Last night Vice had their first season finale on HBO with the broadcast of their recent trip to North Korea. If you remember, back in February 2013 Vice correspondent Ryan Duffy and three members of the Harlem Globetrotters became the first American delegation to play together with North Korean athletes in a friendly exhibition basketball game in Pyongyang. The country's young, enigmatic leader Kim Jong Un attended the game with NBA hall-of-famer Dennis Rodman at his side. The game ended in a very diplomatic 110-110 tie and on the next day Duffy and the Globetrotters had a chance to talk directly with the North Korean players during lunch. Here is a part of that conversation:
Related:
Harlem Globetrotters vs DPRK Practice Game
NKBA Kim Jong Un & Dennis Rodman Video Game
Via CNN May 13, 2013
In a long overdue change of format, CNN recently released a short documentary on homeless children in the DPRK entitled "Orphaned and Homeless in North Korea". This very short but powerful docudrama features two students who were abandoned by their parents many years ago in "The Hermit Kingdom". The first is Yoon Hee a 19-year-old escapee who found a foster home in South Korea. The other is an anonymous young man who feels fortunate to receive the South Korean government's support and education. Both are students at the Hangyeore School a special school for children and teenagers from North Korea.
Principal Gwok Jong Moon summarized the situation for many young escapees: "Although freedom was given to them in South Korea, severe [academic] competition, delayed development, educational disparity and discrimination makes it extremely difficult for them to adjust properly. So we provide those students education through special programs, emotional and psychological treatments, and social and cultural adaptation skills."
This documentary is only four and a half minutes in duration, but it is one of the first, or possibly the first feature released by CNN on this very important subject. Hopefully, there will be more like this released by more mass media entities in the near future. "Orphaned and Homeless in North Korea" was produced by Nick Scott and narrated by Jonathan Binder. It was translated by Jin Kang, Sindy Kang, Sarah Kim, Annie Sunin Lee and InHee Yoo.
See also:
Shocking Undercover North Korean News Video
Premiere of "Camp 14 - Total Control Zone"
Canadian DPRK Documentary "The Defector"
In the past we have seen The Vice Guide to Travel go to North Korea where founder Shane Smith sang "Anarchy in the DPRK" in a hilarious parody of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK".
Then, on a more serious note, Vice Media Japan traveled to Fukushima to meet two farmers. One is still living and working his farm inside the evacuation zone in Tomioka. The other farmer lives just outside the zone in temporary housing. While there they made a chilling documentary "Alone in the Zone."
Now Vice Extended pulled out all of the stops and recently visited the "Doll Sweet Factory" in Dalian, China. And Vice Correspondent Thomas Morton basically said it all with this gem:
"Here in Dalian though it's a factory town so they've created the ultimate girl. She's, uuhh, made of silicone. And, uuhh, you fuck her."
Check out this short and NSFW documentary:
See also:
New Japanese Bukkake Doll Aya Aya
China Sex Toy Factory NSFW Photos
Japanese Virtual Web Sex Technology
As the tension on the Korean peninsula increases, a fascinating new travel documentary film entitled "DPRK: The Land of Whispers (North Korea Travel Documentary) (2013) by Polish-American filmmaker Chrystian Cohen has recently gone somewhat viral on the web.
Cohen, who is based in Hanoi, took the train into Pyongyang with the hope and ambition of capturing a more meaningful experience. Prior to departure, he cleverly worked out a deal where he would film and produce a five-minute promo video for the tour company in exchange for the unusual permission to film his complete tour of the Hermit Kingdom. Join Cohen and a group of other foreign tourists as they travel through Pyongyang, Mount Paektu, Chongjing and Wonsan in this very interesting and humorous one hour film:
To find out more about this movie and how Cohen made it, check out his post at The Word.
See also:
From North Korea: 'Pyongyang Style' by Steve Gong
Buy A North Korean Bride Only $50,000!!!
DPRK's Moranbong Band Destroys The World
Shocking Undercover North Korean News Video
Recently produced by Vice Media Japan, here is a very chilling short documentary on two Fukushima farmers who, in the face of high levels of radioactivity, are still bravely working their desolate farms and feeding their animals. One farmer, Naoto Matsumura, is still living within the 20 kilometer evacuation zone in Tomioka. Another farmer, Kenji Hasegawa, had to evacuate his town of Iitate and now lives in temporary housing. Together they tell some very somber tales of the nuclear accident, TEPCO's lies, their separated families and Japanese government failures two years after the disasters of March 11, 2011.
See also:
Fukushima Housewife's Story of Nuclear Meltdown
Kraftwerk Live in Tokyo @ NO NUKES
Produced by Liberty in North Korea here is the trailer from a new documentary movie about a cool North Korean guy named "Danny". In 2005 Danny escaped to China and then to the USA:
He escaped a life of indoctrination, routine public executions, and starvation. This is a documentary about Danny's story-- from his challenging life in North Korea, to his brave escape to China, and his resettlement journey in the United States.To see this film, it is necessary to request a screening for your community. You can find out more about that process here. About LINK: "Liberty in North Korea (LINK) is the only full-time grassroots organization in North America devoted to the North Korean human rights and humanitarian crises. LiNK provides protection and aid to North Korean refugees hiding in China and, utilizing a modern-day underground railroad through Southeast Asia, rescues refugees and helps them to reach freedom." Continued...
