*** Notice: For the protection of property rights, this catalog is available for online browsing only. Please drop us a line if you would like to receive a copiable version of this catalog. Thank You!

Content

Korea

Korea


NORTH KOREA: PORTRAIT OF A RED DICTATOR

This exclusive portrait is the first to portray North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il, with interviews of North and South Korean politicians, as well as close relatives and former employees who have fled the regime. The government is secretive and little is known about Jong-il. He managed to retain power after his father Kim Il- Sung's death in 1994. By 1997, North Korea had become one of the most isolated countries in the world, with an economy in shambles and frequent famines, causing the death of millions of his compatriots. Jong-il's regime has made North Korea a nuclear rogue state threatening the security of the world.

Having grown up among the military and political operatives of his father's government, Jong-il was appointed his father's propaganda chief. By writing and directing films, ballets and operas glorifying his father and himself, he created a remarkable personality cult around his father. This he extended to encompass himself, thereby legitimizing the father-son political succession. He has a reputation as a vain and capricious playboy, having been married five times and has had many mistresses, some chosen from the "Pleasure Brigade" of young women used by his cronies and himself. He lives in great opulence, feasting on rare foods and drinking heavily.

Kim Dae Jung, the former President of South Korea and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize recalls his visit to Kim Jong-il in 2001 when Jong- il told him he wished to improve relations with the U.S. His message was passed on to President G.W. Bush. Despite this, Bush demonized Jong-il, declaring North Korea to be part of an "axis of evil" in 2002. As a result, U.S. - North Korean relations have worsened considerably over the past six years.

Item no.: BS07061229
Format: DVD
Duration: 26 minutes
Copyright: 2008
StdBkNo:
Price: USD 325.00

[Go top]

Add to cart


BACK TO THE SOIL

By Kwon Woo-jung

In 1998 Lee Geun Hyuk left the city, along with his wife and infant daughter, for Korea's South Chungcheong Province to begin a new life in farming. Lee harbored no romantic illusions about becoming a farmer, since he had been born and raised in a farming family, but he believed strongly in the importance of traditional agriculture and in the urgent need to organize a farmers' movement to protest new government policies.

To produce BACK TO THE SOIL, documentary filmmaker Kwon spent a year living with and filming the Lee family, chronicling with remarkable intimacy their numerous difficulties-such as harvesting on a trial-and-error basis, Lee's role in leading militant rallies against the expansion of the Free Trade Agreement, and the emotional impact of their young daughter's heart operation and the illness and death of Lee's father.

BACK TO THE SOIL thus functions as both an emotionally engaging portrait of the young couple's challenges in starting a new life as well as a revealing depiction of a rapidly changing agricultural system that threatens to destroy traditional farming methods. On a more personal level, the film shows how Lee's fight for his beliefs creates tensions between him and older, more apathetic farmers in the community, and how his newfound political militancy creates emotional strains between him and his wife.

In portraying the impact of the Korean government's new policies that abandon small national farmers in favor of a globalized agrobusiness, flooding the market with cheap imported rice and other foods, a trend against which Lee is valiantly striving to sustain and revitalize traditional farming, BACK TO THE SOIL dramatizes a situation facing small farmers not only in Korea but also throughout the world.

Item no.: NM03400045
Format: DVD (Color)
Duration: 84 minutes
Copyright: 2004
StdBkNo:
Price: USD 398.00

[Go top]

Add to cart


INSIDE THE HERMIT KINGDOM: NORTH KOREA

By I Sun-Dyung

North Korea is known as the hermit kingdom because it has been cut off from the rest of the world. Cruelly colonized by Japan early in the 20th century, and split from the south after World War II by cold war politics, it has suffered repressive governments and frequent famines.

This film, made by I Sun-Dyung, the daughter of Korean immigrants, was an attempt to understand the country that has been demonized by the West, particularly the US. She was the first western journalist allowed entry. Her film traces the history of Korea in the 20th century and includes fascinating interviews with some of the world1s foremost experts on North Korea, including Prof. Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago, and Donald Rickerd of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies, who give fresh perspective on this enigmatic country.

