A PUBLICATION OF THE ASIAN EDUCATIONAL MEDIA SERVICE Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies ✦ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign A E M S Vol. 6, No. 3 News and Reviews Fall 2003 Interview with Filmmaker Dai Sil Kim-Gibson >> by Sarah Barbour and Xian Barrett Dai Sil Kim-Gibson has directed six films about t is a story that has been films in English on this topic Koreans and Korean Americans. She is probably best I silenced for half a century. were less than ten. Still, many know for her documentary Silence Broken, about It needed to be told. people said, “Hasn’t there been the Korean “Comfort The project started as a a work on this topic?” When- Women” and their con- book, and originally, I wanted ever I heard this, I couldn’t Interview tinuing quest for justice to do a feature film for theatri- even scream. from the Japanese gov- cal release. I knew that there Dai Sil Kim-Gibson I could only feel my ernment. Her other films, about subjects as seemingly would be a paucity of visual scream in the pit of my stom- disparate as the Sakhalin Island Koreans and the Los materials to make a documentary. More impor- ach. Because there were a book or two, publishers Angeles race riots, reflect her dedication to human tantly, I believed that as a feature drama, it would were reluctant to print my book. rights and her concern for individuals whose rights attract more people. But I couldn’t raise that kind I found a small publisher who printed my are violated. For more information about Dai Sil of money. In the meantime, however, I was able to book. My book sold over 5,000 copies, mostly Kim-Gibson, her films, and the Comfort Women get a small grant to make a documentary. Writing through word of mouth, so there is an audience issue, please visit to her Web site: www.twotigers.org. the book and making the film went on at the same out there that is interested in this subject. But While she was on campus last April, we talked to time and I published the book to coincide with publishers and programmers think otherwise. her about her films. Following are some excerpts of the broadcast of the film. AEMS: Silence Broken is a little unusual in that our conversation: …You know on Hitler alone there are over it lacks narration. Why is that? 100,000 pieces of work, including books, films, Both the book and the film are collections of AEMS: Silence Broken may be your best known et cetera. However, when I was writing and mak- oral histories. It is not only the topic that is film. Why did you make it? ing a film about Comfort Women, the books and important but the methodology that gives these continued on page 2 Contents What’s New? . 8 How to Contact AEMS . 2 Interview with Filmmaker Dai Sil Kim-Gibson . 1 Reviews of films, videos, and other media: Women in Japan . 3 Transports of Delight: The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh. 4 Mai’s America . 5 Our Nation: A Korean Punk Rock Community . 6 India News Stories . 7 Guide to Distributors. 8 COURTESY OF COURTESY FILMAKERS LIBRARY From Our Nation: A Korean Punk Rock Community. See review, page 6. Asian Educational Media Service Interview munity. Your most recent film Wet Sand The Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS) is a pro- (2003) is a sequel to that film. Why did you continued from page 1 gram of the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies feel it needed a sequel? at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. women a chance finally to tell their stories. AEMS offers information about where to find audio- It was the silenced voices of the victims, visual media resources for teaching and learning about Through narration, directors will often convey and the people and the society in general mov- Asia, and advice about which ones may best suit your their own interpretations. Sometimes the filmmak- ing on as if everything is fine that prompted needs. In addition to AEMS News and Reviews, pub- er’s voice is stressed over the people’s voices. I me to explore the aftermath of the 1992 L.A. lished quarterly, services include a free call-in/write-in wanted to let the women speak for themselves, service and a Web site. To add your name to our mail- upheaval. ing list, request additional copies of the newsletter to and let viewers draw their own conclusions. Sa-I-Gu was in a way a reaction piece. I use in workshops or to share with your colleagues, or AEMS: Why do you feel this is an important had very little money and time when I made it. ask for help in locating resources, please contact us. The sequel is better researched, more compre- AEMS is made possible by generous support from topic for Americans to know about? The Freeman Foundation