Their answers and the stories they tell will shock, surprise and inspire. Subscribe to get more Dark Crime content and hit the notification bell to see the freshly uploaded content. Shopping at a supermarket. To the filmmakers' credit, they don't shy away from this. It also portrays the unpredictable responses when mainstream health professionals 'cross the line' and enter Aboriginal communities for the first time. It was directed and produced by British filmmakers Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner, and was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. She also found two young medical students prepared to participate in the film. contact@pulitzercenter.org, Humanizing the Hermit Kingdom: Leisure in North Korea, Stories by Campus Consortium Reporting Fellows, Deep Dives: Ocean and Fisheries Reporting, Underreported Stories in Sub-Saharan Africa, Science Misinformation: Journalism in the Age of Truth Decay, Bringing Stories Home: Local Reporting Grants, COVID-19, Vaccines, and Global Health Inequities, OPPORTUNITIES FOR CAMPUS CONSORTIUM MEMBERS, In North Korea, an International Film Festival Where Self-Reliance Is the Star, Pizzas, Pony Rides and Dolphin Shows: Balms for North Koreas Elite. Like most Australians, they have never been exposed to life in a remote Indigenous community. In other words. CROSSING THE LINE is a significant film in my career as a producer. Crossing the Line (Korean: , A Blue-Eyed Pyongyang Citizen in North Korea) is a 2006 British documentary film by Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner. A "Girl Power" Film. Read more Directors Kaye Harrison, Rod Freedman Supplier Ronin Films North Korea as a setting offers artists so much enigma and drama because the country itself is larger than life. Crossing The Line documentary: The story of Australia v South Africa and the ball-tampering scandal Watch the show at 10pm, Thursday on Sky Sports Cricket, with contributions from Shane. Screen Australia is not responsible for and does not endorse any Third Party Sites' use, effect or content or any associated organisation, product or service on the third party site. (202) 332-0982 Crossing the Line, which was narrated by actor Christian Slater, was nominated for the Grand Jury . It's very gratifying to know that the film encourages discussion and debate about such complex issues, makes me feel like I've done my job! While The Game of Their Lives and A State of Mind were sports documentaries, Crossing the Line narrates the tale of James Joseph Dresnok, an American soldier who defected to the North in 1962 while stationed at the Demilitarized Zone on the South Korean side. One of four American defectors who crossed over to the hard line communist North during the 1960s, Dresnok has lived in the North Korean capital Pyongyang ever since, and has not been seen by the outside world for 44 years. Only one remains in DPRK. Today, just one remains. About The Documentary. Suite #615 WINNER! Request an update here. Moreover the movie launched, because it is a success. Can testimony from these cops hold up in court? Amy attends a church service at a time when many funerals are being held for young men. The folk of Mornington Island demonstrate a warm-hearted resilience in the face of their history, but to Amy it is appalling. Kaye Harrison wrote, directed and co-produced the video for ABC-TV, which screened it earlier this year in two parts on the Indigenous program Message stick. This is his story.VeryMuchSo Production and Koryo Tours in conjuction with Passion Pictures, BBC4 and ARTE. We already have a niggling feeling that not everything Dresnok says is to be trustedwatch how he squirms and evades talking about the background of his first, supposedly Romanian wife inside North Koreabut the extent of how unreliable he is as a narrator is always up in the air. Like most Australians, they have never been exposed to life in a remote Indigenous community. . Crossing the Line: Directed by Daniel Gordon. In this time, the story of their subject evolved beyond anything they would have had reason to imagine. CROSSING THE LINE follows the journeys of two young medical students, Amy and Paul, who leave their safe middle class homes and university behind to be thrust into the harsh reality of everyday life on Mornington Island. At the same time, for Aboriginal communities to cross the line puts their cultural identity at risk. No-one knew why they did it. Read all Director Kaye Harrison Writer Kaye Harrison Stars It reminds us that there are still many stories to be told about North Korea, and that any life inside this Hermit Kingdom is not as self-contained as we might assume. Should he? We hear about Dresnok's deeply scarring time in the fifties after dropping out of high school, the shock he felt in the early sixties when new to Korean society, and his health problems after the turn of the century. Kaye Harrison wrote, directed and co-produced the video for ABC-TV, which screened it earlier this year in two parts on the Indigenous program Message stick. The regime had immense hopes for their mixed-race babies, such as training them to be spies. In the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, four US soldiers defected to North Korea. He has three sons from two wives. It was first screened in 2007 on the BBC. [2][3][4], The movie had mostly positive reception. Includes investments, loans and grants. He worked for the Korean Peoples Army as an English teacher, learned the language and the system. ***This series and episode is under license from TVF. At the height of the Cold War, this unlikely band of brothers crossed the most heavily fortified area on earth and defected to DPRK. "IT MAKE FOR REMARKABLE, RIVETING VIEWING AND GIVES A RARE AND UNSENTIMENTAL INSIGHT INTO ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S REMOTE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES. This film looks back on the life of Dresnok in North Korea and his importance within that regime. "Crossing the Line" tells of four American servicemen who defected to North Korea, with an . Dresnok spoke exclusively to the filmmakers about his childhood, his desertion, his life in a country completely foreign and quite hostile to his own, his fellow defectors, and his wife and children.