Participants in the KoreanFilm Council (KOFIC)'s inaugural Filmmakers' Development Lab (FDL) are on handin Pusan to pitch the scripts developed at the week-longworkshop.

FDL selected five emergingKorean and Korean-American writer-directors and paired each one withestablished film professional mentors from the US and Korea.

Modeled on similar creativeprojects such as the Sundance Screenwriters' Lab, the FDL had mentors andfellows go through six days of intensive script incubation in Hawaii (Sept 4-10).

The fellows were AbrahamLim, Jinoh Park,Philip W. Chung, Kim Young-il, and Mora Mi-ok Stephens. Projects ranged fromChung's suspense thriller about an Asian femme fatale to Lim's campus horrorstory.

Filmmaker and critic RogerGarcia was director of the programme and the mentors present at PIFF for thepitching session and panel discussion yesterday (Oct 15) were producer BarrySabath (Mrs. Doubtfire), a seniorlecturer at the American Film Institute, producer Jonathan Kim (Silmido), filmmaker Po-Chih Leong (The Wisdom of Crocodiles) and producerShin Chul (My Sassy Girl).

The FDL is part of aninitiative from KOFIC to nurture the Korean diaspora and "lay the groundworkfor the establishment of a new paradigm and model that encompasses theaspiration of Korea's filmmaking community," according to Moon Sun-young, KOFIC's LArepresentative and Assistant Director of the FDL.