NORTH KOREAN CINEMA… (In the Entertainment industry. History of North Korean Cinema)

Purgatorio detail of a mural at the Pyongyang Film Studios / Photo Credit: Vanity Fair Pyongyang Film Studio

NORTH KOREAN CINEMA… (In the Entertainment industry. History of North Korean Cinema)

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North Korean Cinema

Because of the isolated nature of the country, information—particularly unbiased information—on North Korean cinema is difficult to find. Outsider appraisal of North Korean cinema is often condescending, while statements from official North Korean sources include claims like, "In recent years our film art has created an unprecedented sensation in the world's filmdom... The revolutionary people of the world are unstinting in their praise of this feature film and other monumental works, calling them 'the first-class films by international standards', 'the most wonderful movies ever produced' and 'immortal revolutionary and popular films'."

Following the creation of the DPRK in 1945, one of the first actions of Supreme Leader (Kim Il-Sung – Jong-Il’s father) was to create a film studio in Pyongyang under Soviet guidance, following Lenin’s precept that cinema, necessitating no literacy to be enjoyed, was “the most important of all the arts” in a socialist revolution.

There are no independent films in North Korea: the state controls all production and distribution. Attendance by the people is compulsory and audiences are quizzed about each film’s lesson after the screening. The state studio’s first film, a drama titled My Home Village, featured Kim’s men as heroic liberators of the nation from foreign oppressors, and laid the groundwork for North Korea’s self-aggrandising narrative as we know it today.

Film studios

North Korea's principal producer of feature films is the Korean Film Studio, a state-run studio founded in 1947 and located outside of Pyongyang. Other North Korean film studios include the Korean Documentary Film Studio (founded in 1946), the April 25 Film Studio of the Korean People's Army (founded in 1959 and previously known as the February 8 Cinema Studio) and the Korean Science and Educational Film Studio (founded in 1953 and also known as the April 26 Children's Film Production House, and Science Educational Korea, or SEK.) These studios produce feature films, documentaries, animated films, children's films and science films. According to a report from 1992, the Korean Feature Film Studio produced about forty films per year, while the other studios together accounted for another forty.

In addition to animation for the North Korean domestic market, SEK has become a resource for international animation, including some well-known American animated films. Production costs in North Korea are very low, and the quality of animators is well perceived. SEK has done work on such productions as Mondo TV's animated series Pocahontas and King Lion Simba (not the Walt Disney feature films), the science fiction epic Light Years, and Empress Chung.

North Korean leader Kim Il-sung believed in Lenin's maxim: "Cinema is the most important of all arts."  Accordingly, since the country's division, North Korean films have often been used as vehicles for instilling government ideology into the people. A common theme is martyrdom for the nation. The film Fate of a Self-defense Corps Member, based on a novel written by Kim Il-sung during the fight against the Japanese occupation reflects this theme, as does the highly regarded film, Sea of Blood (1969). The latter film comes from a novel telling the story of a woman farmer who becomes a national heroine by fighting the Japanese.

Another favorite theme is the happiness of the current society. This theme can be seen reflected in titles of feature films like A Family of Workers, A Flowering Village, Rolling Mill Workers, When Apples Are Picked and Girls at a Port. All of these films were awarded the People's Prize before 1974.

Film production estimates

The number of films produced in North Korea is difficult to determine. In 1992, Asiaweek reported that the country produced about 80 films annually, and a BBC report in 2001 indicated that North Korea was then producing about 60 films a year. In spite of these claims, Johannes Schönherr, an attendee of the 2000 Pyongyang International Film Festival, found little evidence for actual films or titles. He notes that the country offered only one domestic feature and one documentary at their most high-profile film festival, and suggests that the high number of reported films includes short films, cartoons, and short installments of long-running series. He also cites a 1998 North Korean pamphlet containing a list of films which had been made in the country up to 1998. This gives a total of 259 titles, and indicates that the 1980s were the most prolific decade with about 15 to 20 films made yearly.

The British Film Institute Sight & Sound magazine reported that an average of 20 films per year were made from the 1960s to the early 1990s. However, in the economic hard times following the collapse of the Soviet Union film production reduced, and from 2000 to 2009 only about 5 films per year were made.

Film festivals

The Pyongyang International Film Festival, established in 1987 and broadened in scope in 2002, is now held every two years. 

Sources, References & Credits: Google, Wikipedia, Wikihow, Pinterest, IMDB, Linked In, Indie Wire, Film Making Stuff, Hiive, Film Daily, New York Film Academy, The Balance, The Numbers, Film Maker, TV Guide Magazine, Media Match, Quora, Creative Skill Set, Investopedia, Variety, No Film School, Daily Variety, The Film Agency, Best Sample Resume, How Stuff Works, Career Trend, Producer's Code of Credits, Producers Guild of America, Film Connection, Entertainment Careers, Adhere Creative, In Deed, Glass Door, Pay Scale, Merriam-Webster, Job Monkey, Studio Binder, The Collective, Production Hub, The Producer's Business Handbook by John J. Lee Jr., The Culture Trip, Korean Review. Pyongyang, North Korea: Foreign Languages Publishing House, Schönherr, Johannes (2007). "14. A Permanent State of War: A Short History of North Korean Cinema", James Bell (January 2009). "In a lonely place: North Korea's Pyongyang International Film Festival", Short List, North Korean Films,

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