Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women

Has anyone seen the film Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson? Do you know where I can get a copy? My computer has labeled her site as "dangerous to your computer" and won't let me in. Plus, given my computer issues, I am hesitant to do so.

On preliminary search, I see that the book is available, but not the film at places like Amazon. My PBS search--PBS aired the film--is proving fruitless (of course, I don't know how to find anything at PBS--I stumble upon stuff there).

I found this website, which lists the price of the film as $265 which definitely means it goes on my list of "films to ask the department to buy," but I wanted the opinions of people who might have seen it first.

I've never thought about it, but given my fascination with the Civil War home front, the exploitation of women during WWII, all aspects of the Vietnam War, how I think so often about the stories from The Greatest Silence, and what is being revealed, piece by piece, about the abuse of women in Iraq, I think I'd like to develop a class on women and war.

5 comments:

Gladys said...

i saw the film at a screening with the director, and it's definitely worth asking your university library to buy. heart-wrenching interviews with former korean comfort women are the hallmark of the film. i think it would be an excellent film to include in the women and war class you're suggesting. also on comfort women of WWII, i would recommend the memoir of a filipina comfort woman, Maria Rosa Henson, titled _Comfort Woman_ - it's not very long (less than 100 pages) but incredibly evocative as well, and because it's short it would be an easy text to assign (but not necessarily to read!).

Giftie Etcetera said...

A friend of a friend wrote this blog entry today, and I thought you might find it interesting:

http://pacatrue.blogspot.com/2008/10/reasons-to-vote.html

Miriam said...

I saw it too, back when I was in college, also with a screening with the director. At least I think this is the right film. It was pretty amazing because I had never heard this issue before, and the film showed how urgent awareness is-- the comfort women are now in their 90s and dying out without their pain having been acknowledged by the Japanese government. She also had interviews with Japanese government officials who denied everything (assholes) and re-created scenes with actors. They were fairly tasteful. I agree with Gladys, you should ask the depeartment to buy it. :)

elle said...

Thanks Gladys and Miriam. I was hoping someone saw this who knew.

Thanks for the link, Kristy!

pacatrue said...

If there's any time for literature, you'd have to start it off with Trojan Women, by Sophocles I believe, though it could be one of the other tragedians. It involves all the women of Troy being taken off as handmaids, concubines, slaves, and wives. Just a way to show that these issues are not new.

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