People Are the Sky A Journey to North Korea

People Are the Sky
A Journey to North Korea
A Film by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Written, Directed and Produced by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Running Time: 94 Minutes
In English and Korean with English Subtitles
Press Contact:
David Magdael & Associates
213 624 7827
David Magdael
[email protected]
1 People Are the Sky
A Journey to North Korea
A Film by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
The Film - Short Synopsis
When Dai Sil Kim-Gibson lost her husband in the winter of 2009, she lost her true “home - she felt
she became homeless. Alone in America, she set out to explore whether her place of birth in North
Korea could be her home once more. Searching its cities and mountains shrouded in myth and
misunderstanding, she met people – ordinary citizens, In-min. Eventually she found home not in
places, not in North Korea as a country, but in the ordinary people. People Are The Sky is the
documentary film chronicling this all important personal journey of self discovery.
Writer/Director Dai Sil Kim-Gibson is the first Korean-American filmmaker to be given official
permission by the North Korean government to film inside its borders. The view she captures is
unprecedented and at times startling as she weaves her own personal story as a native born North
Korean forced to flee her homeland, with the history of the North and South Korean division and
the genesis of North Korea’s hatred of the United States in her latest documentary People Are The
Sky. A mix of talking heads, epic sequences and poetic musings, “People Are the Sky” refers to the
ordinary people she meets along the way and the ultimate truth of her pilgrimage.
The Film - Long Synopsis
People Are the Sky is a 94 minute documentary that is directed, produced, written and narrated by
acclaimed filmmaker Dai Sil Kim-Gibson.
People Are the Sky, Kim-Gibson’s eighth, and most personal film, connects two ideas: the search
for home, and the nature of ordinary people, while exploring the evolution of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in relation to the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the USA.
Kim-Gibson was born in North Korea, crossed the 38th parallel in 1945, grew up in Seoul until she
came to the US to study in 1962. She subsequently married a Iowa farm boy turned historian. Thus
her story has four sides: North and South, Korean and American.
Unlike many other works on North Korea, which are based on interviews with “defectors,” food
refugees, and illegal émigrés. Kim-Gibson has based her film on the people who have remained
there, placing them in the historical and political context of the 20th and 21st centuries, using her life
as a narrative arc.
When Kim-Gibson lost her husband in the winter of 2009, she lost her true “home - she felt she
became homeless. Alone in America, she set out to explore whether her place of birth in North
Korea could be her home once more. Searching its cities and mountains shrouded in myth and
misunderstanding, she met people – ordinary citizens, In-min. Eventually she found home not in
places, not in North Korea as a country, but in the ordinary people.
The film's title was inspired by Dong Hak, or eastern learning - the indigenous Korean religion/
philosophy that arose in the late 19th century. Dong Hak teaches that God is Ha Nu Nim – he who
resides in the sky – and that all people are equal with God: a teaching that elevates common people
and gives rise to the saying “People Are the Sky.”
2 People Are the Sky
A Journey to North Korea
A Film by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Filmmaker Statement
People Are the Sky is my eighth, and most personal film. It connects two ideas: the search for
home, and the nature of ordinary people, while exploring the evolution of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (DPRK) in relation to the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the USA.
The film's title was inspired by Dong Hak, or eastern learning, the indigenous Korean religion/
philosophy that arose in the late 19th century. Dong Hak teaches that God is Ha Nu Nim – he who
resides in the sky – and that all people are equal with God: a teaching that elevates common people
and gives rise to the saying “People Are the Sky.”
There is little real information about North Korea (DPRK) available in the West, and most of it is
agenda-driven, often focused on three “monsters:” Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong II, and Kim Jong Un and
the North's human rights violations as the “worst” in the world. Most of the extant works are based
on interviews with “defectors,” food refugees, and illegal émigrés. I based my film on the people
who have remained in DPRK, placed in the historical and political context of the 20th and 21st
centuries, using my experiences as a narrative arc.
Born in North Korea, I crossed the 38th parallel in 1945, grew up in Seoul until I came to the US to
study in 1962. I subsequently married a Iowa farm boy turned historian. Thus my story has four
sides: North and South, Korean and American.
When I lost my husband (who was my home) in the winter of 2009, I felt homeless. Alone in
America, I set out to explore whether my place of birth in North Korea could be my home once
more. Searching its cities and mountains shrouded in myth and misunderstanding, I met people –
ordinary citizens, In-min. Eventually I found home not in places, not in North Korea as a country,
but in the ordinary people.
