Han Ok-hee’s The Hole and Frieda Liappa’s After 40 days were filmed between 1972–1973 during the military regimes of South Korea and Greece. Present in both are obfuscatory methods of production designed to circumvent the regimes’ state censorship boards. Ok-hee employs formal abstraction in place of narrative to bypass regulations, while Liappa’s film is shot covertly in the streets of Athens – positioning the camera behind poles, bus stops, and windows. These formal strategies, brought about by necessity, introduce a shift or reorientation in the conventions of film production specific to their location, time, and political circumstances.
Frieda Liappa (1948-1994) was a film director, born in Messini, Greece. In 1968, while studying literature in Athens, she was arrested and imprisoned by the dictatorship and fled to London, where she studied cinema at the London Film School. She was a member of the editorial board of the magazine “Modern Cinema”. She directed the short films, After 40 days (1972), I Remember You Leaving All the Time (1977), Renouncement (1980), as well as the feature films Love Wanders in the Night (1981), A Quiet Death (1986), The Years of the Big Heat (1991), as well as many television documentaries for the Greek national television. She published several poetry collections, short stories and a novel.
Han Ok-hee (1948) is an experimental film director and film critic, born in Seoul, South Korea. She studied Korean literature at Ewha Women’s University. In 1974, along withJeomseon Kim, Jeonghee Lee and others, Han established Kaidu Club, the first all- women experimental filmmaking club in Korea. Combining their backgrounds in literature, audiovisual design, fine arts, journalism and dance, they collectively produced and presented 16mm amateur experimental films, multimedia and street performances, and academic presentations for approximately four years. Ok-hee is the director of The Hole (1973), The Middle Dog’s Day (1974), Three Mirrors (1975), 2minutes40seconds (1975), Colour Of Korea (1976), Untitled 77-A (1977), The Silence of Love (1991) and Running Koreans (1993).
