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Clip description
You can view the short film Mother Tongue here in its entirety. In Korea in 1976, a young Korean girl and her mother record daily events for the girl’s absent father, then learn English in preparation for their move to Australia. Voice-over narration is by Anita Beckman.
Curator’s notes
Shifts in time and distance are skilfully evoked by dissolves and metamorphoses. The figure of Hong Gyong’s mother looking out of a window becomes an illustration for the word ‘window’ in the English language book. Meanwhile, the way in which Hong Gyong’s memory and imagination mingle with her English lessons is conveyed by the projection of her father’s image onto a page of her textbook.
The movement from one language and culture to another is subtly expressed by the change from left-right to right-left turning of the pages of the girl’s Korean and English books. The child’s perspective is indicated by Hong Gyong’s assumption of the animator’s role as she draws a picture of her absent father which then becomes a character in the film.
