This year's keyword for the highly anticipated “Diaspora's Eye” is “feminism.” While anti-feminist groups have fueled misogyny by using “femi” as a slur, women have stood in solidarity to define feminism for themselves and integrate it into their lives. Yet, in that process, exclusionary movements also emerged, dividing genders and judging individuals in ways that led to further alienation or discrimination. In this sense, those who have steadfastly explored the diverse lives of women and strengthened their solidarity are more precious than ever. This year's guest programmers, novelist Chung Serang and feminist scholar Jeong Heejin, visit the 14th Diaspora Film Festival.

Chung Serang, who has built warm yet solid narratives of female solidarity by flexibly weaving together sci-fi settings and the real world through works like The School Nurse Files and From Sisun, Onward, selected Charles-Olivier Michaud's Ru. Having long explored the lives of independent women across time and borders, her gaze now turns to the world of An Tịnh, a young Vietnamese refugee settling in a foreign land, Canada.

Jeong Heejin, who has expanded the horizons of Korean feminism as one of its central pillars, chose Kim Boram's documentary A Table for Two. Having relentlessly questioned male-centric patriarchal norms through numerous works and research, including her classic The Challenge of Feminism, we eagerly anticipate the sharp insights she will draw from the relationship between a daughter suffering from an eating disorder and her caregiving mother.

Through the lenses of these two programmers who have fiercely contemplated women's lives and stories, we are certain to encounter a new, unseen face of the diaspora. (Ksan)