Kim Dong-won

KIM Dong-won is like a godfather to Korean documentaries. As the leader of [PURN Production], a documentary production house that focused on unearthing the contradictions of Korean society from a progressive viewpoint. Purporting to make “good,” rather than “fun” movies, his camera zoomed straight in on the dark corners of the society, places full of contradictions, and refuges of the socially disadvantaged.

KIM’s works provided textbook examples to Korea’s documentary directors that followed in his footsteps. His debut movie, < Sangye-dong Olympics >(1987), deals with people of Sangye-dong, an area of Seoul that was torn down by the government only because the area was “not easy on eyes” in the years leading up to the Seoul Olympics of 1988. In < Repatriation >(2004), arguably his best work, KIM Dong-won’s camera followed in breathing distance the lives of unconverted long-term pro-North Korea prisoners in South Korean jails.

Devoid of any traces of exaggeration or direction, < Repatriation > shows the power of a documentary by capturing the essence of the subjects through long and candid takes.