After struggling to survive in a pandemic, the audience started this year with a lot of hope, especially hope that the world would recover and our daily lives return to “normal”. However, the universe is only moving forward. Therefore, even if the “pandemic” status is revoked, we will never fully return to the era before the pandemic. After all, the world and we have changed.

Keep the oven away from fire. This year, we have witnessed conflict escalation and macro-scale crises, such as wars between countries, state bankruptcy, and the threat of a global recession. Human tragedy happening again and again. Humans often have to share the impact of something that originally happened at a distance, as if it had nothing to do with our own choices. Something we don’t even really understand. And in the end, we seem to have no other choice than to face and endure it, while slowly fixing it.

Through the twelve films in the Asian Perspective program, we will not only observe the stories of human life in various space-time contexts but are also invited to reflect on our humanity. The great idea of humanity cannot ignore the concrete experience of every human. That human life is always in a tug-of-war between problems and crises with confusion, fear, and despair, as well as hope.

Even though humans are often disappointed by their own expectations, it is also hope that enables us to keep fighting. Like a ray of light at the end of a dark alley that encourages you to keep walking. Hope that all crises and human tragedies will soon pass. And the hope that the new generation will live in a better world than the current one. As poet Do Jong-Hwan put it in his poem Flowers That Bloom When Shaken: “Where have flowers blossomed but never trembled? Even those most beautiful all trembled as they bloomed, and as they shook, their stems grew firm…”. Maybe someday, while reminiscing about the time that has passed, humanity will finally realize how much the world has taught us, and how our humanity has grown along with it.

Alexander Matius

Gorivana Ageza