P.U.R.N Production,
a big name in documentary community
HAN Dong-hyeok Editor
It was a big incident for me to watch <Sanggye-Dong Olympic , 1988> at the age of 19, in 2012. I saw a lot of things in this movie for the first time. First, as for me, it was the first time that watched a Korean documentary made in the 20th century and I could see the image of Korea I couldn’t see anywhere else at that time through <Sanggyedong Olympic>. Korea, before 88 Olympics, the nation began city cleaning operation for a torch relay. In the process, Sanggyedong, a poor hillside village, was destructed by redevelopment logic. Residents lost their places and the nation expelled them. Watching the violence of nation deeply rooted in Korea through images of a movie not a text or a picture greatly shocked me. And attitude. The director of <Sanggyedong Olympic>, Kim Dong-won lived with Sanggyedong residents for 3 years and recorded their history. A method called ‘recording life while living together’ which I encountered for the first time watching the movie. His attitude of becoming a member of the community and recording their life, not from a sense of morality or sympathy as a journalist nor an aesthetic desire as a writer, impressed me a lot.
The presence of the movie, <Sangyedong Olympics> was a big incident at that time. By being invited from the Berlin Film Festival and the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, it let the world know the beginning of Korean independent movies. Around that time, Kim Dong-won established an organization called P.U.R.N Production in 1991. Many people came to P.U.R.N Production. Times when it was difficult to obtain filming equipments, everyone shared filming equipments he/she brought and did study. Those who wanted to make documentaries naturally got together at P.U.R.N Production.
Since then, P.U.R.N Production has existed up to the present, 2017. After <Sanggyedong Olympic>, Kim Dong-won made <Repatriation, 2003>, a monumental piece in the 21st Korean documentary film as well as <Haengdang-dong People, 1994>, <The Six Day Fight in Myong Dong Cathedral, 1997>. And this year he completed a long documentary, <My friend, Jeong Il-woo>(2017). Apart from his work, P.U.R.N Production continued to find new directors and product new films at the same time. Those who became big names in Korean documentary circle, Kim Tae-il, Ryu Mi-rye, Oh Jeong-hoon etc. started their first productions at P.U.R.N Production and P.U.R.N Production is also a base for documentarists such as Kang Se-jin, Kim Joon-ho, Moon Jeong-hyun and Jeong Il-geon who became directors of middle standing from beginning to make documentaries in the 21st century. <Baek-gu, 2017> directed by Kim Bo-ram who received the grand prize for Korean Environmental Movie in the Environmental Movie Festival this year is the youngest movie among all movies P.U.R.N Production has produced.
P.U.R.N Production is a big name which has vitalized documentaries, at the forefront and presented new movies and supported new directors until now since its beginning in the 20th century. Following P.U.R.N Production, those who wanted to start documentaries realized how big help the presence of ‘community’ could be in doing their work.
I wanted to learn more. I was curious about circumstances under which the movies by P.U.R.N Production I had watched were being produced. Finally I visited the P.U.R.N Production’s office located in Sindaebang-dong on March 3, 2017. In addition, I met director Kim Dong-won, the oldest member of P.U.R.N Production and director Kim Bo-ram, the most recent member and had brief talks with them.
The first question I asked was what kind of thought he had when he set up PURN Production in 1991. Director, Kim Dong-won gave me two reasons. The first one was equipments. When PURN Production was set up, at that time, in order to make documentaries, the equipment called ‘deck’ was necessary. Deck is an equipment which transforms videos recorded on tape into digital. Without 2 units of them, it was impossible to edit documentaries. “Those who made documentaries used to seek people who had the same deck. At that time, I and Byun-Young-joo had the same decks. That was why we got together. Above all, the community was needed to share the same equipments like this.”
“The conflict between NL and PD existed
even within the documentary circle”
The second reason was an awareness of problem he had while making documentaries. Going through 80s and 90s, he held one question. “At that time, many people made documentaries in the midst of disputes between NL(National Liverty) and PD(People’s Democracy). While NL places priority on ‘nationalism’, PD is an abbreviation of people democracy. They didn’t go along strangely wherever they were. Activists in 80s, continuously quarreled in this dispute. It was the same with the documentary circle. In every place, such dispute as ‘You are a NL’, ‘You are a PD’ dominated and documentaries were considered as a means to promote ideology.” Such scene felt strange to him who was not an activist. Looking at movie people turning into activists, he had so many thoughts on his mind. He said, “It was a result of the times” and added that it was unavoidable at that time. Anyhow what was most important for him at that time was a movie itself not ideology nor political line. “I wanted to gather people under the name of documentary. I wanted to make a group placing value of movie at the center, apart from ideology nor political line.”
“P.U.R.N Production is a community
where everyone is a director”
What differentiates PURN Production from other existing movie groups is ‘working system’. According to director Kim Dong-won, ordinary movie making groups produce movies under the system, “The rest should all participate in order to complete a work of a director.” The problem this system causes is that those who are not engaged in directing have to remain as staff forever. At PURN Production, everyone did his/her own work. Those who got together at PURN Production including director Kim Dong-won thought ‘that it was the best to proceed work alone basically’. Exchanging help only when it is needed and monitoring each other during process until completion are possible. But director Kim Dong-won believes, “It is the best to proceed one’s own work according to one’s own speed”. At PURN Production, anyone could proceed own project regardless of work experience. According to director Kim Dong-won, “PURN Production is so called a community where everyone is a director”.
