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ARCHIVE

24th(2022)



Harvesting the Light: The Graves of Diaspora

KIM Soyoung, Amy LEE

  • South Korea
  • 2021
  • 14min
  • DCP
  • color

SYNOPSIS

An absent and distant narrative of two young North Korean women¡¯s experience as mine workers in Kamchatka in 1955. As plants use sunlight for photosynthesis, we harvest the light of the photos of the deceased and archive the images under light on the table of history. A work inspired by the photosynthetic light-harvesting apparatus in quantum biology.

PROGRAM NOTE

A vast land where the sound of the wind gathers in the ears. The sun begins to set, and light is projected on a public cemetery. Images that flash in the moment through the light are those of Koryo people forcibly relocated to various parts of Central Asia in the Japanese colonial era. Harvesting the Light: The Graves of Diaspora is the work of artist Amy Lee supplemented with archival photos. It calls the dead one by one and takes care of their graves. These fantasy-like scenes were probably the dreams of two North Korean girls who came to Kamchatka to work in 1955 on a sad and desolate night. A dream that the Koryo people visited to comfort the girls. [JANG Yunmi]

Director

  • KIM SoyoungKIM Soyoung

    Kim is both a scholar and a director. She has directed a documentary trilogy on women¡¯s history – Koryu: Southern Women, South Korea (2000), I¡¯ll Be Seeing Her (2003), and New Woman: Her First Song (2004) – as well as the feature film Viewfinder (2009) and a feature documentary, Drifting City (2015). Kim has also worked on a trilogy regarding the Korean diaspora and their story in Central Asia – Heart of Snow (2014), Sound of Nomad: Koryo Arirang (2016), and Goodbye My Love, North Korea (2017).

  • Amy LEEAmy LEE

    Amy is a Korean cartoonist and animation director. 

Credit

  • ProducerKIM Soyoung, LEE Youngwoo
  • Screenwriter KIM Soyoung
  • Cinematography SHIN Imho, KANG Jinseok
  • Art director LEE Amy
  • Editor KIM Soyoung, LEE Amy
  • Music KIM Soyoung