People are the Sky
DAI SIL KIM-GIBSON
USA, 2015
94 minutes, Color
In Person: Director Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Director Dai Sil Kim-Gibson is the first Korean-American filmmaker to receive official permission from the North Korean government to film inside the country's borders. The result is unprecedented—and sometimes startling—as Kim-Gibson focuses on the hurts and desires, beauty and contradiction, and pride and aspirations of the long-held, demonized nation. She seamlessly weaves her own personal story as a native-born North Korean with the fractious history of the North-South division and pinpoints the roots of North Korean's hatred of the United States. A mix of interviews, epic images, and graceful musings, People Are the Sky refers to the ordinary people the director meets along the way and the ultimate meaning of her pilgrimage.—Korean American Film Festival New York