We learn that communist ideology has taken a back seat to the philosophy of "Juche" Il Sung. Kim Il Sung was revered as "the great liberator" from Japan1s brutal rule. Most North Koreans are loyal to his son, their present leader Kim Jong -IL who succeeded his father in 1994. Despite having suffered severe food shortages, North Koreans have been taught that they can survive on their own. The country feels threatened by America and believes its nuclear weapons are "chips" in a power struggle with the West. Included are in -depth interviews with a former bodyguard of the "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-IL and testimonies from defectors and survivors of the country1s infamous concentration camps. This fascinating film contributes to our understanding of an important player in the geopolitcs of the 21st century.

Item no.: CR07060347
Format: DVD
Duration: 52 minutes
Copyright: 2004
StdBkNo:
Price: USD 407.00

[Go top]

Add to cart


WEDDING THROUGH CAMERA EYES: A TRILOGY OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY IN KOREA

By Kijung Lee

"Honeymoon tour means nothing without photography" After viewing Wedding Through Camera Eyes, one has the sense that Korean weddings are held in order for the couples involved to create a fantasy of their relationship in video and in carefully constructed photo albums. Korean visual anthropologist, Kijung Lee, talks with three different couples and their professional wedding photographers, using the visual documentation of the event as a vehicle to facilitate the discussion. There are three stages to creating the complete wedding album. The first stage is the "pre-wedding" documentation which allows the couple, with the help of the photographer's "Tricks - of - the - trade", to stage a story-book relationship with all the romance of a television soap opera. Emotions are staged as well as the scene. The photographer is eager to share his knowledge and how hemanipulates the photos and his subjects in order to get the desired effects. The second phase is the actual wedding which is also elaborately documented with the photographer acting as stage director. In the case of the wedding we see here, there were 2 ceremonies, a traditional Korean style event followed by a westernized version with the bride in a flowing white gown. Lastly is the honeymoon. Couples pile into tour buses and for 2 days they are photographed as the bus lets the couples out at predetermined sites known for their popularity as back drops for staging the honeymoon couples relationship. In interviews it is clear how important the creation of these visual records are to the couples involved. With the collaboration of the professional wedding photographers, ordinary people turn themselves into the heroes and heroines they imagine themselves to be.

Award
  • Award, Society For Visual Anthropology

    Item no.: HM03650424
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 45 minutes
    Copyright: 2002
    StdBkNo:
    Price: USD 224.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SILENCE BROKEN: KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN

    Director: Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

    A powerful and emotional documentary about Korean women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, SILENCE BROKEN dramatically combines the testimony of former comfort women who demand justice for the "crimes against humanity" committed against them, along with contravening interviews of Japanese soldiers, recruiters and contemporary scholars who deny the existence of comfort women or claim that these victims "did this for money." In the film, these women demand an official apology, admission of moral as well as legal guilt, and compenstion from the Japanese government. They want human dignity and justice restored to them.

    The individual testimonies in SILENCE BROKEN, combined with unusual archival footage and dramatized images, shatter the half-century of silence and create a collective story filled with soulful sorrow and amazing resilience of the human spirit.

  • "...A memorable film - innovative in style and rigorously grounded in landmark research." - Sandra Heberer, News & Information, PBS

  • "A hauntingly brilliant film." - Asian Week, Los Angeles

  • "A wrenching and formally inventive look at the abuse and torture of Korean 'comfort women' by Japanese soldiers during WWII." - Village Voice

    Awards
  • Asian American Media Arts Award, 22nd Annual International Asian American Film Festival, New York City
  • Kodak Filmmaker Award, Fourth Annual Huntington International Film Festival

    Item no.: TH11340099
    Format: DVD (English and Korean, With English subtitles)
    Duration: 57 minutes
    Copyright: 1999
    StdBkNo:
    Price: USD 245.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    PYONGYANG DIARIES

    By Solrun Hoaas

    PYONGYANG DIARIES is director Solrun Hoaas' personal account of her encounter with the closed society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

    While the official line in North Korea fosters an almost religious cult of personality, with an emphasis on uniformity, nationalism, and a sense of self-reliance, Hoaas' observations, conversations, and diary entries belie underlying contradictions and inconsistencies.

