Geopolitics, Family Separation, and Identity in Documentary Film

Introduction: Documentary Film as a Representation of Reality

Documentary films are utilized to highlight various issues that have faced individuals or societies over time. Such films are used to show events and situations that are visible parts of individuals' shared experiences (Nichols, p.ix). As a result, documentary films serve as tools for representing reality by highlighting the shared experiences of people. Historical documentary films provide important lessons on various themes relating to the shared experiences of people in different historical periods and geopolitical configurations. Analysis of documentary films helps in understanding the various issues that have faced people in different societies.

For instance, Dear Pyongyang, directed by Yang Yong-hi, and History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, produced by Rea Tajiri, are examples of historical documentary films that have been used as representations of reality. These two films depict different geopolitical configurations and provide significant insights relating to family experiences. As shown in these two historical films, politics has a strong link to family separation and identity conflicts.

There are similarities and differences between these two films that play a critical role in their portrayal of different historical contexts. One similarity is that both are documentary films providing historical accounts of groups of people in different periods. Dear Pyongyang highlights the life of Zainichi — that is, North Koreans living in Japan after the division of Korea. History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige captures the experiences of Japanese Americans in internment camps in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both films are similar in that they highlight the impact of geopolitics on the experiences of different groups of people, and both are personal projects — made to remember for the filmmakers themselves, for their families, and for the global community.

Comparing Cinematic Techniques and Sources

One of the key differences between these two films relates to the cinematic elements utilized by their directors. In Dear Pyongyang, Yang constantly uses first-person voiceover narration rather than direct conversation with her father to demonstrate her astonishment at her parents' convictions and commitment to the vision of a unified, Communist Korea (Koehler par. 1). The use of first-person voiceover narration as a cinematic element for expressing her surprise is attributable to the fact that it was a means for Yang to show her respect for elders — a value held at a high premium in Korean culture. Through this approach, she avoids familial confrontations that would be considered disrespectful.

In contrast, in History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Tajiri includes her own video footage alongside her mother's recollections of the family's internment experiences. Tajiri's narrative structure in this film is built on juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is the film editing technique of combining two or more shots to evoke an idea or state of mind. Tajiri relies on the testimony of a family member who experienced life in internment camps in order to evoke viewer awareness of Japanese Americans' internment experiences. The testimony is presented as intermittent audio paired with various visuals. She also uses text on a black background to represent the imagined memories of her ancestors.

The two films also differ with regard to the sources utilized by the directors to convey their message. In History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Tajiri relies on a variety of sources in order to construct a historical image where none previously existed. She draws on government propaganda, Hollywood spectacle, the memories of real people, spirits of the dead, newsreels, and her own intuition (Women Make Movies par. 3). Tajiri uses different sources — including footage filmed during World War II — to reflect the complex nature of remembered history. Because remembered history never captures the full truth, she builds the historical account across different times, textures, and shifting shapes as it is recalled through the filters of different subjects. This use of diverse sources helps her construct a collective memory of her family's experiences, which is a critical component of the film. For example, the film opens with a few family photographs taken at an internment camp. Since cameras were not permitted in internment camps, the photographs Tajiri presents are rare. Her most successful use of visuals in this film is her effort to render a memory of history she never personally experienced.

In contrast, in Dear Pyongyang, Yang does not rely on a variety of external sources; she focuses instead on her daily life and her engagement with her parents. Yang appears with her video recorder, and viewers never see her directly — only in photographs and at the very end, when her hand briefly appears. Unlike Tajiri, who focuses on collective history, Yang concentrates specifically on her father's political convictions. Her aim is to understand how her father came to value those convictions above family, and why he remained loyal to the North Korean government. Yang therefore narrows the scope of the film to her immediate family experiences, driven by her disbelief that her father would choose political conviction over family unity.

Geopolitics and Family Separation in Dear Pyongyang

Despite their differences, the two films provide significant insights into geopolitics and its impact on people's lives, particularly family unity and personal identity. Geopolitics refers to politics that is influenced by geographical factors or international relations. In Dear Pyongyang, the geopolitical concept is highlighted through the political struggles between South and North Korea and the contrasting life experiences in North Korea and in Japan (Flowers par. 1). At the outset, Yong-hi outlines the 1945 Korean liberation from the Japanese Empire and the division of Korea between North and South, culminating in the establishment of the Republic of South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea.