Director Kim Bo-ram most recently joined among directors who are currently active at PURN Production. She started making documentaries while taking a class about producing an independent documentary at MEDIACT and listened to a special course regarding “course of activities which people who start making documentaries can choose later”. Through that course, she got to know various documentary groups in Korea including PURN Production. But she didn’t want to join such group right away. Director Kim Bo-ram joined PURN Production after she finished her first work, <Shall We Talk?, 2014> alone. She told, “At that time, I had to do everything alone after leaving company. I worked alone for 1 year and felt that making documentaries alone was too lonely and difficult.” Therefore, she asked senior directors she knew about working within a group. She could be told by senior directors about what merits belonging to an organization would have and what kind of characteristics currently existing each documentary organization had. While she was sorting out her thoughts, she received an offer form director Moon Jeong-hyeon. “I was told that PURN Production was recruiting staff and I accepted the offer to join.”
Director Kim Bo-ram made <A history of dogs>(2017) after she joined PURN Production. It was the first movie she completed after she joined the organization. I was curious how different working within a group was from working alone. “As for working process such as filming, editing and planning, there is not much difference. I received help when I filmed a scene difficult to film alone but otherwise I did most of work alone. I could learn and feel more from conversations with people at PURN Production in daily life rather than working. And at preview held in the process of completing a movie, I could hear a lot of comments on the movie intensively. It was of great help.”
While having conversation with Director Kim Bo-ram, I suddenly became curious. What kind of thought Director Kim Dong-won would have watching junior directors’ movies at PURN Production. “Basically, I feel proud. I feel good. Of course, there are works I don’t’ like. Sometimes, I feel like correcting here and there. But I don’t intervene. Because it is their work, not my work.”
“The difference is
that what I like to do is at the center of my life”
It is a sensitive question. But one of what I was most curious about was the profit structure of documentary groups. Most people who have making documentaries as an occupation live without a fixed income. If they don’t do other things such as making videos not related to making movies or working part-time, it is difficult to make a living. I was so curious about how PURN Production was addressing this issue. Director Kim Bo-ram told, “PURN Production is currently not doing any profitable project and therefore members have not received any activity expenses for a while. Each member is making a living from doing part-time work. Of course, it is not pleasant to have to do part-time work. Because what I want to do is making movies.” She also added, “But I am happier now than when I went to company. I worked at magazine company. It was the same at that time to have to do what I didn’t like. I had to keep writing promotional articles and interviewing someone I didn’t like. Regarding such situation, my pride got hurt and I felt skeptical. But now even when I had to do part-time work I didn’t like, my attitude towards that work has changed. I thought over what the difference was. It was, anyhow, that at present, what I like to do is at the center of my life different from the past.” She said, “The fact that people call me a person making documentaries and watching senior directors who have led this kind of life before me becomes the strength to prop me up in reality.”
PURN Production is a way of life.
Listening to director Kim Bo-ran, director Kim Dong-won weighed in saying, “Since PURN Production was set up, worries over how to make a living have always been there. In the process, we had to do various things we didn’t like to do. However, we tried to keep to a certain boundary. We had many discussions within PURN Production. For example, PURN Production is a production. Why don’t we make a TV program and make money and then produce our works with the money? Making money through a documentary like a trip to delicious restaurant also counts as making a documentary.” He said that there were many people who left after these discussions. But the belief that PURN Production eventually held to was ‘PURN Production shouldn’t become a production’ “Once we work with a broadcasting station, then we get caught up. We have to make and correct in response to the request of the broadcasting station. Then I end up losing time for doing what I really want to do.” At present, PURN Production is making money through project requests brought to it in recognition of the name, PURN Production. “I still believe money doesn’t make a work. I have a philosophy that I can do most of what I like to do without money. If there are people who think like me, then I think the way PURN Production works can lend them a small support. I think that PURN Production is a way of life, holding out on earning little.”
The characteristic of works of PURN Production is that the story begins from pains of the times found in scenes and characters we encounter in our daily lives. In other words, directors of PURN Production doesn’t fall into the trap of consuming materials in order to complete a movie. I asked Kim Dong-won. What kind of mind and attitude do works of PURN Production begin from. “(Our movies) are products of the times. I don’t think that <Sanggye-Dong Olympic> is a movie I made. I made it because I was on the front there. If I hadn’t done it, someone else must have made it. I don’t think that a documentary is a creation of a person. It is a co-creation with the times. Of course, man does a lot of things, While filming and editing, man makes it less boring. However, the essence was not what I made. I tried to put Jeon Du-hwan as a director in credit when I made <Sanggye-Dong Olympic> (laughing).”
The conversation lasted for about one hour and I had to prepare to wrap up the meeting even though I still had a lot more to ask since I felt sorry for interrupting their busy schedule. Lastly I asked about ‘learning’. I asked director Kim Dong-won who has led PURN Production for 27 years. What is a documentary? His answer. “Learning a documentary is learning human beings and learning the world at the same time” Therefore, “You should think highly of the ground” “The power which makes you keep making documentaries comes from people you met and incidents you encountered” I also asked director Kim Bo-ram. Among what you learned at PURN Production, what sticks most in your memory? “The process of making a documentary is a process of completing yourself remains in my memory. When the completion of a movie doesn’t coincide with the completion of myself, it seems to leave me feel in vain.”