North Korea: Beyond the DMZ (Dirs. JT Takagi & Hye Jung Park)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

*****   NORTH KOREA: BEYOND THE DMZ
JT Takagi & Hye Jung Park / Edited by Dena Mermelstein
(56 min./Color/2003)

"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

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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

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