Pyongyang Diaries
Clip 3: Inside the 38th Parallel
2 min 36 sec
Taken from the documentary Pyongyang Diaries (1997)
Original title classification PG – this clip chosen to be G
Availability of the complete title
Curator’s clip description
At Panmunjom, the Joint Security Area of the DMZ or Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, soldiers from both sides silently face-off against one another while tourists and journalists look on. A North Korean officer expresses his feelings about the role of the United States in interfering in Korea’s affairs and their actions within the South Korean side of the DMZ. He is also curious about what the South Korean side tells the people entering the DMZ – how do they instruct tourists or media to act, what do they say about the North Koreans, and can you take photos? From the South side of the DMZ, a man takes a photograph of Hoaas across the demarcation line.
Curator’s notes
Hoaas has stated that one of her motivations in making this film was to humanise the country’s people, well aware that media portrayals of the North Koreans tended to demonise them on the basis of its leadership. In this clip, we glimpse a moment where the party line gives way to human curiosity when the North Korean officer timidly asks the filmmaker about her experience of entering the DMZ from the South side. Later in the film, on the South side of the DMZ, American tour guides gives tourists a slightly different account of North-South relations. Hoaas shows that the story changes slightly depending on the storyteller.
Lauren Williams, curator