I am a North Korea born, Korean American filmmaker who has lived in the US for half a century as
a naturalized citizen, married to an Iowa farm boy turned historian. When the US and Soviet Union
divided the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II, a child held her grandmother’s hand,
walking across the 38th parallel to South Korea for her father’s choice of democracy and America,
only to live through the Korean War. That child was I, seven years old.
Some people asked me if the Korean War prompted me to become socially conscious with strong
urge to work on social justice and eventually become a filmmaker. My answer was always, “If the
Korean War did anything, it led me to study religion!”
Let me explain: The Korean War caused me to step over dead bodies, including some who were my
age at that time. As a 12 year old girl, who was brought up a good Christian kid, I was extremely
distressed how a good, omnipotent, omniscient God could tolerate a war that killed innocent
children. So early on I began to pursue a theodicy question. I asked everyone but no adult, including
ministers, could answer me. So I set out to find the answer for myself. That’s how I decided to
study religion and pursue a Ph.D in that discipline.
3 Well, all that study in Religion did not offer me rational answers to my theodicy question but I
realized early on that if one is a true believer, one should be engaged in meditation and
contemplation as well as actions for making society and people better. Prayers should be
accompanied by appropriate actions. Hence even while I was teaching college, I was on my way, if
not knowingly, to doing something more concrete beyond pursuing abstract questions. Further, I
wanted to expand my classrooms to wider audiences.
I was, however to wait for ten years before I entered the door to filmmaking. After my teaching
career, I held two more positions: a senior program officer in Media Program at the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and director of the Media Program, New York State Council
on the Arts (NYSCA).
Shortly after I resigned from NYSCA to do my own work, primarily writing in mind, I was invited
by the Ford Foundation to produce a documentary based on its national research by scholars on
changing relations between new immigrants and established residents (mostly African Americans—
new comers rarely came into contacts with mainstream whites). America was changing under the
impact of the changing relations, hence in perpetual becoming. This gave a birth of the title of my
film, America Becoming.
Asked how I got started in making films, I used to say that it was an accident but I no longer say
that. I believe it was a natural culmination of what I was equipped with and wanted to achieve. I
was a trained scholar with a Ph.D which meant I was conceptually equipped to pursue intelligent
questions. Coupled with that was my interest in art and deep desire to do something about making
our society better. Just as filmmaking was a collaborative effort, I was a collaborative being—
scholar, artist (I started painting) and dreamer.
All this said, what prompted me to make my own film was the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. The famous
King beating on March 3, 1991, videotaped by an innocent witness, George Holiday, caught the
attention of the national and international media. In the ensuing thirteen months, the NBC, CBS and
ABC networks did 87 stories about the brutal beating and arrest on the evening news alone. So with
the announcement of the acquittal of the four police officers and the Civil Unrest, the media had a
field day doing what they do best, especially when it concerns the minorities and the oppressed-sensationalizing, turning human tragedies into statistics and issues. They were keen about how
much was lost, how many died and how many were arrested, etc. Most of all, the media pitted
Koreans against African Americans.
Watching the five days of the riots unfolding, I mourned the tragic loss of Korean Americans, and
the flaws of American society that has so long violated the fundamental human rights and dignity
through genocide of Native Americans, the unspeakable slavery of African Americans, exploitation
of immigrants, and the unfettered capitalism that created such a vast discrepancy between the rich
and the poor.
If what happened saddened me piercing the depth of my heart, the media coverage made me mad, in
fact, furious. The media portrayed the Black/Korean conflict as a cause, if not the cause, of the
upheaval. With that, I could no longer sit still in Washington, DC. It was then that I decided to tell
our “stories” as much as I could.
