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CJ Welfare Foundation successfully completes the CJ Donors Camp Youth Culture Club Showcase 2022

CJ Welfare Foundation successfully held the “2022 CJ Donors Camp Youth Culture Club Showcase” at CGV Yongsan on the 14th.

The CJ Welfare Foundation, headed by chairman Lee Jay-hyun, has announced that on the 14th, the 2022 edition of the CJ Donors Camp Youth Culture Clubs Showcase (hereinafter, the “Youth Culture Club Showcase”) took place successfully at CGV Yongsan with the active participation of the many youths and others who visited the event site.

The CJ Donors Camp Youth Culture Club (hereafter, the “Youth Culture Club”) is CJ Welfare Foundation's representative support program, which provides culturally motivated middle and high school students in South Korea with opportunities to create and experience bespoke cultures for their growth. Last year, this program supported some 3,000 youths with cultural education and creative activities in a total of 250 clubs in six categories, namely broadcasting, film, music, performance, cooking, and beauty & fashion.

The program held screenings of works created by youths and arranged various events, drawing a positive response from over 1,000 visitors including youth and general visitors.

This year's showcase, set up to showcase to the public works created by the youths who have been participating in the program since April of last year, will take place under the theme of “Festival for Dreams” in conjunction with offline screenings planned at CGV Yongsan's special theater and a Free Viewing Week to take place in an online metaverse space. Furthermore, the showcase also featured a variety of events put together by the CJ Donors Camp's Youth Culture Club Collegiate Volunteer Group specifically for Millennials and Gen Z, leading to the opinion that it has established itself as a cultural festival for the youth.

The offline screenings held at CGV Yongsan on the 14th proved to be a success, attracting some 1,000 on-site visitors, including youth participants in the “Youth Culture Club,” officials from the region's schools, children's centers and youth organizations, and industry experts. Works from clubs in each category and videos showing their activities were presented at an event put together in the form of a short film festival, and on-site event zones, such as photo booths and mini-games, were also run so that not only those who visited the site specifically for the showcase, but also general visitors could have a unique experience.

In order to induce active participation by Millennials and Gen Z, Free Viewing Week is to take place on the metaverse platform “ZEP” until the 31st.

Free Viewing Week, which takes place in a metaverse space that is an exact virtual recreation of the offline screening site, will also be held for about two weeks until the 31st. The CJ Welfare Foundation plans to create a “Youth Culture Club Showcase Stadium” in the Donors Camp Village of the metaverse platform “ZEP” to display works created by participants in this iteration of the Youth Culture Club and hold a variety of comment-feature-based events together with a volunteer activity run by CJ employees involving leaving positive comments. By running this new installment of the metaverse Free Viewing Week, CJ Welfare Foundation aims to elevate the “Youth Culture Club Showcase” to dissolve the boundaries between online and offline worlds that can be enjoyed by the participants and visitors alike.

Of its participation in the 2022 edition of the Youth Culture Club, the film club “Harang,” who participated in the 2021 edition as well, said, "In 2021, through the Youth Culture Club, we made our first short film, “Gaze,” and subsequently achieved the feat of advancing to the finals of the 22nd Korea International Youth Film Festival, which made us both happy and proud. By participating in the Youth Culture Club, we were able to gain some film education and other cultural experiences, which had not been easily accessible to students in the Gimcheon area, and in the process of making our new short film, “Stone,” we were able to take one step closer to our dream of becoming filmmakers.”

An official from CJ Welfare Foundation said, “We organized this installment of the showcase in a more varied manner compared to its predecessors by simultaneously running special offline screenings and the metaverse platform, so that youths, who are the stars of the Youth Culture Club Showcase, can enjoy participating in and experiencing it more than anyone else. Going forward, CJ Welfare Foundation will continue to carry out various cultural and social contribution activities, such as cultural education support projects, for children and youths with the aim of nurturing the future cultural talent who will lead K-culture.”