By The Stream

a film by Hong Sangsoo
2024, 111 minutes

Poster

Synopsis

In the wake of a scandal involving several of her students, Jeonim (Kim Minhee), an artist and lecturer at a women's university, asks her uncle Chu Sieon (Kwon Haehyo) to step in and direct a short play for the skit festival put on by her department. Her uncle is an actor-director, recently blacklisted after a scandal of his own. He decides to direct the short play because of a similar experience directing a play at the same university 40 years earlier. It doesn't take long before Sieon develops feelings for Jeonim's colleague, Professor Jeong (Cho Yunhee), a textile professor. Meanwhile, the circumstances surrounding the scandal grow more complicated, the moon waxes in the sky each night, and every morning Jeonim goes to the stream and sketches to grasp its patterns.

For his 32nd feature film, Hong Sangsoo returns to the campus setting of films like Oki’s Movie (2010) and Our Sunhi (2013) and revisits thematic concerns and modes of expression he hasn't touched on in his cinema for some time.

Reviews

"It's a film of slightly drunken, ultimately dignified humility."
— Zachary Barnes, Wall Street Journal

"A comic charm"
— Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

"By the Stream is a wry comedy of manners that muses, in its unassuming way, on the creative act."
— Wendy Ide, Observer

Press Materials

High Res Stills and Press Kit
Press Release

Where to watch

Playdates

Aug 8-21 – Film at the Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Aug 9-16 - American Cinematheque, Los Angeles, CA
Aug 15-21 – Cleveland Institute of Arts, Cleveland, OH
Aug 15-31 – The Cinematheque, Vancouver, BC
Aug 15-21 —Kan Kan Cinema, Indianapolis, IN
Aug 28–29 – Lark Theater - Larkspur, CA

Sept 5-11 – Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
Sept 5-7 - OKCMOA, Oklahoma City, OK
Sept 18-21 – Montana International Film Festival, Billings, MT
Sept 18-28 — Webster Film Series, St. Louis. MO
Sept 19–25 – Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Sept 19 - 25 - Austin Film Society, Austin, TX
Sept 21–23 — The Community Theater, Catskills, NY
Sept 24-28 – Boedecker Theater, Boulder, CO
Sept 25-28 - Roxy NYC, New York, NY

Oct 5 — Duke University, Durham, NC
Oct 12 – Doc Films, Chicago, IL
Oct 15–23 – FilmScene, Iowa City, IA

Nov 22 – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA