Amanda Kim is a Korean American director and producer. A former artistic director at Vice Media, she led U.S. video route for i-D, Creators, and Storage journal. Kim additionally labored on Viceland, Vice’s TV channel, as a artistic 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 individual 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 often 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 an inventive device. He skilled firsthand the methods through which know-how was used to amplify ideological division, splitting his nation and forcing him to depart his house nation.
By means of video artwork, he investigated the methods through which know-how might be used for higher communication and international connection moderately than division. He created an digital Esperanto by means of his video artwork, a brand new method 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 shifting 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 part appears to be categorized in binary phrases.
I used to be additionally interested in his work, which is filled with humor and leaves you with questions. I needed to study extra and found how layered his artwork was.
W&H: What would you like folks to consider after they watch the movie?
AK: I hope folks will really feel the necessity to query and problem the world round us and the applied sciences which have turn out to be so ubiquitous. I hope folks will really feel hopeful in regards to the prospects that we’ve but to uncover.
I hope folks will really feel the enjoyment and humor Nam June introduced into the world by means of his presence and work. I hope folks really feel the ability of artwork as a method of communication and investigation.
W&H; What was the largest problem in making the movie?
AK: The most important problem was convincing people who 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 needs to 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 search 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 remedy and to start out recording my analysis interviews with Nam June’s contemporaries.
You don’t must be absolutely funded to make a documentary, so I began filming utilizing an iPhone and cameras I had entry to by means of pal favors. Then I used to be accepted into the IDFA discussion board, the place you get to pitch your mission to a bunch of worldwide co-producers and distributors.
I obtained cash from personal buyers, grants, and Korean authorities funds by means of 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 effectively.
W&H: What impressed you to turn out 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 all for storytelling by means of artwork. I labored in numerous artistic 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 once I had zero expertise, and it was a sink-or-swim scenario. Regardless of near-drowning experiences, I discovered that I actually loved telling tales by means of shifting pictures.
Filmmaking introduced collectively all of the completely different artistic disciplines I loved. You need to be a painter, composer, designer, author, and put on many different hats to make a movie.
W&H: What’s the most effective and worst recommendation you’ve obtained?
AK: Greatest recommendation: Belief your instincts however be open to something that comes up. An accident or mistake may transform proper.
Worst recommendation: “This isn’t business sufficient.”
W&H: What recommendation do you could have for different girls administrators?
AK: Don’t let anybody inform you you could’t do it or that your movie isn’t “business” sufficient. Maintain going!
W&H: Title your favourite woman-directed movie and why.
AK: “Morvern Callar” by Lynne Ramsay
I couldn’t cease eager about the movie weeks after watching it and it impressed me to start out writing.
Nobody is aware of how they may cope with 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 choice, Samatha Morton and Lynne Ramsey, created a multi-faceted character and you continue to root for her — at the very least I did.
I feel these are the strongest sorts of movies – when a personality surprises you. The movie is darkish, unusual, absurd, and shifting.
W&H: What, if any, duties do you suppose storytellers should 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 suppose it’s a duty a lot as an inevitability.
It’s exhausting to make a movie, so the one method to endure the lengthy and turbulent journey is in the event you really feel the story is vital 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 an extended historical past of underrepresenting folks of coloration onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — damaging stereotypes. What actions do you suppose must be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world extra inclusive?
AK: I feel it’s vital for the trade to provide extra space to underrepresented folks in a considerate and fluid approach. Shifting casting/hiring practices are vital. 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 could be an important first step in course correcting however generally 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 vital to have the ability to discover position fashions or be position fashions in these communities.
