A festival showcasing music-themed movies and documentary films will be held at Hongdae, a popular youth district in Seoul, for 10 days from June 30.

The “2017 Film Live: Legendary” will be held at KT&G Sangsang Madang under the theme of “legendary,” referring to films about legendary artists ranging from Bob Dylan to the Beatles and Metallica.

The first part of the event will introduce new music-related films of various genres.

Opening the festival will be “Song to Song” (2017), a musical drama directed by Terrence Malick and starring Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender and Natalie Portman. It will mark the first time the picture is being screened in Korea.

Other works include “Gimme Danger,” a US documentary film about the band The Stooges, Korean documentary film “No Money, No Future” on local punk bands, and US drama “American Honey,” which won the jury prize at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

A film directed by the musician Yozoh, “I Still Wake Up Wondering About You” (translated title), will also be showcased. The work is based on one of her songs and Yozoh will hold a Q&A session at the festival.

The second part of the festival will feature films about, or inspired by legendary musicians.

“The Beatles: Eight Days a Week -- The Touring Years” and “Oasis: Supersonic” are documentary films about the British legends, while “Marley” is about Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley. “Metallica Through the Never” will take the audience to the concert scenes of the metal band, and “Amy” will take a look at the late singer Amy Winehouse.

The audience will also get a glimpse of musicians in Japan and Cuba with “We are X,” about metal band X Japan, and “Buena Vista Social Club,” a 1999 film about the music of Cuba.

It is not just documentaries that will be featured at the film festival. There will also be “La Vie en Rose” (2007), a biographical film about Edith Piaf, starring Marion Cotillard as the French chanteuse.

The music drama “I’m Not There”(2007) was inspired by the life and music of Bob Dylan, with six different actors -- Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw -- depicting the singer-songwriter.

Eminem stars as a young white rapper heavily based on himself in the drama “8 Mile” (2002), which garnered both critical and financial success.

The legendary film section will re-introduce films that have been featured in the past Film Live festivals.

The list includes “Velvet Goldmine” (1998), a film about the glam rock days of the early 1970s, “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012), a film about a South African cultural phenomenon surrounding the death of US musician Sixto Rodriguez, “Once” (2007) about struggling musicians in Ireland, and “La La Land” (2016), a musical romantic drama starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a musician and an aspiring actress, respectively.

The only Korean film in that section is “Go Go 70” about a fictional band of the 1970s that sparked music fever in an era repressed by dictatorship.

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)