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Editor's Note: The NAHF supports symposia on historical films as an initiative to use cinema in identifying, and promoting a mutual understanding of, the historical issues between Korea and Japan. As part of this initiative, the Cinema Study Day event was held in the U.K. from the 19th to 20th of June in 2015. The event, titled "'Comfort Women,' Listening To Their Voices," consisted of the screening of four documentary films on 'comfort women,' followed by a discussion with the directors of the films and experts. Ian Wild, the Chief Executive of Showroom Workstation in Sheffield, the U.K, the venue of the event, offers a review of this screening which attracted a total of about 150 viewers over the two days.

Rikkyo University professor Lee Hyangjin and Showroom Chief Executive Ian Wild giving an opening speech

Sheffield is a large industrial city in the north of England. Historically, it is famous for its steel industry, heavy manufacturing and engineering. Since the decline of manufacturing industries in the 1980's, Sheffield has successfully restructured its economy to develop new knowledge based industries. Sheffield now has significant strength in Bio and Medical Industries and the Creative and Digital Industries. Sheffield is also the home of Doc Fest, a major international documentary film festival, Warp Films, the largest independent production company outside London.

The Showroom, where the event concerning Comfort Women was presented by the Northeast Asian History Foundation and the Rikkyo University, is a four screen independent cinema and café/bar, established over 20 years ago and located in the city centre. Showroom is part of Sheffield Media Centre which also operates the Workstation business centre for the creative and digital industries.

Grant support is a small part of the financial profile of the organisation making up just over 5% of annual turnover. Showroom generates most of its own revenue through trading. This is through operation of the Workstation business centre, conferencing activity, and the café/bar. Showroom is a registered charity (not for profit, company) so that any profit that is generated from trading is re-invested into education, cultural and community activity. Showroom is also the lead organisation for Film Hub North, a national initiative to develop new audiences in cinemas.

Showroom has a screening policy designed to increase diversity and audience choice. The cinemas show 30 – 35 films each month. These are frequently UK independent and international films shown with subtitles. Archive films and documentaries also form part of the regular programme. The cinema also has a programme of film-making classes and training programmes for young people.

Showroom cinema has an historic interest in Korean cinema. A film festival devoted to Korean cinema was launched in 2001, which ran for four editions until May 2005. Many Korean organisations and companies supported this event including CJ Entertainment, The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in London, KOFIC, and Yonsei Media Arts Centre in Seoul.

The festival was developed with the objective of increasing awareness of Korean cinema in the UK. At the time Korean cinema still remained largely unknown to a general audience outside the film festival circuit.

UK Korean Film Festival also had an objective of providing a window onto contemporary Korean society and to providing an opportunity for UK audiences to improve their understanding of Korean culture and history. This can lead to a better understanding between Korean and UK societies and promote an improved working environment between the two countries.

This year Showroom is leading a national project to support the new film Suffragette due to be released at the end of October. As the film deals with the historic story of the early women's suffrage movement in the UK, Showroom has developed a project to engage young women in the subject of female emancipation and human rights. The project will look at historical, contemporary and international issues. The opportunity to work with international partners from Korea was a great opportunity for Sheffield audiences to look at an historic violation of human rights that still has resonance today.

The Northeast Asian History Foundation and Rikkyo University in Tokyo approached Showroom to assist them in developing a cinema study day event to discuss the Comfort Women issue in the UK. Showroom believes that this was an ideal for a way to complement much of the existing work programme of the cinema. Showroom is keen to showcase films and to raise awareness about international issues concerning women's equality and abuse of human rights.

Finding a suitable time to hold the event was most problematic however. Many of the large film festivals and major programmes held in Sheffield are in the early summer including the Sheffield Documentary Festival and the Children's Media Conference. In addition the Universities in Sheffield are very busy with exams at this time of the year. Eventually we decided to schedule the event on 19th & 20th June.

Showroom often works in partnership with Sheffield Hallam University on film programmes. The University has a Film Studies Department who hire the cinema several mornings each week during university semesters to show films and hold undergraduate lectures. Sheffield Hallam University are also a regular partner in Showrooms adult education film studies activity. As a result we decided to approach the University to be a local partner in this event. Sheffield Hallam University were delighted to be invited to take part and immediately offered to contribute to the budget through sponsorship of the reception.

Showroom also approached the Sheffield municipality and invited them to be involved. We received a great deal of enthusiasm and support from Creative Sheffield who are the Economic Development and Marketing division of Sheffield City Council. Creative Sheffield and the City Council requested an opportunity to welcome Korean guests to the city and eventually asked Councillor Isobel Bowler to be their representative at the event. Councillor Bowler attended the opening night and officially opened the conference, welcoming the overseas guests on behalf of the city.

The event opened on Friday 19th June with a reception for the guests at Showroom cinema. Councillor Bowler officially welcomed everyone on behalf of the city of Sheffield. Professor Lee Hyangjin introduced the event and set the scene for a screening of Byun Young-joo's first film in a trilogy about Korean Comfort Women, The Murmuring. The film was followed by a lively discussion amongst the audience with Director, Byun.

On the following morning of Saturday 20th June, the study day started with a screening of Byun Young-joo's next film in the series, Habitual Sadness. The audience were keen to discuss some of the issues raised in the films with the director.

The next film was Kim Dong-won's highly political 63 Years On. The film had a very warm reception and many of the audience expressed outrage and anger about the official government policy that directly led to the Comfort Women issues.

The final film of the day was My Heart is Not Broken Yet, with Producer Yang Ching-ja, who also shot much of the footage. The film follows the story of former Comfort Women Song Sin-do as she battles for restitution in the Japanese courts.

Throughout the day the Sheffield audience had taken the opportunity to discuss these issues with many of the guests. Major contributions to the discussions were made by Professor Lee Hyangjin from Rikkyo University in Tokyo as well as Associate Professor Kawai Yuko, also from Rikkyo University. Dr Kim Minkyu, a senior research fellow at the Northeast Asian History Foundation also made a significant contribution to the debate.

The Sheffield audience, many of whom had travelled considerable distance to attend expressed great satisfaction about the event. The issue of Korean 'Comfort Women' is not widely known in the UK and several member of the audience said they had no prior knowledge about the subject. The audience were very engaged with the event and the final discussion continued for a long time after the official end time. Following the event several individuals contacted Showroom cinema directly to comment about how much they had appreciated the event.

The local partners for the study day Sheffield Hallam University also expressed satisfaction about the event and said they would be very happy to work with Showroom and Northeast Asian History Foundation in the future. Staff at the Showroom cinema were very happy that the event was a success and several commented about how well the event had been organised by the Northeast Asian History Foundation. The audience for the event have expressed great appreciation that such a significant international discussion took place in Sheffield.

The 2015, Study Day 'Comfort Women, Listening to Their Voices' held at Showroom cinema in Sheffield UK was a great success. The event succeeded in raising awareness about the subject and informed the audience about something many of them were completely unaware of.