See also:
The Making of "Nothing To Envy" Film
Premiere of "Camp 14 - Total Control Zone"
North Korean Concentration Camp Drawings
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Via indiegogo November 20, 2012
One of the best books written about North Korea's recent history is the award-winning "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick. In this fast page-turning chronicle, Demick presents a rare up close and personal view into the daily lives of people living within a horrifying and brutal totalitarian nation. Through fifteen years of tyrannical rule and hardship after hardship, the author follows six North Koreans who fall in love, get married, raise families and confide their innermost thoughts and feelings in Demick. As unemployment and famine ravage the land, the six families risk everything to escape.
Now a small award-winning documentary production company named Mosaic Films is in the early planning stages of the production of an animated feature film based on Demick's book. Led by filmmaker Andy Glynne, Mosaic Films is now running a donation campaign in an effort to secure funding for production costs. Supporters for this film include Amnesty International, NK News, Christian Solidarity Worldwide and others. Below is a trailer and a short message from Glynne:
And here is part of an interview with North Korean defector Kim Jooil. This is part of a testimony initiative within the Nothing to Envy project.
If possible please contribute to the making of the "Nothing To Envy" documentary here. There are many interesting prizes being given away for donors. For more information please visit the movie's official website.
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Related:
'The Defector' Film Premieres at IDFA
Premiere of Camp 14 - Total Control Zone
North Korean Concentration Camp Drawings
Via DocGeeks November 17th, 2012
Last December we reported on the The Defector documentary while it was still being produced by the award-winning Fathom Film Group. Their kickstarter project achieved its funding goal on December 11, 2011 and the post production of this film was completed. Now this movie has been selected to premiere at the prestigious International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA). Filmed undercover by Korean-Canadian filmmaker Ann Shin, this documentary will be showing at the IDFA from November 14-25. Shin had this to say about the film:
“The film has been 3 years in the making and we’re excited to be launching at IDFA” says Producer/Director Ann Shin. “It’s about a human smuggler who deals with desperate North Koreans wanting to escape."Here is the new trailer for this movie: The Defector: Escape from North Korea will also be released online as a first-person POV interactive web documentary. This will enable viewers to experience what it is really like to be a defector! This mixed media motion picture will also be shown at upcoming festivals and broadcast on TVO, Canal D and CTS in 2013.
See also:
Canadian DPRK Documentary "The Defector"
Premiere of "Camp 14 - Total Control Zone"
North Korean Concentration Camp Drawings
This horrifying documentary film is based on the life of Shin Dong-Huyk who was born in the North Korean re-education Camp 14 located in Kaechon, South Pyongan Province. Shin had no concept of the world outside the camp until he escaped at the age of 23. To date he is the only known person to have been born within and then successfully escaped from a maximum security camp in the DPRK. He tells a terrifying tale of extremely dangerous labor, daily beatings, inhumane torture, forced abortions, infanticide, public executions and cold-blooded murder committed by the prison guards. This film also includes the testimonies of Oh Yang-nam an ex-secret policeman and Hyuk Kwon a former guard at Camp 14. Below is the official movie trailer:
"Camp 14 - Total Control Zone" will premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival with the schedule of its showing to be announced on August 21st.
UPDATE: This film can now be seen on Netflix.
See also:
North Korean Concentration Camp Drawings
North Korean Poet's Rhymes of Murder, Despair
Canadian DPRK Documentary "The Defector"
Rimjin-gang's Underground North Korea News Update
Via The Atlantic Apr 30 2012
A team of skateboarders were not allowed to skate in Pyongyang, so the video maker of the group, Patrik Wallner, turned his camera to the The 100th Birthday Celebration of Kim Il Sung in North Korea and created a beautiful short documentary of the eternal leader's big birthday extravaganza. From their Virtualtravelling website:
Traveling to Hermit Kingdom is already bizarre enough, but when we heard that North Korea would be celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the Great Leader & eternal president, Kim Il-sung, there was no way to let such an epic birthday party slip through our hands. Laurence Keefe, Kirill Korobkov and I flew over to Pyongyang for two days to witness the madness. While skateboarding within the DPRK was our main intention, it was overshadowed by the celebrations & the 'no sliding' anywhere rule. The three minute clip portrays a small insight into North Korea from the 15th of April 2012.And here is the clip entitled "Kim Il Sung's Birthday Party":
Visualtraveling - 'Kim Il-Sung's Birthday Party' from Patrik Wallner on Vimeo.
See more beautiful photos and videos of Asia at Virtualtravelling. Related: From North Korea: 'Pyongyang Style' by Steve Gong The 100th Birthday of Kim Il Sung in North Korea DPRK Kimilsungia Flower Show 2012 Visit New North Korea Best Korea!
Via The Wall Street Journal Speakeasy March 12, 2012
Prior to placing an online order to Buy Your Chinese Bride on Ebay, we strongly recommend watching the movie "Seeking Asian Female." This documentary film is "a modern love story about Steven and Sandy -- an aging white man with "yellow fever" who is obsessed with marrying any Asian woman, and the young Chinese bride he finds online." Here is the trailer:
This film is now showing at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
See also: Japanese Breaking Up is Not So Hard To Do
Watch Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
Recently aired on British TV, here is a very interesting documentary about the original UK street artist King Robbo and the ongoing graffiti war between him and Banksy. This short also features interviews with street artists Blek le Rat, Elate, Ben Eine and others. 