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| Showtimes | Mon March 15 7:00 PM / KAB315C |
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USA, 1998, 88 mins, 35mm,
color/b&w, Korean/English/Japanese & Chinese w/e.s.;
Director/Producer/Writer Dai Sil KIM-GIBSON (in person); Dir. Photography/Editor/Co-Producer Charles BURNETT
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson’s (A FORGOTTEN PEOPLE: THE SAKHALIN KOREANS, SFIAAFF 1996) latest work shatters a half-century of silence for Korean women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. For
the first time, these women tell their painful stories to the world, demanding justice for the "crimes against humanity" committed against them. The women’s voices echo soulful sorrow as well as heroic strength and an amazing resilience of spirit.
Kim-Gibson, who was born in northern Korea when it was under Japanese rule, traveled to Korea, Japan and China to interview the women in SILENCE BROKEN. In their own words, the women recount being taken from their homes and shipped to military bases in far-off places—all in the name of "comfort" for Japanese soldiers. After their enslavement, the women were abandoned by their motherland, its severely weakened government, and other world forces unwilling to challenge Japan, which refused to acknowledge its actions.
In SILENCE BROKEN, Kim-Gibson forges a new style of filmmaking by combining interview sequences with powerful dramatic sequences portraying the women’s struggle to survive both the Japanese military and their equally harsh lives after the war. Now facing ill health and old age, the women continue their uphill battle for an admission of legal guilt and appropriate compensation from the Japanese government. SILENCE BROKEN preserves the stories of these women, giving them a powerful voice that will never again be silenced.
—Sandra Yoshizuka
Director Kim-Gibson will be in attendance along with Chung Seo Woon, one of the women she interviewed.
Presented with Korea Society and Korean Community Center of the East Bay