jeonju International Film Festival, Jeonju, 2023
San Diego Asian Film Festival

“Paradise” revisits South Korea’s era of authoritarian development (1970s-1980s) through the lens of queer livelihood. Despite the harsh realities of successive dictatorships, compulsory military service, and expectations of marriage and children, six elderly gay men reveal how they converted second-run theaters and nearby bars into popular sites of erotic liberation, same-sex friendships, and romantic encounters. Using rare footage of Seoul’s only extant second-run movie house, visual archives, and historical animation, “Paradise” documents South Korea’s vibrant gay underground before the solidification of democracy and the introduction of the internet in the 1990s. Along the way, it follows the pain and joy of queer citizens, whose stories appear for the first time in this empowering film of self-discovery and community building