SYNOPSIS
The film traces humanity's history with chickens through past records, then listens to the present-day lives of beings—chickens included—who have been pushed from view. This is less an exposé on industrial farming and more a confession from one who has witnessed what we chose not to see—a story of human failure. Yet the voices we hear do not lead to pessimism. Instead, they call for a deeper reckoning with reality, asking not how to imagine a better future, but how we might meet and care for one another in this endlessly deferred present.
* Each Critics’ Choice screening will be followed by a Critics’ Talk—a one-on-one conversation between the director and a critic.
* Note: This talk will be conducted in Korean without interpretation.
REVIEW
In Kim Hwayong’s The Birds Who Lived Home – Where Did You All Go?, the interviewees’ accounts unfold like meticulous observation diaries—sometimes anecdotal, sometimes report-like. We hear how they came to realize that the worlds of nonhuman animals and humans are not so different, and how they discovered fragments of our own stories within the lives of other creatures. These testimonies are at once records of experience and opportunities to recognize the histories of nonhuman animals, to understand what a single creature is living through right now, and to witness—closely and precisely—what is actually happening. The more we look, the clearer it becomes that humans cannot remain innocent in our relationship with nature, and that any attempt to control it will inevitably fail. Yet even delaying that failure lends meaning to the act of connection itself, to the expression of individuality, and to the forging of solidarity. The Birds Who Lived Home – Where Did You All Go? gathers these quiet declarations of experience—fleeting moments where human and nonhuman lives converge, each briefly illuminating the other.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
Across time and cultures, chickens were once sacred creatures that heralded light and announced new eras. In Korean history, they embodied the Five Cardinal Virtues of the Chicken, known as Gyeyu-odeok (鷄有五德). But what has become of their lives today? Transnational capitalism has moved beyond domestication and utility, reducing chickens to protein commodities produced for maximum efficiency and confining them to industrial black boxes. They have become objects of human contempt—their name weaponized in slurs implying stupidity or targeting assertive women, their bodies consumed as nothing more than meat. Where did this profound shift in humanity’s attitude begin?
CONTACT
KIM Hwayong
circuswoman@gmail.com
