Event

Love Child

Thursday, December 11th, 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Valerie Veatch, 2014, 75 min.

In 2010, a South Korean baby named Sarang died of malnutrition. The death of a child is always horrific, but the circumstances leading up to this one were even more shocking: Sarang died because her parents were playing games online. Ordinarily, this would be a clear case of negligence, but Love Child takes a different approach by looking at what led to the parents gaming addiction and how their child became a secondary concern. The film then expands from this tragedy to examine the way that South Korea's place as the world leader of Internet infrastructure has adversely affected its communal society.

Valerie Veatch, the youngest director to debut two feature films at the Sundance Film Festival (Me @ The Zoo in 2012 and Love Child in 2014), skillfully weaves a story of personal tragedy together with social commentary. Instead of merely condemning the parents, she shows how embracing technology can have unforeseen negative consequences. By interjecting footage from the game the parents loved to play into the film, Veatch vividly conveys how intoxicating these games can be and shows how easily the lines between real life and virtual reality can blur.

Q&A with director Valerie Veatch and Cinematographer Daniel B. Levin.