Emmy Award-Winning documentarian Deann Borshay Liem’s new film Crossings examines the 2015 journey a group of female peace activists takes to call attention to the still unresolved issues between North and South Korea. It starts streaming on July 22 at midnight on worldchannel.org, WORLD’s YouTube and the PBS app ahead of the July 23 television broadcast on WORLD at 10pm ET.
SAMPAN: Your work is often about identity and the repercussions of history. Crossings shows, among other things, how the creation of a DMZ separating Korea into two parts in 1953 has devastated and defined generations. Can you speak to the complicated sense of identity in Crossings?
LIEM: My journey as a filmmaker started with… first person explorations of my adoption from South Korea by an American family. First Person Plural (2000), and the sequel In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee (2010), both explore family, memory and identity as well as the ethics of international adoption… I came to understand the trauma of the Korean War, [how] my own separation from my first family through adoption took place in the context of war and national partition. When I had the opportunity to document the journey of Women Cross DMZ, I did so both as someone who understands family separation and as a Korean American concerned about war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula.
As an American it’s very difficult to travel to North Korea without preconceived ideas. The corporate media we consume tends to reinforce existing biases and stereotypes about North Korea and its people.
We also have a very limited understanding about the Korean War and U.S.-Korea relations. For example, people don’t know that the Korean War never ended. The fighting stopped with the signing of an armistice on July 27, 1953 – 70 years ago – but a peace treaty was never signed. The lack of a formal end to the war goes to the heart of recurring conflicts between the U.S. and North Korea that today could erupt into renewed fighting and a nuclear war.
The women featured in Crossings decide to go beyond what they’ve been taught and discern for themselves the nuances of the Korean conflict through on-the-ground interaction and direct dialogue with Korean women, north and south. The film takes audiences on a physical and ethical journey as they confront their own internalized stereotypes and preconceptions of the North Korean people… I think the women… make genuine human connections with the women they meet in both the north and south and leave Korea with a renewed commitment… to bring permanent peace to the Korean peninsula.
SAMPAN: Crossings beautifully manifests the metaphor of the endless journey regarding Korean-American activist Christine Ahn’s spearheading of Women Cross DMZ in 2015, small triumphs and disappointing barriers. Talk about the personalities in this journey, such as Nobel Laureates Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), Mairead Maquire (Ireland), Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem seemed impressed at the diversity and spectrum of experience Ahn had collected. Likewise, you didn’t identify an absolute leader or primary figure. The women seemed of one heart and mind during this journey. How did that make you feel as a participant and a filmmaker?
LIEM: As you point out… Christine Ahn is the film’s main protagonist. She… brought together the thirty women to cross the DMZ as a way of amplifying the message of peace to a global audience. The women’s backgrounds were quite varied, from scholars and artists, to grassroots organizers, humanitarian aid workers, Nobel Peace Laureates, and celebrity activists like…Steinem.
The film… is… a case study of the complexity of collective action …how a group of very diverse women can work together across international borders… racial…cultural differences, and different levels of understanding…Korean history, to achieve a common goal. What I observed is that all the women…were open to learning and… challenging their own preconceptions. They were also committed to working through differences and staying together… As you see…, the process wasn’t perfect; there were mistakes and disagreements but they were committed to talking through their differences and this… forged greater understanding and respect for each other.
SAMPAN: Much of your footage from North Korea will prove revelatory for American audiences, especially the female translators speaking about their hopes and general perspective or the idyllic birthing options available for women at city hospitals. The mood is both tragic and hopeful. The activists were misinterpreted and at times painted as North Korean sympathizers by South Korea. You struck a beautiful balance, focusing on the hope for finally ending the war and reuniting families. How much importance did you place on staying with that profoundly personal and powerfully political tone. Was that created or organic?
Liam: There is indeed tremendous tragedy in this story. Four million people were killed during the fighting – a horrific number. People still bear the scars of having lost loved ones to either death or national partition. I’m so inspired by the efforts of Koreans in Korea and in the diaspora, as well as international allies throughout the world, who have for decades been working to bring a permanent peace to Korea.
While making the film, I learned of one of the earliest international peace efforts that took place in 1951, during the Korean War itself. A group of 21 women from 17 countries as part of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) actually traveled to Korea during active fighting to bear witness to and document the war’s impact on Korean civilians in the north. Their report, We Accuse, details the horrific damage from the war and demands an immediate end to the fighting.
Then in 1991, a historic Tokyo meeting between North and South Korean women, “Peace in Asia and the Role of Women,” was followed by… seminars in which North Korean women traveled to Seoul and South Korean women visited Pyongyang. The participants discussed… Japanese military sexual slavery, unification, patriarchy, Korean survivors from atomic bombings, and peace building.
Fast forward to the 2000’s when various events with North and South Korean women took place following the historic summit between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. This included a gathering at Mount Kumgang in the north where 350 South Korean women met 350 North Korean women and 20 Korean women from the diaspora.
There are many other examples but these are a few key exchanges that illustrate a long history of civil society and women’s engagement across the DMZ. In many ways, Women Cross DMZ continues this legacy of crossing lines, crossing borders, for peace. I find all of this work very inspiring and tried to convey a sense of hope and optimism in the film.
SAMPAN: You’ve been quoted as saying that some of the footage we see of North Korea is “wallpaper,” images that reinforce what we think we know. Did you have a mandate regarding how to avoid giving us North Korean “wallpaper” with Crossings?
LIEM: Crossings is composed primarily of observational footage of the women in North and South Korea. The logistical and political obstacles the women face, and how they confront them, forms the narrative arc… As the group continues… the years following the DMZ crossing, their efforts collide with dramatic global events: a change of course when newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-In holds talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inside the DMZ; a year of saber-rattling between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, followed by an unprecedented summit aimed at denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and an end to the Korean War. When talks fail in Hanoi, the promise of peace is shattered once again.
To cover these dramatic events, I utilize broadcast media clips and stock footage. And this is when I encountered what I call North Korean “wallpaper.” Whenever you see broadcast news about North Korea [it’s] goose-stepping soldiers or rows of missiles in a military parade in Kim Il Sung Square. These images don’t help us… understand the… political context….[They] reinforce unconscious biases…about North Korea and the North Korean people. I wanted to avoid that… and made a conscious effort to not rely on this kind of footage.
SAMPAN: Other lines that stand out from your film come when a participant says she wants to help remove “the walls in people’s minds” and that we should “Find one light, follow that light.” I think of the Korean woman testifying about the loss of her hands from an American soldier’s gunfire. The walls are still up and the lights were shown won’t always lead to safe places. This interview will come out July 21, six days before the 70th anniversary of the Armistice calling a cease to the conflict but not an official end to the war. You’re tangible hope is to have a formal end to the war and reunite Korean families. What is your abstract hope as a filmmaker now that Crossings will have a wider audience come July 23 on GBH World?
LIEM: My hope is for peace. The Korean War is the U.S.’ longest running war; 73 years ongoing without a permanent peace settlement, and threatening to reignite as tensions on the Korean Peninsula and between the U.S. and North Korea, two nuclear-armed countries, escalate with each passing day. We all have a role to play, especially Americans who have the responsibility and power to bring a permanent peace to Korea. Let’s use this anniversary to learn more and get involved. To delve deeper into the issues, here are some resources: www.mufilms.org/films/crossings/resources/. And here’s how you can connect with Women Cross DMZ and their global movement: www.womencrossdmz.org/.
