Jay Jeon and Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Olša, jr.

Photo: Vojta Pitra

 

Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) Deputy Director and one of three co-founders of the festival, Jay (Yang Jun) Jeon, received the Medal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic for his outstanding accomplishments in promoting the ties between Korean and Czech film industries. The ceremony took place in the Czech Info Center in Seoul on January 17, 2011 with H. E. Mr. Jaroslav Olša, jr., Ambassador of the Czech Republic presenting the medal and Ms. Dawna (Yeo Myoung) Cha and Mr. Tomáš Prášek, founders of Prague-based company, Eventival festival management solution, as masters of ceremony. A small cocktail party was attended by some 50 friends and collaborators of Jay Jeon, a diverse group of people from Korean film industry and press and diplomatic and cultural sphere. Among them were film director and regular visitor of Karlovy Vary festival Jeon Soo Il, award winning actress Seo Kap Sook, former director of Pusan International Film Festival Kim Dong-ho, representatives of Korean Film Council and various Korean film festivals as well as local film producers, historians and film scholars.

Jay (Yang Jun) Jeon (b. 1959) is a well-known Korean producer, who was behind various successful projects, such as Lee Chang-dong´s Peppermint Candy, he was also teaching film at Korean universities, and he is one of the three founding-fathers of the Pusan International Film Festival, which started in 1996. He was – in the 1990s - instrumental person in establishing the first contacts between the then newly established Pusan International Film Festival and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), the biggest motion picture event in Central Europe. It was due to his efforts that Korean films became part of the film line up in Karlovy Vary, since the early 2000s. After Lee Chang-dong´s Peppermint Candy received the Jury Award at 2001 KVIFF and a year later one of the first European special Korean film selections took place at Karlovy Vary, Korean films became an integral part of this important European film festival.

Due to Jay Jeon´s efforts - as a person behind the selection of European films - also the Czech films have been often shown at PIFF, now Asia´s biggest and most influential festival. Last year´s PIFF special section of contemporary Czech cinema comprising of the best six films selected from the recent releases from 2009-10 under the heading “Czech Film Now: Cinema of Liberalism”, was the most important Czech film presentation in the Republic of Korea as yet.

There is already a tradition of bestowing such honours by Czech Ambassadors to distinguished Korean and foreign individuals, who significantly promoted the Czech-Korean ties in various fields. In recent years the medal was awarded  a.o. to famous Korean award-winning actress Jeon Do-Yeon and her film partner Kim Juhyeok for their main roles in Korean TV drama Lovers in Prague (Prahaeui yeonin, 2005), founding-fathers of Czech-language studies and translators, Professors Kim Kyuchin, Kwon Jae-il and Kim Kyung-Ock of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, as well as a foremost expert on Czech composer Antonín Dvořák, Choi Young-chul of Seoul Oratorio, and a journalist and a writer, Cho Seong-kwan, author of Geniae of Prague (2009), a definitive book on Czech culture and history to mention only a few of those distinguised personalities from the last five years.

 

Jay Jeon talking with Dawna Cha of Eventival (right) and Lee Hee-sook, Czech Embassy´s press and cultural assistant

 

(l-r) Tomáš Prášek, CEO of Eventival, Daniel Kapelian, audiovisual attaché of French Embassy and Jaroslav Olša, jr., Czech Ambassador

all photos by Vojta Pitra