So I made films that dealt with racial conflicts, economic discrepancy, and historical issues and
persons which were abandoned, neglected and forgotten such as comfort women, forced laborers and
migrants. My filmography reflects these themes
4 It took me four years to make People Are the Sky, including pre-production research 2011-2014.
But this is a film I have been making in my mind since my last film about Cuba, Motherland, which
was started in 2004 and completed in 2006. The film was a personal exploration of my identity and
search for home in the century of migration, focused on the Koreans in Cuba. Ever since I left North
Korea in the winter of 1945, my life has been in one way or another search for home. In the South I
lived and matured from a child of seven to young woman, brazen enough to cross the Pacific to
study in America in 1962. That land, South Korea, was my official home for two decades before I
became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Even as a naturalized citizen, the US as a country or place did not feel home to me. Finally, I found
home in an American, not America, my late husband, Donald D. Gibson. Now that Don was retired
and had time, it was my wish to make what could be my last documentary, a film about my place of
birth, Gohyang. Alas, I lost Don in 2009 before I took that long-dreamed -of journey to North
Korea. Grief stricken as I was, I set out on a journey to make this film, starting with my preproduction research in America and South Korea in 2011.
The film I originally envisioned was a portrayal of DPRK put in historical and political context of
the 20th and 21st centuries in relation to the USA, the Soviet Union, South Korea and other
international forces including Japan, and China. Unlike my previous work, I planned to make it a
personal film. I am not the outsider peering inside to search for “objective truths” but a participant,
already invested, in exploring the past to gain a clearer understanding of the present. Finally, I was
firm about using my personal life experiences as a narrative arc.
As much as I tried to keep the historical and political facts accurate, my story telling became more
and more personal, the memories of the past coming alive and shedding light more on the present,
leading to the imagine future.
With the increasing personal memories of the past and feelings, my search for home gained its
momentum to climb up as high as the issues of politics and history. This also led me to feature my
late husband, Don and my home more in the film, as invisible as he was. He became a spokesperson
for American people, in the midst of North Koreans who were hostile to the US. Finally, my wish
to understand North Korea based on the people who are still there, and introduce them to the
viewing public became stronger.
When I was given permission to film in North Korea, I was told that I was the first Korean American
filmmaker with such privilege. But that did not mean that I could go anywhere and film anyone! I was
always accompanied by a guide, sometimes one, other times two, plus government appointed camera
man. And they chose places and people whom I should film.
Even under normal circumstances, there are always clear and sometimes hidden problems in filming
people. In North Korea, I had additional problems of being under the supervision of the guides. The
guides knew where to take me and whom I should meet, which often did not coincide with my own
wishes. Even under those circumstances, if you open your eyes and ears, always with willingness to
be flexible, imaginative, spontaneous and to take risks, you can achieve a lot.
For me, when I film, I am never just eating, walking, talking, etc. I have to open my six senses and
absorb everything. The key is not to let others know about that. I give what happened at the
amusement to make my point clear. It was an open space, where playful spirit abounded. The fact that
I had no definite objects to film meant “everything, everybody” was potential objects to film. This
5 gave me more opportunities while giving more work (headache) for the guide(s). And I had no leisure
to develop rapport, trust, etc. I had no defined, or pre-selected persons and things to shoot. I had to be
swift and decisive while appearing playful. How does a stranger (me) draw attention and trust from
the passers by? Nothing is more magical than a quick sense of humor.
As a Korean saying goes, no one would want to spit on the laughing face. The willingness to share
laughter builds fast trust to want to respond. “Is my hair scary?” “Why are you goofing off?” to the
supposedly brightest university students in NK. “Can I talk to the trees? Are there things you would
not want me to ask the trees?’ to the tension filled guide due to my fast and often defiant refulsal to
follow the rules.
The most important rules I know are to be willing to share your feelings—using a sense of humor
means you are willing to share joyful feelings beyond the surface, not be afraid to disobey the orders
of the other, if it means following your inner orders, trust people, no matter how foreign they seem to
be—one humanity touching the other with honesty and sincerity always works.
People often comment that it was my outgoing, cheerful personality that achieved from the people in
the park, on the streets, etc. But it was hard work, only the key was to not let people know that I was
working.
Still, there were plenty of challenges. The most obvious was the constant supervision of the guide(s).
Needless to say, it got on my nerves but I tried to ignore it. “What can they do to me, if I disobeyed?”
Besides, I knew that the guides were doing their job as I was doing mine. I felt that secretly we both
wished the other well. I knew that frequently I was a nuisance to them but they took me for what and
who I was—a different oldie with a permed hair like a basket, enjoying the smell of the earth of her
country of birth and getting to know people. They knew that I did not hide a recorder in my hair but
knew that I not be taken as a fool. My brain functioned with speed and determination.