    The film begins with the death of revered leader Kim Il Sung. Hoaas records the events memorializing his life and his victory over the thirty-five year colonial rule by the Japanese, which ended in 1945. From there she looks at the role of the arts in easing the transition period from Kim Il Sung's government to that of his son Kim Jong Il, and in bolstering confidence during difficult times in general.

    Still, as much as life improved after independence, poverty, hunger, and various social restrictions remain. And although a writing brush stands in between the hammer and the sickle in a state sponsored piece of sculpture, symbolizing the importance of artists and intellectuals, conversations with artists reveal the strict guidelines they must follow in order to show their work.

    While Hoaas was editing the film, North Korea's worsening famine became world news. It is with a keen awareness of the potential crisis that she frames this portrait of a relatively unknown culture.

    Reviews
  • "An excellent audiovidual aid for teachers at nearly all grade levels. Present[s] voices and images of North Koreans - both in North Korea and in South Korea - that often remain absent from courses on East Asia." - Professor R. Richard Grinker, George Washington University, for the Journal of Asian Studies

  • "Rare and unusual... The film stands virtually alone, at least among English-language documentaries, in its balanced, non-ideological and humane attempts to get 'inside' the DPRK and show some of the contradiction, complexity, and diversity of life in today's North Korea. A remarkable film simply for the fact of being made... makes a great contribution to awareness of this little-seen and poorly understood country. It provides a much needed counterbalance to the available print and film resources on Korea." - Professor Charles Armstrong, Columbia University, for the Asian Educational Media Service's 'News and Reviews'

  • "An interesting piece of work [and] a more accurate depiction of the people of North Korea. [The film] makes it possible... to get a glimpse of a country that previously was only imagined." - Korean Quarterly

  • "Straightforward and somber, a definite asset when documenting such a serious and sensitive history. Recommended for all libraries." - Educational Media Reviews Online

    Item no.: EK03100381
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 52 minutes
    Copyright: 1998
    StdBkNo:
    Price: USD 390.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    FORGOTTEN PEOPLE, A: THE SAKHALIN KOREANS

    Director: Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

    This provocative documentary presents a neglected aspect of World War II and a tragic legacy of the Cold War: the saga of the Koreans who spent 50 years on Sakhalin Island. Koreans were brought by the Japanese to the island as forced laborers during the war, only to be abandoned to the Soviet Union in 1945. Forgotten by everyone including their own country, less than 1,000 remain of the original 43,000 laborers. It is a universal story of displaced peoples whose lives were assigned to oblivion as the power struggle unfolded in the latter part of the 20th century.

    Reviews
  • "...a bracing reminder of the human victims in the global chess game played by superpowers." - Los Angeles Times

  • "...classic work of oral history." - Washington City Paper

    Awards
  • CINE Golden Eagle
  • Silver Apple Award, National Educational Media Network

    Item no.: DM11340045
    Format: DVD (English and Korean, With English subtitles)
    Duration: 59 minutes
    Copyright: 1995
    StdBkNo:
    Price: USD 371.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    GLOBAL AFFAIR: SOUTH KOREA

    This program presents an introduction to the history, culture and geography of the Southeast Asian country of South Korea.

