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North Korea North Korea: A Short Movie History
by Derek ElleyCourtesy of the Far East Film Festival The North Korean film industry traces its origins to the Korean Proletarian Literature and Arts Association (KAP) set up in 1925, which was responsible for several anti-Japanese productions, such as Arirang, during the country's occupation (1902-45). After Korean partition along the 38th Parallel in autumn 1945 - into a Soviet-occupied North and US-occupied South - the Korean Documentary Film Studio was set up on 1 July 1946, its first production being Our Construction (1946). On 6 February 1947 the Korean Film Studio was established in Pyongyang to make feature films, the first being My Village (1948). In autumn 1950 the studio was virtually destroyed by US bombing but production continued during the Korean War (1950-53). Some 3,700 stage artists, actors and actresses from the South ended up in the North as a result of the conflict. With Soviet Bloc aid, facilities markedly improved during 1954-56, with the first color features made. (South Korea had produced its first color film, Woman's Diary, in 1949.) The Korean February 8 Film Studio was founded in May 1959, mainly to make military-themed movies - such as Order No. 027 (1986) and A Bellflower (1987) in this year's Udine retrospective. In 1966 filmmaking came under the direct supervision of Kim Jong-il, the film-buff son of North Korean ruler Kim Il-sung and now head of the country since his father's death in July 1994... |
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