I do not call it an obstacle – the fact that I had to reach out to forbidden people and places. This is
where my “creative” disobedience came in. Even from a distance, I could tell people with whom I
wanted to talk. I would not think before action. I would just run to them. By the time, my guide caught
up with me, my cameraman was already shooting!
Obstacles frequently bring out one’s creative force in one. Successes emerged from the creative
disobedience. This meant I had an access no other people with camera dared to do. I dare say I have a
lot of what might appear as something not so unusual in my film. Of course, none of these was
possible if I didn’t speak Korean. Not just the random people in the park and on the streets but even
the guides were impressed that I could speak such fluent Korean after living in America for half a
century.
I would love to have audiences come away from my film with a “Wow” and with wide open eyes –
and exclaim - “I had no idea!” Thus, leave the film with determination to give the DPRK and its
people benefits of doubt and re-examine the existing ideas and knowledge, promoted by the media,
politicians and others with appropriate historical and political knowledge. I would be happy even if
they just felt “wow” in their hearts and minds without knowing exactly why.
With their hearts and minds full of amazement for many things—how little they had known about
this country, called DPRK, demonized, looked down and feared for its nuclear power. I want them
to realize how much there is to this country beyond the three “monster” leaders; how could they
6 have imagined its people mere puppets who simply obeyed their leaders; and how this little country
of 25 million people is still in existence despite the outside pressures and demonizations, led by the
Superpower, the USA. I would like audiences to look at what the US is still doing in the MiddleEast and other parts of the world in the guise of democracy and freedom, courtesy of a benevolent
superpower leader and how the US is still doing that they did in the 1940’s, perhaps in a worse way.
I also want them to discover the mysterious, majestic and delicate beauty of North Korean mountains
and fields, as I did on this very personal journey. And I want them to feel and think about the likeminded people everywhere as home.
When we had conflicts, fights and wars, we used to say, “It’s them or us”. But now “It is all of us or
nothing.” This means we should work for peace with all we have with like-minded people working
for the survival of humanity with compassion, decency and gratitude, including those people whom
we usually consider enemies. Further, there is always room for critical thinking and acceptance of
any thoughts and ideas, including those of the powerful.
-Dai Sil-Kim Gibson, Filmmaker
7 People Are the Sky
A Journey to North Korea
A Film by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Filmmaker Bios
Biography
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson is a North-Korea-born American, and an independent filmmaker/writer known
for championing the compelling but neglected issues of human rights.. Her film credits include
America Becoming, Sa-I-Gu, A Forgotten People: the Sakhalin Koreans, Olivia’s Story, Silence
Broken: Korean Comfort Women, Wet Sand, Motherland (Cuba Korea USA). Her films were
critically acclaimed here and abroad. “A film translating mute statistics into human terms,” by the
Business Week Magazine for Sa-I –Gu (April 29), "a classic work of oral history,” by the Washington
City Paper for A Forgotten People, “a wrenching and formally inventive film," by the Village Voice,
"A hauntingly brilliant film,” by the Asian Week, Los Angeles for Silence Broken. All of her films
garnered many awards and were screened at numerous festivals worldwide, in addition to national
broadcast on PBS, on the Sundance Channel in the United States. Among many awards, she received
a Rockefeller Fellowship for Silence Broken and a production grant from the MacArthur Foundation
for Sa-I-Gu. An author of numerous articles, Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women is her first
book (The Philadelphia Inquirer called it "unforgettable") and her second book is Looking for Don:
A Meditation. She edited and compiled a memoir by her late husband, Donald D. Gibson, Iowa Sky,
A Memoir and her own memoir, Korean Sky is now available at Amazon.com . A former professor
of Religion at Mount Holyoke College with a Ph.D in Religion and a federal and state employee,
filmmaking is her third career.
