Amanda Kim is a Korean American director and producer. A former inventive director at Vice Media, she led U.S. video path for i-D, Creators, and Storage journal. Kim additionally labored on Viceland, Vice’s TV channel, as a inventive producer in an experimental incubator the place she directed a manufacturing crew to check out pilots and modern content material codecs.
“Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV” is screening on the 2023 Sundance Movie Competition, which runs from January 19-29.
W&H: Describe the movie for us in your personal phrases.
AK: It’s a playful and emotional story about video artist Nam June Paik’s creative and private odyssey.
Although he’s most famously generally known as the daddy of video artwork, the movie facilities round Nam June’s phrases following him on his journey from East to West and his discovery and want to make use of video/tv as a creative instrument. He skilled firsthand the methods wherein expertise was used to amplify ideological division, splitting his nation and forcing him to go away his dwelling nation.
By video artwork, he investigated the methods wherein expertise may very well be used for higher communication and world connection relatively than division. He created an digital Esperanto by his video artwork, a brand new option to talk with the world.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
AK: I used to be drawn to Nam June’s story due to my very own itinerant background as a Korean rising up in Japan after which transferring West. I associated to his nomadic life and multicultural id. He didn’t see the world in black or white phrases however as a hybrid and I actually gravitated towards that perspective. It’s inspiring and refreshing at a time when every thing appears to be categorized in binary phrases.
I used to be additionally interested by his work, which is filled with humor and leaves you with questions. I wished to be taught extra and found how layered his artwork was.
W&H: What would you like individuals to consider after they watch the movie?
AK: I hope individuals will really feel the necessity to query and problem the world round us and the applied sciences which have grow to be so ubiquitous. I hope individuals will really feel hopeful in regards to the potentialities that we’ve but to uncover.
I hope individuals will really feel the enjoyment and humor Nam June introduced into the world by his presence and work. I hope individuals really feel the ability of artwork as a way of communication and investigation.
W&H; What was the largest problem in making the movie?
AK: The largest problem was convincing those that I might do it as a first-time characteristic director after which ensuring I might inform the story I believed in whereas navigating a number of events that had various concepts of what they thought the story must be.
W&H: How did you get your movie funded? Share some insights into how you bought the movie made.
AK; That is my first characteristic. I had by no means even directed a brief. So it was understandably fairly difficult to seek out funding sources at first. However my pal David Koh, who’s a producer on the movie and was Nam June’s assistant in his faculty years, inspired me to make a therapy and to start out recording my analysis interviews with Nam June’s contemporaries.
You don’t have to be absolutely funded to make a documentary, so I began filming utilizing an iPhone and cameras I had entry to by pal favors. Then I used to be accepted into the IDFA discussion board, the place you get to pitch your undertaking to a bunch of worldwide co-producers and distributors.
I acquired cash from non-public buyers, grants, and Korean authorities funds by my Korean co-producer whom I met at IDFA. What was additionally a bonus was the topic intersected between artwork and movie, so I used to be capable of search for funding choices within the artwork world as properly.
W&H: What impressed you to grow to be a filmmaker?
AK: I by no means thought I used to be going to be a filmmaker however I used to be at all times eager about storytelling by artwork. I labored in numerous inventive industries from music, style, artwork, and media however couldn’t select one. I discovered myself at Vice the place they threw me into the deep finish of manufacturing after I had zero expertise, and it was a sink-or-swim state of affairs. Regardless of near-drowning experiences, I discovered that I actually loved telling tales by transferring photos.
Filmmaking introduced collectively all of the completely different inventive disciplines I loved. It’s important to be a painter, composer, designer, author, and put on many different hats to make a movie.
W&H: What’s one of the best and worst recommendation you’ve acquired?
AK: Greatest recommendation: Belief your instincts however be open to something that comes up. An accident or mistake would possibly turn into proper.
Worst recommendation: “This isn’t industrial sufficient.”
W&H: What recommendation do you will have for different ladies administrators?
AK: Don’t let anybody inform you you can’t do it or that your movie isn’t “industrial” sufficient. Maintain going!
W&H: Identify your favourite woman-directed movie and why.
AK: “Morvern Callar” by Lynne Ramsay
I couldn’t cease fascinated about the movie weeks after watching it and it impressed me to start out writing.
Nobody is aware of how they’ll take care of grief till it occurs to them and “Morvern Callar” offers with that query in a really surprising approach. Although the principle character makes a questionable resolution, Samatha Morton and Lynne Ramsey, created a multi-faceted character and you continue to root for her — a minimum of I did.
I feel these are the strongest sorts of movies – when a personality surprises you. The movie is darkish, unusual, absurd, and transferring.
W&H: What, if any, duties do you assume storytellers need to confront the tumult on the earth, from the pandemic to the lack of abortion rights and systemic violence?
AK: I feel storytellers subconsciously or consciously are responding to the world, nevertheless refined or overt that messaging is of their work. I don’t assume it’s a duty a lot as an inevitability.
It’s arduous to make a movie, so the one option to endure the lengthy and turbulent journey is should you really feel the story is essential sufficient to inform. Even when it’s not a “confrontation,” it’s a response to the experiences of partaking with the world round you.
W&H: The movie trade has a protracted historical past of underrepresenting individuals of colour onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — damaging stereotypes. What actions do you assume have to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world extra inclusive?
AK: I feel it’s essential for the trade to provide extra space to underrepresented individuals in a considerate and fluid approach. Shifting casting/hiring practices are essential. I need to see extra Asian faces behind and on display screen, however I feel sure methods of selling movies as “Asian movies” can create damaging reinforcement and emphasize the “distinction” additional. I perceive this is perhaps a vital first step in course correcting however typically I feel we’ve gone too far.
That being stated, I feel it’s actually optimistic to have extra of those conversations and it’s essential to have the ability to discover position fashions or be position fashions in these communities.
Supply: Women And Hollywood