This Is Not Waste

Pictures of an unfinished painting left at an apartment dumpsite. It has a warning sticker covering a person’s face. Next to the trash bags, it just looks like garbage someone abandoned. Even though the painting itself did not change, a single label is deciding what it is.

The sticker, translated: “Residents who put out this waste, please contact the security office. CCTV will be checked.”

Grand Prize, Seoul Youth Biennale, Youth Artist Division.

quietscenes@quietscenes_

A TikTok channel with edits of characters that are misunderstood and carry deep pain from their past. The edits pair specific songs to each character to deliver an emotional message and show the audience a version of the characters I saw. Some of the characters I spent hours editing (Rumi, Jinx, Elsa, Zoey, Jinu) had their real selves buried under a label someone else gave them. What I love most is when strangers write about their own moments of feeling unseen, and the comments turn into a room where people tell each other the truest thing about themselves. That’s something I didn’t expect when I started the account, and something I can’t be thankful enough for.

Fayston Short Film Festival

It started from my environmental club, hoping I could spread environmental awareness through a film festival. The plan I wrote was brought to my school and it led to the first Fayston Short Film Festival, which I founded and directed. I love making videos alone, but I learned that sharing that with others and helping other people’s stories get on a stage feels amazing too. For the 2nd edition, holding a screening at school became difficult, so as director I rebuilt the festival with a new format. I opened it online to student filmmakers across Korea, from elementary through high school, and contacted young filmmakers one by one to gather entries. I invited four professional jurors and split the work among our crew, and we put out the poster and the promo video. In this film festival, there are no rankings. Instead, all the filmmakers (17 films) receive written feedback from the jurors. On the festival website, anyone can read one line from each juror, and each filmmaker receives full feedback separately. I hope to extend this idea and make the website bigger, making it a stepping stone for young filmmakers and their future.

1st edition, October 17, 2025: 15 films.
2nd edition, October 2026, online: 17 films.

Jurors for the 2nd edition: film director Chung Yoon-chul (Marathon), producer Jung Moon-gu (The Attorney, The Thieves), and Calmin Borel and Grégoire Rouchit of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.