Birth and Growing up in North Korea
July 1938-December 1945
Hyo Chang Elementary School, Seoul, South Korea
Spring 1946-1950
Ewha Girls Middle and Senior High School
Spring 1950 –Spring 1956
In Seoul, Masan, Busan and Seoul
(Korean War: 1950-1953)
Methodist Theological Seminary (College), Seoul, South Korea
September 1956-Spring 1960
Teacher, Ewha Girls’ Middle School
1960-1962
Teaching Village Kids in a Farm Town in Kang Won Province
Summer of 1961
Coming to America for Graduate Studies at Boston University
September 1962
8 Graduate Studies in Religion at Boston University Graduate School and School of Theology
September 1962-May 1969
Trip to Greece
Summer of 1967
Ph.D in Religion, Boston University, 1969
Assistant Professor/Associate professor
1969-78, Department of Religion, Mount Holyoke College
Going Home in Seoul
Summer of 1970
Senior Program Officer,
Media Program, National Endowment for the Humanities
1978-85
Director, Media Program, New York State Council on the Arts
1985-88
Independent Filmmaker/Writer
1988- present
Films:
•
Sa-I-Gu (April 29), director/producer/writer (3/4" video, 36 minutes, 1993). The film is about
the 1992 Los Angeles crisis from the perspectives of Korean woman shopkeepers. The Washington
Post praised it as “a passionate point of view piece,” the Los Angeles Times, “a powerful new film, and
Business Week Magazine called it “a film translating mute statistics into human terms.” National
broadcast on PBS in 1993 as a Point of View special.
•
A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans, director/producer/writer, (16 mm, 59 minutes,
1995). The film is about the forced Korean laborers on Sakhalin island, the victims of World War II
and the Cold War. They were initially indentured by Japan, then in 1945 fell into the hands of a new
master, the Soviet Union, where they were forgotten for half a century. Washington City Paper called it
“a classic work of oral history,” the Los Angeles Times “a bracing reminder of the human victims in the
global chess game played by superpowers,” and Daily Variety said it was “a persuasive song of the
displaced.” National broadcast on PBS, 1995; worldwide cablecast on the Discovery International
1997.
•
Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women, director/producer/writer, (35 mm. 88 min., 57 min.
Beta SP, 1999), a powerful documentary about Korean women forced into sexual servitude by the
Japanese Imperial Military during World War II. Silence Broken dramatically combines the testimony
of former comfort women who demand justice for the “crimes against humanity” committed against
them, along with contravening interviews of Japanese soldiers, recruiters, and contemporary scholars.
Village Voice, “a wrenching and formally inventive film,” Asian Week, Los Angeles, “a hauntingly
brilliant film,” the Wall Street Journal, “searing testimony of Korean comfort women,” and Video
Librarian, “compelling testimony on a shameful chapter in military history.” National broadcast on
9 PBS in May 2000 and national broadcast in Korea on Korean Broadcasting System for an
Independence Day special.
•
Wet Sand: Voices from LA, director/producer/writer (57 min. video, 2004). It explores the
aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles civil unrest. The film presents lives forever transformed by the
L.A. upheaval and lays bare the deeply rooted flaws of American society, an ultimate cause of that
tragic event. It has been shown at numerous festivals in the United States and abroad and was
broadcast on PBS in 2005.
•
Motherland (Cuba Korea USA), director/producer/writer, (41 min. video, 2006), is a Korean
American filmmaker’s personal exploration of identity and motherland, told through the lens of the
Cuban Revolution and Korean migration. Primarily shot in Cuba, Motherland counterpoints the
personal history of a Korean Cuban, Martha Lim Kim, with the filmmaker’s own journey from
North to South Korea and then to the U.S. What results is a riveting look into deeply held ideas of
socialism, capitalism and social justice and where we can find home in the post Cold War world.
•
Olivia's Story, producer/writer, Drama, 16 mm,14:02 minutes, 1999). A lyrical drama about
complex human relationships, Olivia's Story is narrated by a young Korean American, Olivia, and
her grandmother. An innocent baseball game played by children from diverse ethnic backgrounds
triggers grandma's bittersweet memories of the Korean War and her first encounters with African
Americans. Full of poetic imagery culled from archival material and newly shot scenes, Olivia's
Story is a creative collaboration with African American director/editor Charles Burnett. Cablecast on
the Sundance Channel in 2001. Official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival.
•
America Becoming, Producer/Writer, (Documentary, 16 mm, 87 minutes, 1991). Shot on six
locations and exploring the great diversity of America, the film presents the lives and relationships of
new and ever-more diverse immigrants and established residents. "A moving, richly layered story,"
The Boston Globe. Nationally broadcast on PBS in 1991. It was directed and shot by Charles Burnett.
The Urban Poor; A Student Radical; Sweatshops; and Farmers and Fishermen,
Researcher/Reporter, broadcast on NBC's Today Show. five minutes each, 1988. The series received
the Overseas Press Club Award. Worked with Jon Alpert.