South Korea's vibrant democracy emerged from the efforts of students, intellectuals, and middle-class citizens. Life in South Korea is full of energy, entertainment, and the dynamism of capitalism — the kind of lifestyle that Yong-hi yearns for, which is why she asked her father whether she could obtain South Korean nationality. Being recognized as North Korean carried significant implications, since it would have been far easier for her to work and study as a South Korean. In North Korea, by contrast, the state ideology of self-reliance was used to consolidate the Kim family's one-man rule while instilling a mode of thinking designed to help the regime survive. The possession of any foreign book or media was strictly forbidden. Pyongyang functions as a ghost city: after 10 p.m., most electricity is cut, roads are empty of cars, people are in bed, and there are no entertainment venues whatsoever. The audience can feel how Yong-hi's brothers and their families lived in the highly controlled and stagnant environment of Pyongyang. Yong-hi also recorded thousands of torch-carrying youths rushing around a stadium in formation, making patterns, symbols, and slogans to worship their leader — a scene that reflects how deeply she struggled to comprehend North Koreans' political loyalty.

As a North Korean patriot, Yong-hi's father dedicated his entire life to the ideologies of the country. His seemingly irrational commitment to politics eventually resulted in family separation and generated Yang's identity conflicts. He sent his three sons to North Korea as human gifts to Kim Il-sung. Yang struggles with her North Korean identity in Japan, like many Japanese North Koreans who are unwilling to acknowledge or accept their roots (Shoji par. 2). She struggles with her dual identities and must learn how to live with both of them in Japan — a difficulty partly attributable to the fact that Zainichi ethnicity is largely rooted in the traumas of post-colonial dis-recognition (Dew, p.27). Despite growing up in Japan and speaking fluent Japanese, Yong-hi maintained Korean traditions and speaks fluent Korean. Yet when people asked whether she was Japanese, she would inwardly say no, because she identifies as North Korean — even though she never lived in North Korea and only visited to see her brothers.

Japan formally ceased to recognize Koreans as Japanese citizens under the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty. In 1945, the Election Law had already stripped ethnic Koreans of their voting rights (Koreans in Japan, p.2). Zainichi Koreans consequently face numerous challenges, including access to social benefits, employment opportunities, and pervasive racial bias. Through the film, Yang struggles to understand how politics could matter more to her father than family, and whether she herself is North Korean or Japanese. These struggles demonstrate that politics leads directly to family separation and identity conflicts.

Conclusion: Geopolitics as a Root Cause of Family Separation and Identity Conflict

History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige and Dear Pyongyang are two documentary films from different geopolitical configurations that highlight the themes of geopolitics, family separation, and identity conflicts. The films share similarities and differences relating to the experiences of their main characters and the cinematic elements employed. However, the key aspect of both documentary films is the attempt by their protagonists — Yang and Tajiri — to reconstruct the past in order to determine their personal identities and shape their futures. Yang struggles with a dual identity as both North Korean and Japanese, even as she commands both cultures and languages. Tajiri, by contrast, struggles to reconcile her past with her present because her family chose to conceal and forget their experiences in internment camps.

The painful experiences in both Yang's family and Tajiri's family are products of politics, which forced each family to live in societies and cultures other than their own. By contributing to relocation and displacement, politics disrupted family unity — as shown in each of these films — and in turn generated identity conflicts in successive generations. Therefore, despite the differences in historical period and geopolitical configuration, the two films together demonstrate that geopolitics can be the root cause of both family separation and identity conflicts.

Works Cited

Boyle, Deirdre. "History and Memory: On Visual Media and the Collective Memory of the Japanese American Internment." The New School, Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.

Dew, Oliver. Zainichi Cinema: Korean-in-Japan Film Culture. Springer International Publishing, 2016.

Flowers, Neil. "Dear Pyongyang." Elevate Difference, 26 Nov. 2010, Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.

Koehler, Robert. "Dear Pyongyang." Variety, 23 Jan. 2006, http://www.variety.com/2006/film/markets-festivals/dear-pyongyang/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.

Marks, Laura U. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Duke University Press, 2007.

Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Indiana University Press, 2010.

Shoji, Kaori. "Double Life of a North Korean Japanese Filmmaker." CNN Travel, 4 May 2011, http://www.travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/double-life-north-koreanjapanese-filmmaker-038337/. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.

Women Make Movies. "History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige." Women Make Movies, 2005, http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c111.shtml. Accessed 15 Dec. 2017.