The dispute has put the October release of The Sunday Signal, a ₩4.2 billion (about €2.6 million) drama about a fictional 1980s television preacher, under fresh pressure. Seoul Tape Commons, a community archive that helped restore the broadcasts, voted on Wednesday to cancel a planned free preview and asked the production company to remove the clip from its advertising.
The trailer shows a preacher framed by red curtains, followed by a close-up of an old studio camera. Archive volunteers say the images come from a tape donated by a former viewer under a form permitting preservation and educational screenings. The company says it obtained a separate release from the tape’s owner and that the clip is lawful.
The archive draws a line
Seoul Tape Commons began in 2024 as a neighbourhood effort to save ageing videotapes from homes and church storerooms. Its 12 volunteers have digitised 1,140 tapes from 27 households, then held free screenings in a small media room in Seongbuk district. The group’s vote followed a public viewing of the trailer on 6 October.
“People brought us these tapes because they wanted their memories kept, not turned into a sales pitch,” said Milica Poláková-Moravčík, the archive’s coordinator. She said contributors were not asked about a commercial film, and that the group had received no payment. The archive is seeking a written assurance that the clip will be removed before the film opens.
We cannot call it community preservation if the people who shared the material lose control of where it goes.
Milica Poláková-Moravčík, archive coordinator
Filmmakers reject the demand
Director Kailee Kiehn said the production team had reviewed the footage’s permissions and would not pull it from the trailer while that review continued. “We are not portraying a real pastor, church or congregation,” she said. The film follows Jin Bae, an invented preacher whose televised appeals divide his supporters over whether broadcasting faith turns it into a product.
The production company said the tape’s donor signed a separate consent form allowing commercial use. It declined to publish the form, citing the donor’s privacy, but offered to meet the archive and the contributor. A 600-seat Seoul cinema has kept the 22 October premiere on its calendar, though its operator said it would review the plan if the screening rights remain disputed.
The row has divided viewers and religious groups. Flóra F. Gáspár, who plays a producer in the film, said the story was meant to examine how television changes the relationship between leaders and followers, not to mock belief. Lawrence L. Gibson, who heads a fictional interfaith media council, said the distinction would matter less to audiences if the borrowed images appeared without context.
The archive’s free screening programme, supported by a district cultural grant of ₩48 million (about €30,000), is due to resume next month with a discussion on consent and old media. Seoul Tape Commons says it will show no clips from the film unless contributors approve. The film’s distributor says it will announce any trailer changes by 15 October, a week before the planned premiere.