•
Books
An author of many articles, Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women, 1999, is her first book
(“unforgettable,” the Philadelphia Inquirer).
Looking for Don, 2012 is a meditation on her life with her husband, Donald D. Gibson, and how
she mourns for her loss of Don in January 2009, always looking for him.
Korean Sky, 2015 is her own memoir.
In addition, she compiled and edited Iowa Sky: A Memoir by Donald D. Gibson, which was
published after his death.
Awards
A recipient of many awards, the selective list includes: the Multi-Cultural Prism Award for Artistic
Achievement by the Minorities in Business Magazine; the Phoenix Award by the New York Asian
Women's Center; and the Steve Tatsukawa Memorial Award by the Visual Communications in Los
Angeles. She was also awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship for Silence Broken. She also received an
10 Asian American Media Award and the Kodak Filmmaker's Award for this film. She had to decline a
Fulbright research grant in Korea due to the family’s recent disaster, fire.
She has been an active voice in the independent filmmaking field and served for three years as Chair of
the Board of Independent Video and Filmmakers, a national membership organization with over 5000
members, and Vice Chair of the Board of the National Asian American Telecommunications
Association for six years.
Brief Biographies of the Crew
Linda Hattendorf
Editor
Linda Hattendorf has been working in the New York documentary community for nearly two
decades. Her editing work has aired on PBS, A&E, and The Sundance Channel as well as in many
theaters and festivals. She has worked on productions by such notable filmmakers as Barbara
Kopple, William Greaves, Danny Schechter, Lisette Flanary, and Ken Burns. In 2006, she directed
and co-produced with Masa Yoshikawa the award-winning documentary, The Cats of Mirikitani.
This directorial debut was invited to more than 100 festivals around the world, opened theatrically
in 20 cities, and was broadcast nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens. She was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio and holds degrees in Literature, Art History, and Media Studies.
Jon Oh
Sound Designer
Jon Oh (sound editor, designer, re-recording mixer) is a sound designer whose recent credits include
2 national PBS documentaries: Tad Nakamura’s “Life on Four Strings” and Phillip Rodriquez’s
“Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle”. “Whisper on the Waves”, a feature documentary directed by
Shirikiana Gerima was also completed during this period. As sound designer, he’s worked with Dai
Sil Kim-Gibson on “Wet Sand: Voices from L.A.”, “Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women”,
and “A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans” and “Motherland”. Other recent credits include
Ann Kaneko and Sharon Yamato’s “A Flicker in Eternity” and Akira Boch’s “The Crumbles”.
Willem Lee
Director of Photography
Willem Lee is an award winning New York based filmmaker and recent graduate of Columbia
University’s MFA Film Program with honors with a focus on directing. His thesis film, The End of
the World, has exhibited internationally and domestically. While at Columbia, he was selected to
teach a course in film directing to undergraduate students as well as be a teaching assistant to many
preeminent film scholars including, Richard Pena, Annette Insdorf, and the late venerable Andrew
Sarris.
STEPHEN JAMES TAYLOR
Composer
Stephen James Taylor has a unique musical identity. His style represents a blend of classical, world
music, rock, blues, gospel, jazz,and avant garde. Having been nominated for 4 Emmys, some of his
past projects include scoring the documentary Tom Bradley: The Impossible Dream (2014),
Marvel’s TV Series THE BLACK PANTHER, music for theme parks such as Disney World and
The Red Sea Astrarium in Jordan, Universal's The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, Disney’s Mickey’s
Twice Upon a Christmas (for which he won Best Original Score at the 2004 DVDX Awards),
Teachers Pet, a Disney animated feature with wide theatrical release January, 2003, Warner’s
feature film Why Do Fool’s Fall In Love, Charles Burnett’s blues documentary, Warming By the
11 Devil’s Fire produced by Martin Scorsese, and Dai Sil Kim-Gibson’s America Becoming, and Wet
Sand. In 2001 he wrote underscore and produced some of the songs for Clark Johnson’s Boycott
(HBO films).
