Amanda Kim is a Korean American director and producer. A former artistic director at Vice Media, she led U.S. video course for i-D, Creators, and Garage 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 progressive content material codecs.
“Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV” is screening on the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, 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 inventive and private odyssey.
Though 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 need to make use of video/tv as an inventive software. He skilled firsthand the methods through which know-how was used to amplify ideological division, splitting his nation and forcing him to go away his residence nation.
Through video artwork, he investigated the methods through which know-how may very well be used for higher communication and international connection fairly than division. He created an digital Esperanto via his video artwork, a brand new technique 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 identification. 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 by his work, which is stuffed with humor and leaves you with questions. I wished to study 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 change into so ubiquitous. I hope individuals will really feel hopeful in regards to the potentialities that now we have but to uncover.
I hope individuals will really feel the enjoyment and humor Nam June introduced into the world via 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 greatest problem was convincing those who I may do it as a first-time function director after which ensuring I may 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; This is my first function. I had by no means even directed a brief. So it was understandably fairly difficult to search out funding sources at first. But my good friend 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 totally funded to make a documentary, so I began filming utilizing an iPhone and cameras I had entry to via good friend favors. Then I used to be accepted into the IDFA discussion board, the place you get to pitch your challenge to a bunch of worldwide co-producers and distributors.
I acquired cash from non-public buyers, grants, and Korean authorities funds via 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 in a position to search for funding choices within the artwork world as properly.
W&H: What impressed you to change into a filmmaker?
AK: I by no means thought I used to be going to be a filmmaker however I used to be all the time all for storytelling via artwork. I labored in varied 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 state of affairs. Despite near-drowning experiences, I discovered that I actually loved telling tales via shifting pictures.
Filmmaking introduced collectively all of the totally different artistic disciplines I loved. You must 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 acquired?
AK: Best recommendation: Trust your instincts however be open to something that comes up. An accident or mistake may transform proper.
Worst recommendation: “This isn’t commercial enough.”
W&H: What recommendation do you could have for different girls administrators?
AK: Don’t let anybody let you know that you would be able to’t do it or that your movie isn’t “commercial” sufficient. Keep going!
W&H: Name 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.
No one is aware of how they are going to take care of grief till it occurs to them and “Morvern Callar” offers with that query in a really sudden approach. Though the primary character makes a questionable resolution, 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, tasks do you assume storytellers must confront the tumult on the planet, 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 accountability a lot as an inevitability.
It’s exhausting to make a movie, so the one technique to endure the lengthy and turbulent journey is in case you really feel the story is essential sufficient to inform. Even if it’s not a “confrontation,” it’s a response to the experiences of partaking with the world round you.
W&H: The movie business has an extended historical past of underrepresenting individuals of colour onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — damaging stereotypes. What actions do you assume must be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world extra inclusive?
AK: I feel it’s essential for the business to present more room 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 promoting movies as “Asian films” can create damaging reinforcement and emphasize the “difference” additional. I perceive this is perhaps a necessary first step in course correcting however typically I feel we’ve gone too far.
That being mentioned, I feel it’s actually constructive 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.