‘Landing Practice’ turns five years of sexual-violence survivors’ recovery into a film

“Landing Practice” begins with a simple appeal to sexual-violence survivors: ask for help without worrying about how others will react, and keep looking for people who can help.

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A sexual-violence assault happens suddenly. The beginning of Landing Practice seems to be deciding to survive, asking for help without worrying about what others think, and continuing to look for people who can help me.

The documentary follows Tak, a former publishing-company marketer who publicly disclosed workplace sexual violence in 2014 and never returned to that job. Tak later supported other survivors in literary circles and stood at the forefront of the 2018 #MeToo movement. Tak now works with Sang-Woman’s Landing Technique, a nonprofit that uses art, writing and dance to help survivors recover everyday routines.

Director Ma Min-ji, who helped establish the group, filmed its activities and is herself a survivor of sexual violence in the film industry. The group’s name reverses the Korean expression “real man,” while its “landing technique” refers to grounding, a trauma-treatment method. From 2020, Ma recorded five years of the group planning programs, sharing them with other survivors and working toward ordinary life.

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I worried that once the harm was revealed, people would focus more on what happened and on recreating the victimization than on the person’s recovery. I also disliked the idea of judging the depth of someone’s wounds according to the severity of the harm.

The film deliberately leaves out details of the assaults. Ma said showing the harm could shift attention from recovery to the event itself and encourage viewers to measure the depth of people’s wounds by the severity of their experiences. Instead, the documentary shows the difficult, uneven process of recovery, including conflict caused by trying too hard to accommodate one another, a member’s hospitalization and another member’s departure for personal reasons.

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The Bookstore as a Waiting Room program came from imagining what it would be like if I worked again, if I ran a bookstore, and from my desire to become a worker again.

Ma and Tak said returning to work remains an important part of recovery. Tak created a program called “Bookstore as a Waiting Room,” imagining what it would be like to run a bookstore and become a worker again after losing a career. Tak said the program brought back the satisfaction and happiness of working after a long break, calling the group’s activities “the strongest lifeline among the many lifelines that have come down to me.” Sang-Woman’s Landing Technique has also expanded its work to women and girls in crisis and victims of digital sexual violence. The film opens at Seoul’s Indispace on the 10th.

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The activities of Sang-Woman’s Landing Technique have been the strongest lifeline among the many lifelines that have come down to me.