In 1996 he was commissioned to write an orchestral suite for Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics
and was one of the conductors of the Atlanta Symphony for that occasion. In 1999, Stephen scored
Charles Burnett’s Selma, Lord, Selma, the original Selma movie. Other credits include the
animated series, Disney’s Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa. the PBS movie Brother Future (1991),
NBC’s series I’ll Fly Away,. . In 1999 and 2000 he has received Annie nominations for his work on
Disney’s Mickey Mouseworks. He has also done string arrangements for James Taylor and for
Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
After graduating from Stanford University in 1976 with a B.A. in music, he studied composition for
four years with Henri Lazarof, professor of music at UCLA. He has studied microtonality with Erv
Wilson since 1989 with whom he has developed a new 810 key microtonal keyboard. Taylor’s
second chamber symphony was commissioned and premiered by the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra
in 1983. The Detroit Symphony later performed it in 1990. His various chamber works have been
performed throughout the country.
His ongoing projects the recent release of his solo trans-tonal pop album entitled Embrace It All
(available on itunes). A filmmaker as well, he has also completed two short films of his own, the
award winning documentary, SURFING THE SONIC SKY, and the sci fi short, I AM HERE.
12 People Are the Sky
A Journey to North Korea
A Film by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Credits:
A Film by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Director/Producer/Writer/Narrator: Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Co-producer in South Korea: Media Gil
Director of Photography
Willem Lee
Editor
Linda Hattendorf
Composer
Stephen James Taylor
Featuring
The Trancendello for the first time,
Sound Design
Jon Oh
Archival Researcher
Sheila Maniar
Additional Photography
Seo Woo Hyung (South Korea)
Mr. Cho (North Korea)
Artist of Original Sketches
SoHyun Bae
Still Photograher of the Skies
Claudio Pascarelli
Assistant Editors
Willem Lee
Peter Lee
Additional Camera Work
Peter Lee
Production Assistants
Peter Lee
Moon Kim
13 Transcribers
Kang Dong Ju
Willem Lee
ARCHIVAL SOURCES
Stills
Seoul Museum of History
Associated Press
CPA Media
Getty Images
Video
Korea Ryugilo Editorial Bureau (North Korea)
Korean Documentary and Science Film Studio (North Korea)
Critical Past
Film Archives, Inc.
Footage Farm USA
HBO Archives
Journeyman Pictures
Oddball Films
POND 5
Prelinger Films
Streamline Films, Inc.
Narration Recording
Harvest Works
Sound Engineer: Kevin Ramsay
Contributors
Yonsil and Suk-Chong Yu
Song Nam and Chang Ho Suk
Chaeim Lee
Glenn Marcus
Young Sook and David Lim
SPECIAL THANKS
Thanks to:
Terry Carter, for helping with narration
Douglas O/Conner, for consulting post-production
Charles Burnett
Frederick F. Carrier
Grace Cavalieri
14 Hyun Choo
Choi In Ho
Chung Shin Kyu
Richard Cohen
Maryann Deleo
Amy Grey
Dennis Hart
Libby Howland
Andrew Jordan
Simon Kilmurry
Kim Yangrae
Kim Min-jung
Kang Dong Ju
Dae Hoon Kim
Hae Joo Kim
Esther Lee
Hark Joon Lee
Kristen Nutile
Oum Young-rae
J. P. Olson
Judith Pearlman
Tassos Rigopoulos
John Woo
Chi-hui Yang
Suk-Chong Yu
Yoon Kil Sang
Katherine Judge
THANKS
Elia, Mira, and Sara Armstrong
David Bath
Father Cornelius P Chang
Sara Choi
Nadine Covert
Bryan Christopher
Harold Forsythe
William Gilcher
Mi Hee Kim
Eun Joo Kim
Jooyeon Kim
Kang Eun Young
Ho Sik Kim
John Junho Kim
Lucy Kostelanetz
Susie Lim
Janice Olsen
Daniel Phelan
15 Sabine Pascarelli
Julie Whang
Jae Hee Wilder
Ilyon Woo
Chun-wei Yin
Kyung Yoon
Masa Yoshikawa
Kang Ok Yun
Chris Zomhik
The Center for Korean Research
Columbia University
Korean American National Coordinating Council
Silence Broken Foundation Film
Special Thanks for its Board Members;
Carole Huxley and Young Joon Park
Dedicated to My Maternal Grandmother,
Choi Dae Hyun
With Don
Copyright, 2015
Contact: Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
200 Cabrini Boulevard (#61)
New York City, NY 10033
[email protected]
Office: 1 (917) 521-2954
Cell: 1 (914) 466-4337
16