[1]. Throughout their eight-week placement in this remote See production, box office & company info, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). (123) 7.4 1 h 30 min 2007 7+. For our First Nations communities, January 26th marks the beginning of a long and painful process of colonisation, genocide, and erasure of Indigenous peoples, languages, and culture. This is the story of the last American defector in North Korea, James Joseph Dresnok. A British documentary about US Army defector James Dresnok currently living in North Korea after having defected during the 60s. [5][6][7][8], Robert Willoughby The Bradt Travel Guide: North Korea 2008, page 39 "In a further twist, they found film fame with roles in DPRK films vilifying the US, with Dresnok typecast as an evil American and making firm friends with several North Korean film stars who appear in Crossing the Line and discussed the ", Justin Corfield, Historical Dictionary of Pyongyang 2013, page 43 "After Doina died of lung cancer, Dresnok married the daughter of a Togolese diplomat and a North Korean woman, and had a son. Jenkins now lives in Japan with his wife and daughters. Amy McCormack (medical student) and Louise Roughsey, Silhouette of youth on street (photo: Paul Joffe), Hector Thomas and Paul Joffe (medical student). Teaching English at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, he was the subject of the film Crossing the Line ", Last edited on 15 December 2022, at 00:20. Crossing the Line 2004 Documentary | 56mins | Completed When two young non-Indigenous medical students go to work in a remote Aboriginal community their professional precepts and personal ideas are deeply challenged. He uses Korean as his daily language. Australia remains stuck in a trench in relation to Aboriginal health. present, BBC, E Pictures, Koryo Tours, IFG2, Going to the cinema. The highest compliment I can pay Crossing the Line is that it serves as a vital journal of an important time in recent North Korean affairsand that the production of this documentary would make for a highly intriguing feature film one day. CROSSING THE LINE (CTLpod) is a verite' style audio documentary series telling stories from the frontlines in the fight for reproductive freedom. Two Aboriginal colleagues watched the video. For instance. At one time, there were four Americans living in North Korea. Extremely moving yet unsentimental, this film offers a rare insight into the practical realities of providing Western medical services to Indigenous communities and illustrates ways in which engagement can contribute to an improvement in the crisis in Aboriginal health today. We see Dresnok's home in Richmond, Virginia, as well as a fellow defector's reunion with his wife in Indonesia. Crossing The Line is the tragic yet uplifting story of athletics prodigy Danny Harris, and his battles with his demons on and off the track. (Its first public, non-festival screening was on BBC.) Its a story of defection, kidnap, love, and political intrigue, all set and captured in the most secret and inaccessible country on earth: North Korea. Shortly this will also incorporate project-specific market and festival support provided by Screen Australia since its inception in July 2008. [Dresnok and a friend converse while fishing]. Crossing the line should remind medical educators to harness, rather than suppress, the welling energies of youth to cross the line. It could simultaneously be a feature-length profile of one man, an investigation of how North Korea treated four prized defectors, and a snapshot of a feud between two men who have been through too much but tell us too little. For nearly 40 years their life was. What no one knew at that time, except for the filmmakers, was that a second American defector, James Joseph Dresnok, was alive. Bridging the Gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy remains a key issue across Australia. A State of Mind occasionally relied on the voyeuristic pleasure derived from glimpses of everyday life in Pyongyang. Crossing the Line is the final installment in director Daniel Gordon's trilogy of films shot inside North Korea. Now, after 45 years, the story of Comrade Joe, the last American defector in North Korea, is told. She undertook research trips to get the support of the community, the medical organisations and the University of Tasmania. This was justified not just because these peeks could be accommodated in the plot, but also because outside audiences had genuinely never seen life depicted that way in, arguably, the world's most isolated country. He is one of only six American soldiers ever to have voluntarily turned themselves over to the Communist regime after the Korean War, and, today, the last one remaining inside. The eccentricities associated with its leaders, the Kim dynasty, and the hardline communism they've forced upon the country also make audience immersion a fait accompli. Classification: Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G, Proceed with ordering this titleand for pricing information . James Dresnok: Oh, don't even talk about it. Each man left his Southern border post in the demilitarised zone the DMZ, a 2.5 mile wide patch of land that splits the Korean peninsula in half and is the most heavily fortified area on earth, packed with 2.5m land minesand walked into an alien world. John Battsek, Richard Klein & Paul Yi, Formerly known as Pyongyang Art Studio, Koryo Studio is the first Western art gallery to commission and sell work by artists of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea. Captured by the North Koreans, Dresnok became the first of several American GI's to "defect" to the communist North and went on to be enormous propaganda tools to the regime of the time. Amy and Paul come across as delightful young people. b. Project-specific support provided by Screen Australia's production investment programs since the agency's inception in July 2008. Without seeming to consult the community, Paul and Amys supervisors in Mt Isa pull them out for debriefing a week early almost before they can say goodbye to the people they have come to know and begun to love because they have become too involved. Secondly. Like. 1h 34m. info@koryostudio.com. See production, box office & company info, Solid documentary that is interesting despite the limited appeal of the material. Crossing the Line tells the story of the last American defector in North Korea, James Joseph Dresnok. c. Since 1993, No. DON'T MISS IT." It showed Dresnok in present-day in Pyongyang (where he lived to his death), interacting with his North Korean family and friends. Publication of your online response is CROSSING THE LINE is the third feature length documentary by VeryMuchSo Productions, the team that produced the RTS award-winning the game of their lives (four awards in total plus two Grierson nominations, one British Independent Film Awards nomination) and the acclaimed a state of mind (broadcast UK June 7th 2004 and chosen as Pick of the Day in every broadsheet) the story of two North Korean gymnasts as they prepare a Mass Games celebration. Kaye impressed me with her understanding of the protocols of approaching the community for permission to film in a serious and sensitive way. No one knows why they defected, until now. ***This series and episode is under license from TVF. Each episode allows the listener to experience the numerous barriers faced and the ways people . There is a need for new thinking. Like most Australians, they have never been exposed to life in a remote Indigenous community. 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