"Axis of evil?" While this tiny state on the divided Korean peninsula is continually demonized in America, few have any first hand knowledge of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. What is it like on the other side of the 38th parallel? How do Koreans in the north view this past decade - the fall of Soviet communism, natural disasters that brought famine and power shortages, and a continued, dangerously hostile relationship with the U.S.? What are the concerns of the Korean American community - many of whom have family in the north? This new documentary follows a young Korean American woman to see her relatives, and through unique footage of life in the D.P.R.K. and interviews with ordinary people and scholars, opens a window into this nation and its people.
Go to www.twn.org/update.html for a listing of upcoming screenings near you!
With support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting), Media Arts Fellowships/Rockefeller Foundation,the New York State Council on the Arts, the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media/The Funding Exchange
Film Rental Film Sale Video Rental Video Sale N/A N/A 75 225 English Pre-orders now accepted
<http://www.twn.org/record.cgi?recno=434> *****
***** The human face of North Korea By Alisa Givental
NEW YORK - Few Americans know that no army won the Korean War - it ended in a truce. But most are familiar with United States charges that North Korea has weapons of mass destruction, and they might also be used to thinking of the communist nation as a serious threat. A new documentary titled North Korea Beyond the DMZ looks at the human side of this country, and discusses the origins of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) outlook on the world and the US in particular.
The film analyzes Korean history from World War II until the present. Using footage from the US and the North Korean capital Pyongyang and environs, combined with TV broadcasts, photographs interviews and archival footage, this film creates an image of the DPRK that differs from the harsh version usually presented by traditional news sources.
"Our goal was to create some glimpse of what life there is like, that there are people there. Usually, we are only seeing coverage about the leadership," said one of the documentary's two directors, J T Takagi.
Accomplishing that mission was not easy. It took three years of paperwork for a crew of two to get permission to enter the DPRK with their subject, a young Korean-American woman on a quest to locate her father's long-lost family.
After the Korean War - in which more than 30,000 US troops and 2 million Koreans died - ended without a peace treaty, more than 10 million families were separated and have remained so for more than 50 years.
The young woman's father had a brother and mother left in the North from whom he has never heard. On arriving in the country, she learns about the contemporary culture of North Korea, one of the last communist countries.
The young woman is exposed to juche, a system of thought created by the late ruler Kim Il-sung, which teaches that "everyone is master of his own fate and the power to control that fate lies within oneself". Self-reliance has been the official mantra of North Korea for more than 50 years.
The documentary discusses the life of modern North Koreans and their problems: the lack of electricity and hot water, the famines caused by massive flooding at the end of the last decade and the economic crisis precipitated by the loss of the country's main ally, the Soviet Union.
Though often portrayed in the West as a country run by a maniacal militaristic leader, the film portrays North Korea as much more complicated than this simplistic version allows. It is a nation of few freedoms but an almost 100 percent literacy rate. It is a place with little nightlife or entertainment but a country that has proclaimed every Saturday a countrywide study day.
According to Takagi, the current tension with the US is the result of fear and propaganda, and the fact that "people in the North have grown up with the idea that the US would inevitably invade". North Koreans feel that they are under siege and respond accordingly, she said in an interview.
"North Korea has been trying to change, to move to a market economy or at least to an economy that could interface with the world market," Takagi said, "yet the US has been preventing that from happening. "The existence of North Korea as a supposed threat is a good reason to maintain a military presence in the area," Takagi added. Today, Washington has 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea.
Takagi, a Japanese-American independent filmmaker who works with Third World Newsreel, a media arts center in New York City, co-directed the film with Hye Jung Park, a first-generation Korean-American independent filmmaker, film curator and college professor.
Third World Newsreel produced the hour-long film. This documentary about the country that ABC-TV dubbed "the weirdest place now on Earth" will premiere at the New York Museum of Modern Art's Gramercy Theater on December 13.
(Inter Press Service)
Nov 13, 2003
<http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EK13Dg05.html> *****
***** Third World Newsreel: A New Production and Selected Shorts
North Korea: Beyond the DMZ. 2003. USA. Directed by J. T. Takagi and Hye-Jung Park. The most recent production of Third World Newsreel, an independent production and distribution organization, follows a young woman's search for lost relatives in what is revealed to be the most mysterious and demonized of countries, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The work examines tensions between the DPRK and the United States. In English and Korean, English subtitles. 55 min.
Newsreel to Third World Newsreel-1968-2003: A Selection of Historic Newsreel Shorts. Directed by Newsreel/Third World Newsreel. 10 min.
Program 65 min.
Saturday, December 13, 5:00 (introduced by the directors and Dorothy Thigpen, Executive Director, Third World Newsreel)
<http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/momafilm/docu_fort_2003.html> <http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/momafilm/> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>