Every year, thousands of North Koreans make the dangerous journey across the border to escape oppression and poverty. In March of 2005, Danny was one of them. He crossed into China and escaped a life of indoctrination, routine public executions, and starvation. As Danny traveled, he saw a world he never knew existed. A world where movement was not monitored by the government, information was readily available, and most importantly at the time, there was enough food to fill his empty belly. 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. Meet Danny, he’s from North Korea.
She is the femme fatale behind a rogue state’s most deadly terrorist act. In this exclusive interview, Kim Hyon Hui reveals her experiences as North Korea’s top female agent and discusses the nation’s war cries.
“I was in no position to argue if a mission was right or wrong”, says Kim Hyon Hui. In 1987, she successfully carried out a mission to blow up a South Korean airliner, killing 115 people. Sentenced to death in Seoul, she was later pardoned by the South Korean government, who decided she was merely a brainwashed victim of the Kim cult. In this exclusive interview, she recounts her journey from a bright teenager, hand-picked by the regime to become a deadly agent, to dealing with a life of guilt. “I regret what I did and I am repentant”, says Kim Hyon Hui, who feels it is now her destiny to testify about the “terror perpetrated by North Korea”.
In episode 3 of the webseries They’re All So Beautiful, they attempt to answer the question “What do Asian men think of Yellow Fever?” If the predominant Asian fetish is of men (of all ethnicities) toward Asian women, where does that leave Asian and Asian American men? While stereotypes of Asian women make them desirable (submissive, catering, attentive, empathetic) Asian men have been historically seen as invisible, or worse. Men and women speak candidly about Asian male stereotypes, such as: “when an Asian women has chinky eyes, they’re exotic, but when an Asian man has chinky eyes, it’s just chinky.” A white female store owner comes right out and says that Asian men “seem serious, studious” and “up-tight.” Spoken word artist Bao Phi and diverse Asian American men offer counterpoints to the misperceptions, and reflect on how “yellow fever” impacts Asian male identity. Often poking fun, these men also comment on stereotypes about Asian women with an “insider’s” perspective. “In my experience, Asian women are belligerent, demanding and controlling… and I support that,” states one mid-aged Asian American man. A young Asian American man also notes that Asian American women out-marry more than any other ethnicity in America. So why is that?
Talking head commentary from experts and everyday Asian/Americans, as well as interviews with patrons of Asian fetish forums spell out the implications of race-based romantic preferences with honesty and humor, making They’re All So Beautiful provocative while politically agnostic. It promises to surprise viewers with its thoughtful look at modern love and relationships, just as with Lum’s award-winning documentary, Seeking Asian Female, which provides the thematic basis of They’re All So Beautiful.
Weekly webisodes will air online leading up to the national broadcast of Seeking Asian Female on Independent Lens on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 10:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).
They’re All So Beautiful Episode 3
More about They’re All So Beautiful
They’re All So Beautiful is a six-part web series directed by Debbie Lum and co-produced by Maikiko James. The short online documentary episodes are designed to stimulate discussion on yellow fever – a unique but in many ways ubiquitous predilection Western men have for women of Asian descent. Each video starts with a question:
Episode 1: What is Yellow Fever?
Episode 2: Do you have to be white to have Yellow Fever?
Episode 3: What do Asian men think of it?
Episode 4: What about White Fever-Asian women who seek out white men?
Episode 5: What about marriage?
The viral sensation ‘Gangnam style’ sparked imitations worldwide. Yet closer to home, the dream to be like such K-Pop idols is driving young South Koreans to a darker level of imitation: plastic surgery.
“Once people graduate almost all of them get double-eyelid surgery”, explains Gina, who recently left high-school. “In Korea they say, ‘please make my nose into the style of this star’.” In the district that is home to K-Pop’s major entertainment companies there are over 300 plastic surgery clinics on a single street. But some fear this growing beauty obsession is threatening young people’s sense of identity; “they treat their body as a product. They are losing the meaning of who they are”.
In episode 2 of the webseries They’re All So Beautiful, they attempt to answer the question “Do you have to be white to have Yellow Fever?” Is Asian fetish an “affliction” only experienced by heterosexual white men? In this video, Asiaphilia is explored from multiple perspectives – from African American and Latino men who date only Asian women, to white and Latina women with Asian fetish, to a piano teacher who non-romantically favors her “model minority” Asian students. Psychotherapist Ben Tong also begins to tug at the notion that not only is it stereotypes of Asians that attract people, but that stereotypes of other ethnicities repel. This second video in the series explores how persistent stereotyping permeates all cultures and genders. A smiling, first-generation Asian American immigrant candidly asserts his like-minded thinking with non-Asian men, because “even Asian guys believe the concept that (Asian women) are more docile and willing to listen.”
Talking head commentary from experts and everyday Asian/Americans, as well as interviews with patrons of Asian fetish forums spell out the implications of race-based romantic preferences with honesty and humor, making They’re All So Beautiful provocative while politically agnostic. It promises to surprise viewers with its thoughtful look at modern love and relationships, just as with Lum’s award-winning documentary, Seeking Asian Female, which provides the thematic basis of They’re All So Beautiful.
Weekly webisodes will air online leading up to the national broadcast of Seeking Asian Female on Independent Lens on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 10:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).
They’re All So Beautiful Episode 2
More about They’re All So Beautiful
They’re All So Beautiful is a six-part web series directed by Debbie Lum and co-produced by Maikiko James. The short online documentary episodes are designed to stimulate discussion on yellow fever – a unique but in many ways ubiquitous predilection Western men have for women of Asian descent. Each video starts with a question:
Episode 1: What is Yellow Fever?
Episode 2: Do you have to be white to have Yellow Fever?
Episode 3: What do Asian men think of it?
Episode 4: What about White Fever-Asian women who seek out white men?
Episode 5: What about marriage?
“A Woman Named Canyon Sam” is a testament to a woman who passionately committed herself to social change from a young age, chronicling her first coming out as a young Asian American lesbian in the seventies — one of the first “out” Asian American lesbians in North America — to publishing her award-winning 2009 book, Sky Train.
At a run time of twelve minutes, “A Woman Named Canyon Sam” was inspired when Quentin first met Canyon at the reading of her book Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History, winner of the PEN American Center Open Book Award.
Fascinated by Canyon’s multiple identities as a lesbian, an Asian American woman, a performance artist (“a master storyteller,” The Village Voice), an early gay rights activist turned human rights advocate and most recently an author, Quentin decided to collaborate with Canyon on a documentary that began in June of 2009.
Successfully funded by Kickstarter and an entirely a project of passion, “A Woman Named Canyon Sam” first premiered at the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival. It screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the Hong Kong Independent Film Festival, and won the 2011 Panasonic Award for Best Documentary Short at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas.
“Without the technological revolution from digital filmmaking to internet broadcasters like Youtube, I don’t think that this little film could have been possible and seen the light of day,” says Quentin. “Of course, the film could not have been possible without Canyon Sam, a pioneering spirit whom I admire and is an inspiration to me.”
“The seventies and eighties were a profoundly unique time in the history of social change movements — wildly full of change and the hope of even bigger change. We felt we were smashing social barriers every time we turned around. I’m deeply honored that Quentin has chosen to preserve a bit of those heady times through my experiences — his first documentary in many years of illustrious film making,” says Canyon Sam. “He skillfully framed the film during the promotional tour of my book, so it enjoys an immediate, contemporary feel too.”