    Item no.: CT05532242
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 30 minutes
    Copyright: 1994
    StdBkNo:
    Price: USD 160.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    SA-I-GU: FROM KOREAN WOMEN'S PERSPECTIVES

    Writer/Director/Narrator: Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

    April 29 marks the 15th anniversary of a tragic day in American history. Violence, arson and looting erupted in South Central Los Angeles, sparked by the acquittal of the four policemen who had beaten an African American, Rodney King. During the tragic days of the riot in 1992, Korean Americans suffered about half of the $850 million in property damage, not to mention the emotional and psychological pain. In the days and weeks that followed, media coverage of the upheaval was extensive but rarely presented a fair and in-depth portrayal of the victims. They made the Black/Korean conflict the cause of the crisis, not a symptom.

    Sa-I-Gu, literally April 29, presents this Los Angeles crisis from the perspectives of Korean women shopkeepers and offers an alternative to mainstream media's inability or refusal to present the voices of victims in human terms but make them issues and numbers. Sa-I-Gu provides a perspective that is essential to discussions on the Los Angeles unrest that brought numerous social issues to the forefront - racism, class divisions, crime, violence, poverty, the urban underclass and political, economic and cultural empowerment.

    Reviews
  • "Four stars! Highly recommended." - Video Rating Guide for Libraries

  • "A Powerful New Film!" - Los Angeles Times

    Awards
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film & Video Festival
  • Bronze Award, Houston International Film Festival
  • Rosebud Award, Washington, D.C.

    Item no.: AE11340090
    Format: DVD (English and Korean, With English subtitles)
    Duration: 36 minutes
    Copyright: 1993
    StdBkNo:
    Price: USD 175.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    KOREA: ANCIENT TREASURE, MODERN WONDER

    In the shadow of continuing turmoil in North Korea, the South continues to prosper under its current president, Kim Young Sam. This program looks at the combination of centuries-old tradition and modern technology that has turned a small, war-torn agrarian country into a major industrial power. It shows the effects of modernization on traditional values, covers the roles of education and religion, and relates Korean history, language, and culture to those of China and Japan. A special segment discusses the dynastic-like leadership in the North brought about by the death of Kim Il Sung and the transfer of power to his son, Kim Jong Il.

    Item no.: CV00274989
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 29 minutes
    Copyright: 1990
    StdBkNo: 9781421324401
    Price: USD 170.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    LIFTING THE BLACKOUT: IMAGES OF NORTH KOREA

    Directed by Erika Andersen

    Examines the history, politics and culture of North Korea, including daily life, the status of women, children, education, human rights, President Kim II Sung, attitudes toward reunification, and the impact of the U.S. military presence in Korea. The film visits North Korean homes, schools and workplaces, as well as the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea, and includes interviews with ordinary citizens, women's leaders, military officers, cabinet-level officials, and Korea experts in the U.S.

    Reviews
  • "...informative...enlightening without being academic." - The Boston Herald

  • "When Americans 'know' anything at all about North Korea the sum total is usually a mishmash of stereotypes, fallacies, and half-truths. For those with the courage to confront their ignorance about the 'enemy,' this documentary...will be illuminating." - Third World Resources

    Item no.: EP05970698
    Format: DVD (Color)
    Duration: 54 minutes
    Copyright: 1989
    StdBkNo:
    Price: USD 215.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart


    DISCOVERING THE ART OF KOREA

    A definitive survey of Korean art and culture, this program spans the ages from 3000 B.C. to the 20th century. Views of burial mounds, temples, ancient cities, and other historical sites are interwoven with footage of recovered art treasures such as gold crowns and jewelry, celadon pottery, landscape and genre paintings, and Buddhist relics including the gilt bronze Maitreya (Buddha of the Future). The program also shows art objects from the National Museum of Korea exhibition "5000 years of Korean Art."

    Item no.: EC02305032
    Format: DVD
    Duration: 58 minutes
    Copyright:
    StdBkNo: 9781421383767
    Price: USD 100.00

    [Go top]

    Add to cart

    ***Price on web-site may not be current and is subject to modification by quotation***


    Email :
    inquiry@learningemall.com

    Websites :
    http://www.learningemall.com [ English ]
    http://www.learningemall.com.hk [ Chinese ]