Memory of Forgotten War

Memory of Forgotten War Award Laurels

MEMORY OF FORGOTTEN WAR conveys the human costs of military conflict through deeply personal accounts of the Korean War (1950-53) by four Korean-American survivors. Their stories take audiences through the trajectory of the war, from extensive bombing campaigns, to day-to-day struggle for survival and separation from family members across the DMZ. Decades later, each person reunites with relatives in North Korea, conveying beyond words the meaning of family loss. These stories belie the notion that war ends when the guns are silenced and foreshadow the future of countless others displaced by ongoing military conflict today.

The film's personal accounts are interwoven with thoughtful analysis and interpretation of events by historians Bruce Cumings and Ji-Yeon Yuh who situate these stories in a broader historical context. Additional visual materials, including newsreels, U.S. military footage, and archival photographs bring to life the political, social and historical forces that set in motion the tumultuous events of the War and its aftermath.

다큐멘터리 <잊혀진 전쟁의 기억>은 한국전쟁(1950-53) 생존자인 네 명의 한국계 미국인의 개인적 체험을 통해 군사분쟁이 야기하는 인간적 희생이라는 주제를 생생하게 전달하고 있는 작품이다. 관객들은 그들의 이야기를 통해 한국전쟁의 전모 – 광범위한 공습에서 민간인들의 처절한 생존투쟁과 휴전선을 사이에 두고 영이별한 이산가족의 비애에 이르는 – 에 대해 알게 된다. 작품의 후반부에서 중심인물들이 휴전후 수십년 만에 북한의 가족 및 친척들과 재회하는 장면들은 전쟁이 가져다 준 무참한 인간적 상실의 의미를 웅변해 준다. 그들의 이야기는 전쟁은 총성이 그침과 더불어 끝나는 것이 아님을 증명하며, 지금도 계속되고 있는 군사분쟁이 생산하고 있는 수많은 난민들의 미래를 생생하게 예견하고 있다.

이 다큐멘터리는 중심인물들의 개인사를, 그것을 역사적인 문맥 속에 위치시켜 주는 역사학자 브루스 커밍스와 여지연 교수의 사려깊은 분석 및 해석과 긴밀하게 엮어서 제시해 주고 있다. 그 외에도 뉴스 영화들과 미군이 남긴 영상자료, 기록사진들이 참혹한 전쟁을 가져온 정치, 사회, 역사적 세력 및 전쟁의 여파를 생생하게 전달해 주고 있다.

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Production Team

Deann Borshay Liem, Director/Producer/Editor

Ramsay Liem, Director/Producer/Executive Producer

Corey Ohama, Editor

Vivien Hillgrove, Consulting Editor

Michael Chin, Cinematographer

JJ & CHRIS, Composers

 

Resources

Kim Dong Choon, Uncovering the Hidden History of the Korean War: The Work of South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Lecture at the University of California Berkeley, April 1, 2009. (Filmed by Ubuntuworks Productions, Eric Sirotkin, http://vimeo.com/4448282)

The Center for the Study of the Korean War
http://www.koreanwarcenter.org/

Bruce Cumings, The Korean War: A History. New York: Modern Library, 2010.
William Stueck, The Korean War in World History. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2004.

Truman Library: The Korean War and its Origins, 1945-1953
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/index.htm

Comprehensive Korean War Bibliography

(Books and scholarly articles by U.S., Korean, and Korean American writers)

Kenneth Robinson, A Korean War Bibliography, Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaii
http://www.hawaii.edu/korea/biblio/korean_war.html

Korean War Memories and Legacies
(Books, scholarly articles, novels, poetry)

Grace M. Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Grace M. Cho and Hosu Kim, Dreaming in tongues. Qualitative Inquiry, 11, 2005, 445-457.

Susan Choi, Foreign Student. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1998.

Richard Kim, The Martyred. New York: Penguin Books, 2011.

Suji Kwok Kim, Notes from a Divided Country. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.

Chang-rae Lee, The Surrendered. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010.

Ishle Park, The Temperature of this Water. Los Angeles: Kaya Press, 2005.

Korean War Memories and Legacies
(Writing by Ramsay Liem)

When a fireball drops in your hole: Biography forged in the crucible of war. In G. Yoo (Ed.), Koreans in America:  History, Culture and Identity. Ch. 40. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing, 2012.

Silencing historical trauma: The politics and psychology of memory and voice. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 39, 2007, 153-174.

So I’ve gone around in circles…”: Living the Korean War.  Amerasia Journal, 31, 2005, 157-177.

History, trauma, and identity: The legacy of the Korean War for Korean

Americans. Amerasia Journal, 29, 2003/4, 111-129.

Korean War Memories and Legacies
(Art and Exhibition)

Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War.”  Multi-media exhibition of Korean War memories and legacies.  www.stillpresentpasts.org

Ramsay Liem, War and the art of remembering. International Journal of the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 3, 2008, 111-116.

Policy and Action

Korea Policy Institute, www.kpolicy.org

National Campaign to End the Korean War, www.endthekoreanwar.org

Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific, www.asiapacificinitiative.org

 

PR Photos

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