and The Japan Foundation You think Americans were not involved but hensive, and I had a little more time to try to Center for Global Partnership. they were very involved. After World War II raise money. I interviwed people from African, For more information, contact: ended, they ruled Japan for a long time and Hispanic, and white communities, in addition to AEMS, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies McArthur spearheaded the Tokyo International the same Koreans in Sa-I-Gu. Many believe that University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Tribunal in 1946. The trial did not deal with this race relations in L.A. have improved since the 230 International Studies Building, MC-483 riot. I want people to be aware that this is not 910 South Fifth Street issue. The Americans were reluctant to pursue jus- Champaign, IL 61820 tice for the Comfort Women. If the Americans true. I wanted to remind people that Sa-I-Gu* Telephone: 1-888-828-AEMS (1-888-828-2367) had dealt with this issue properly in 1946, it is not over. The message is that racism has not or 217-265-0642 wouldn’t be an issue now. America bears a lot of gone away. It has gone underground which is Fax: 217-265-0641 even more dangerous. The threat of another riot E-mail: [email protected] responsibility for this because America ignored the is very real to these people. Web: www.aems.uiuc.edu issue entirely. And this was not just the issue of sexual slavery A lot of people just don’t know about what of Asian women, but of wartime rape in general. happens beyond America or even in America. Advisory Board This is still an issue today. We can’t just ignore it. You’d be amazed at how South Central Los Burnill Clark, President and C.E.O., KCTS Television Angeles is isolated from mainstream America. AEMS: Some educators use the sexual nature of Lucien Ellington, Editor, Education About Asia; Americans are a very privileged people, isolated UC Foundation Professor, University of Tennessee this topic as a explanation for their hesitance to even from their own society. The inner cities are at Chattanooga teach about Comfort Women. like reservations, but no one realizes it. Richard Gordon, Executive Producer, Long Bow I do think that elementary school is too young Group, Inc. I want to take Wet Sand wherever people to study this. But beginning from the last couple Peter Grilli, President, Japan Society of Boston, Inc. need it. We desperately need a dialogue on of years of high school and college would be Karl G. Heider, Professor of Anthropology, University racism and poverty in this country. Our gov- appropriate. of South Carolina ernment throws all of its attention to the war Ellen C.K. Johnson, Associate Professor, College of AEMS: Before Silence Broken, you made A [in Iraq] and ignores what is going on here. DuPage Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans (1995), We have to pay attention to race relations— Laurel Kendall, Curator, Asian Ethnographic Collections, another documentary about a wartime injustice. American Museum of Natural History; Adjunct immigrants and African and white Americans. Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University Tell us about why you made that film. President Kennedy was right to call America Marianna McJimsey, Lecturer in History/Social Studies These were Koreans who were taken from “a nation of immigrants.” The people who have Education, The Colorado College their homes by the Japanese and forced into labor chosen to live here, who aren’t here simply as Sharon Wheaton, C.E.O., E.T. Interactive Multimedia camps on Sakhalin Island which now belongs to an accident of birth, are real Americans. In an Diana Marston Wood, Associate Director, Asian Studies Russia. Even after World War II, these people were ideal world, America should be a country where Program, University of Pittsburgh abandoned by the Japanese, and their own coun- Native Americans were considered the hosts try, already entangled in the Cold War, forgot and the rest of us immigrants. ✦ about them. The Russians did not want them to Editorial Board (Faculty and staff of the University *“Sa-I-Gu” is Korean for April 29, the date that of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.) go home; they wanted to use them as workers. the riots took place in 1992. Nancy Abelmann, Associate Professor of Anthropology The forced labor situation was also largely ignored and East Asian Languages and Cultures by the Tokyo Tribunal. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Clark E. Cunningham, Professor Emeritus of I deal with Koreans abandoned on Sakhalin Dai Sil Kim-Gibson’s book Silence Broken: Anthropology island, their nostalgia, and their desire to go home.