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Korean Studies & Korean Diaspora

Camp Arirang
Diana S. Lee & Grace Yoon-Kung Lee
1995, 29 min., BW, US/South Korea
A gritty look at the camp towns surrounding U.S. military bases in South Korea. This documentary follows Yon Ja Kim, a charismatic 50-year-old former sex worker through American Town, a government sub...

Coming Full Circle: The Journey of a Korean Transgendered Adoptee
Larry Tung
2015, 24 min., Color, US/Korea
Pauline Park, a transgender rights activist in New York City, was born into a poor family in post-war Korea. Adopted by white American parents, she left Korea as a 7-month old baby boy and grew up in ...

Forgotten Warriors
Kim Jin Yoel
Producer: PURN Productions
2005, 99 min., Color, South Korea
A fascinating documentary about one of the little known legacies of the Korean War (1950-53), FORGOTTEN WARRIORS tells the stories of women guerilla fighters for North Korea who were captured, held fo...

Grandmother's Flower
Jeong-hyun Mun
2008, 89 min., Color, South Korea
When director Mun accidentally discovered the diaries of his late granduncle, who was mentally ill, he unexpectedly learned about his family's secret history. The small mountain village in South Jeoll...

Hafu - The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan
Megumi Nishikura & Lara Pérez Takagi
2013, 85 min., Color, Japan
HAFU is the unfolding journey of discovery into the intricacies of mixed-race Japanese and their multicultural experience in modern day Japan. The film follows the lives of five “hafus”–the Japanese t...

Homes Apart: Korea
J.T. Takagi & Christine Choy
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1991, 56 min., Color, US/Korea
They speak the same language, share a similar culture and once belonged to a single nation. When the Korean War ended in 1953, ten million families were torn apart. By the early 90's, as the rest of t...

Living Along the Fenceline
Lina Hoshino & Gwyn Kirk
Producer: Lina Hoshino, Gwyn Kirk & Deborah Lee
2012, 65 min., Color, US
LIVING ALONG THE FENCELINE tells the stories of seven grassroots women leaders from across the Pacific to Puerto Rico whose communities are affected by the U.S. military presence in their backyards. A...

Living in Half Tones
Me-K Ahn
1994, 9 min., Color
A metaphorical reconstruction of the artist's developing identity as an adopted Korean girl in America who returns to Korea for the first time "to search for bits and pieces of my past." A visually po...

Looking For Wendy
Kimberly Saree Tomes
1998, 18 min., Color
Tomes' pseudo-search for her roots as a Korean adoptee takes her from her adoptive father who works in bio-engineering (genetically creating the world's juiciest tomato) to the adoptive relationship b...

Mother
Jun seek TAE
2011, 102 min., Color, South Korea
MOTHER follows labor activist Lee So-seon, who for over 40 years organized for workers’ rights in South Korea. A courageous, yet humble woman, Lee’s activism began the day her son, iconic labor activi...

North Korea: Beyond the DMZ
J.T. Takagi & Hye Jung Park
Edited by Dena Mermelstein
2003, 60 min., Color, North Korea/US
While this tiny state on the divided Korean peninsula is continually demonized in the U.S., few have any first hand knowledge of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. What is it like on the other...

Repatriation
Dong-won Kim
Producer: PURN Productions
2003, 149 min., Color, South Korea
In the spring of 1992 documentary filmmaker Dong-won Kim met Cho Chang-son and Kim Seak-hyoung, two North Koreans arrested by South Korean authorities years before. Convicted of spying for the North, ...

Sky-blue Hometown
Soh-Young Kim
2000, 93 min., Color, Korea
This documentary traces the trajectory of a Korean diasporic community in the former Soviet Union. Placed in internment camps by Stalin during World War II, the plight of a generation of Korean-Russia...

Translating Grace
Anita Lee
1996, 20 min., BW, Canada
An innovative drama that explores the unique relationship between two Korean-Canadian women. Grace, a second generation feminist academic, and Hyang-Sook, a recent immigrant from Korea. Grace is the t...

Turmeric Border-Marks
Christina Choe
2000, 25 min., Color
TURMERIC BORDER-MARKS is an experimental documentary set in modern Seoul, Korea, where an intersection becomes two stories of migration, globalization, hybrid identity, cracked mirrors and turmeric (a...

Unspoken
Patrick G Lee
2020, 17 min., Color, US
Through letter-writing, a community discussion, and a drag performance, six queer and trans Asian Americans grapple with their queerness and consider what family acceptance might look like. UNSPOK...

Variety Survival Talkshow
Se Young JO
2009, 72 min., Color, South Korea
“I was about six. Back then I didn't know what it was or what it was called, so I couldn't tell anyone. But even after I knew what it was, I still couldn't speak out.” --KangYoung, Korean performance ...

War in Daechuri
Jeong II Geon
Producer: PURN Productions
2006, 45 min., South Korea
Spurred by the US government's plan to expand military bases in Pyeongtaek city, a war is being waged against the farmers of the South Korean village of Daechuri. In this joint effort by the South Ko...

The Women Outside: Korean Women and the U.S. Military
J.T. Takagi & Hye Jung Park
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1995, 60 min., Color, US/South Korea
Documenting the lives of women who work in the South Korean military brothels and clubs where over 27,000 women "service" the 37,000 American soldiers stationed in the most militarized region of the w...


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