Between my life and your life:
‘The power of one’s story’ seen
as three private documentaries
DO Sang-hee, editor
“I hesitated to pick up a thousand won of milk,
and canceled an appointment with my friends due to my account balance.”
In a narration by director Yoon Ga-hyun who earns a living as a part-time worker for 8 years, some audiences nod without knowing it. Pickets that require a minimum wage of 10,000 won are on the screen. ‘I’ story of crying that it is hard to live a person only at the 6,3000 won rate(at the time of shooting) is documentary
Although talks about a public issue ‘Let’s find the rights of part-time workers through people’s solidarity’, it’s not a general ‘social documentary’. It is not to force the agenda of a youth employment resolution or a minimum wage of 10,000 won in the eyes of a third party but to have the daily life of the director herself and that of other Ga-hyuns around her. This documentary is extremely private, so it moves people’s minds and easily approaches audience as a ‘private documentary’. [n1] Like the slogan of 68 revolution “The most personal(private) thing is the most political.”
shows specifically the harshness of part-time job that ‘I’ experienced (“I did too. I was fired as a result of the part-time job. I had to find another part-time job when I got ‘Do not come out’ by phone, on the text message.”) not just to show simply rally sites and news clips of part-time union and part-time solidarity. Like vice-principal’s instruction, we are led by one’s honesty “Even if I do a part-time job all day, I cannot go to the 10,000 won meat buffet.”
The words spoken by three Ga-hyuns including the director in the film make the heads of numerous part-time workers nod in front of the screen. They know ‘It was wrong to keep standing and work!” and someone who leaves the theater may be in solidarity with part-time workers. The trouble of ‘I’ starting around 2010 advanced that there is ‘The minimum wage is 10,000 won’ on the pledge of 2017 presidential candidates.
The beginning came from an uneasy individual in society. He showed his own life without lie at 1st person taken by himself. At this time, audiences are attracted to the strength that only sincerity can give. There is no prejudice or shameful sympathy in the confident confession that the director himself lives here. Since it is extremely subjective and most objectively in contradiction, this distortionless light reaches straight into your mind.
Here, nineteen Kim Su-min up to twenty tells you by hanging her laundry. lights up the reality of the part-time work that lots of ‘Su-mins’ will face soon, (The 8th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival) is the process that a teenager named Kim Su-min takes her first step into society. The director filmed the process of thinking about independence as an adult after choosing not to go to college, and her extremely personal worried are getting wider to be born again as an adult. The audience follows her eyes and looks at the title of the humanities book she chose to look at herself, does part-time work together with her, listens to the grunt of grandmothers at the Milyang transmission tower site, and stands in front of the rally.
“ went to the rally..
I wanted to do my share as a young person in a dark age..”
The monologue of this director starting like a diary in this process does not actively talk about social change. He just looks at his anxiety seriously, which touches the hearts of the audience, especially teenagers in front of the door to the ‘adult’ and makes them look back on themselves. The same troubles such as ‘Now, what should I do if I go to college?’, ‘Now, I want to go to the rally without my parents’ intervention, but I’m afraid.’ can be triggered from the story of one person.
For why SimonedeBeauvoir wrote her autobiographical novel 『La force de l’age』, “people might say that this problem is only related to herself but I do not think so. Whether an ordinary human or not, when a human sincerely exposes himself, everyone is more or less involved in it. It’s impossible to look at yourself without looking at the life of other persons.”” is written. [n2]
“The Knitting Club” (2015) (The 8th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival) of Park So-hyun who goes to work for a social company after passing through the part-time work in her teens and twenties also shows the daily life and work life of the director and her colleagues. The concern that ‘Why does she go to work by the weekend and work overtime everyday in spite of a social company?’ is convincing, living everyday conveniently thanks to the nature of private documentary [n3] that the subject is the producer or is a very familiar acquaintance. Nana and Juhee brush their teeth and make a small conversation such as “I’ll brush my teeth because I have to work overtime at night.” “I do not work overtime at night but I’m too tired to brush my teeth.” Like this, the record of an individual who is hard to catch and empathizes in the play or social documentaries has the universality of the problem of working overtime at night and moves the hearts of the audience.
“The Part-Time Workers’ Union” (2016), “Between 9 and 0” (2015), “The Knitting Club” (2015) starting from their own voices are both sincere and wise. Private documentary is probably the most effective way of speaking in this age. Incidentally, the mention of MV Sewol in all three films, for the story of Miryang in and , now when the social safety network has come to an end, do not we who are watching movies do that without knowing what went wrong and right? There is no rent next month without this part-time job, I have to work overtime at night so I maybe feel that the plaza is scary and distant. So, Nana’s words in make the audience sympathize and decide because the words are not justice or enlightenment.
“Milyang was the candidate place where people return.
When such an accident occurs(the transmission tower burst) so there is no safe place, I think. I did not go to the rally without the courage while feeling their emotions, looking at Yongsan in the city. I don’t feel good I think ‘what can I do in the city?’ rather than that ‘I’m stupid not go there’ I say ‘how about organizing a rural community with my friends?”
Then, a colleague of the same company asks me like this by touching the fabric to be taken to MV Sewol rally.
“How should I live?”
It means when a social problem occurs(Sinking of MV Sewol), not a big society, but rather small ‘I’ was worried about what I should do. This question may be a common question that actually led to the start of three documentaries. Although one director started shooting in anxiety, they know well the question of “How should I live?” will lead to that of “How should we live?” If I stop shooting, the anxiety that anyone can be done so makes them put their cameras down, I think. The three directors hold out their hands through the way of private documentary. It’s up to you to hold their hands.
[note 1] The concept of private documentary: The family members or the objects with a close relationship with the producer including the producer exist on the screen, it’s a documentary produced subjectively making them a individual or integrated theme. Oh Tae-don ｢A study on autobiographical documentary of daily life｣ 2006, 4p
[note 2] SimonedeBeauvoir.LaForcedeL’age. Lee Seok-bong translation.1981. La force de l’age. P303, Minyesa: Seoul.
[note 3] Improvisation of private documentary : Oh Tae-don ｢A study on autobiographical documentary of daily life｣ 2006, 15-16p