Synopsis

This film begins with a very unusual scene. As the camera ‘tracks-in’ toward a rail road, people scatter along the rail. Then, a parade of US troops in Korea, accompanied by an image of Rhee Syngman the first president of S. Korea. Over these images, the Pathetic Symphony by Tchaikovsky plays. The choice of the Pathetic Symphony hints at the main sentiment of this film, which is deep grief. By creating a montage using newsreels, archival footage and the recordings of the director, with Tchikovsky’s “Pathetic” and Bach’s “Air on the G String” at its beginning and the end, the film expands the gap between reality on the one hand, and, on the other, the pseudo-religious faith in the United States that has taken deep root into Korean sub/consciousness. The director objects to his work being categorized as a historical documentary film. Even though the film tells us about the relationship between Korea and the US after the former’s emancipation from Japan, the final destination of Korean capitalism as it nears climax of neo-liberalism, and the interactions between state ideology and the individual, collective and religious faiths of those living in Korea today, it does not seek photographic, historical reality. Rather, it tries to enter the realm of the religious and the mythical. What does the process of re-editing footage found at warehouses full of government propaganda mean to the director? To risk a bold assumption, this independent documentary director must find this method very fascinating, as he distorts the context of the official records using a combination of state-of-the-art techniques and aesthetics, thereby creating a counter-history. The director executes his vision in an enormously smart and economical way, and he is getting better at that. (MAENG Soo-jin)

Director

• 

  KIM Kyung-man
  

  Kim has produced several films such as Things That We Shouldn’t Do, The Structure of Goliath, and The Fool Doesn’t Catch a Cold. He has a vested interest in record films, news reels and propaganda films, and he creates his work by reediting such films. An Escalator in World Order is his first feature film. He was awarded the Audience’s Choice Award in the 2011 Jeonju International Film Festival.
  
  미국의 바람과 불 An Escalator in World Order (2011)
  바보는 감기에 걸리지 않는다 The Fool Doesn’t Catch a Cold (2008)
  골리앗의 구조 The Structure of Goliath (2006)
  학습된 두려움과 과대망상 Legally Cursed (2004)
  하지 말아야 될 것들 Things that We Shouldn’t Do (2003)
  각하의 만수무강 Long Live His Majesty (2002)

Credits

• Director, Producer, Editor  KIM Kyung-man
• Cinematographers  KIM Kyung-man, JEONG Jae-hun
• Sound  PYO Yong-su, GO Eun-ha

Distribution / World Sales

• Distribution / World Sales  KIM Kyung-man
• E-mail  zadoz@daum.net