Dai Sil Kim-Gibson

Dai Sil Kim-Gibson (/'daɪ/ /'sɪl/ /'kɪm/-/'gɪbsən/; born 1938) is a Korean-American documentary filmmaker and author. Her films and writing focus on issues of human rights, overlooked periods in history, and Asian-American diaspora.

Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Born
Dai Sil Kim

1938 (age 82–83)
Sincheon, Hwanghae Province, North Korea
NationalityKorean-American
EducationBoston University
OccupationDocumentary filmmaker
Years active1988 - 2014
Notable work
Sai-I-Gu, A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans, Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women, People are the Sky'
Spouse(s)
Don Gibson
​
​
(m. 1979; died 2009)​

She is well known for her book and film of the same name, Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women. Both the book and the film are award-winning historical accounts of Korean women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese army during World War II.[1]

She has been recognized and funded by The Rockefeller Fellowship, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the MacArthur Foundation.[2] Her awards and honors include the Asian American Media Arts Award, the Kodak Filmmaker Award, and CINE Golden Eagle.[3]

Early life

Kim was born in 1938 in Sincheon, Hwanghae Province, in an area which would later become part of North Korea after the division of the peninsula.[2] Kim's early life coincided with the end of Japanese rule in Korea and World War II. During World War II, Korea was forced to support Japan's military, and 200,000 Korean and Chinese women and girls were forced into sexual slavery and labeled as "comfort women." The history of Korea during this era has been a frequent subject of Kim's work.[1][4][5]

At age 7, in 1945, Kim and her family moved across the 38th parallel on foot into South Korea.[2] Her family was deeply committed to the Korean independence movement and to Christianity.[2]

Education

Dai Sil attended the Ewha Girls' High School in Seoul.[2] She went on to obtain her master's degree in Theological Studies from the Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul in 1960.[2] In 1962 Kim moved to Boston, Massachusetts to attend Boston University, where she obtained her PhD in Religious Studies.[2] She published her PhD dissertation in 1969, titled "The Doctrine of Man in Irenaeus of Lyon." [2]

Career

After graduating from Boston University, Kim taught Religion at Mount Holyoke College from 1969 to 1978.[2][6]

In 1978, Kim began work at the National Endowment for the Humanities working on media programming grants. While working at NEH Kim met and worked with Don Gibson, whom she later married.[2]

From 1986 to 1988 Kim-Gibson worked as the Director of Media Programs for the New York State Council on the Arts. She left NYSCA in 1988 to begin freelance work as a filmmaker and author.[2]

The first film Kim-Gibson was involved in was released in 1991. America Becoming was sponsored by the Ford Foundation and directed by Charles Burnett. Kim-Gibson co-wrote the film with Burnett. The film considered growing diversity in America through the stories of newcomers and established residents in six American cities.[7]

In 1993, Kim-Gibson and two other Korean-American women, Christine Choy and Elaine Kim, released the documentary film Sa-I-Gu. Sa-i-gu is Korean for April 29, the date the Rodney King riot began in Los Angeles in 1992. Sa-I-Gu uses newsreel footage and interviews with Korean-American shopkeepers to tell the story of the King riots from their unique perspective.[8] The film was aired by PBS as part of its independent film series POV (TV series) on September 10, 1993.[8] Her 2004 film Wet Sand: Voices from LA (2004) also deals with the aftermath of the Rodney King riots.

Kim-Gibson's third film was released in 1995, titled A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans. A Forgotten People tells the story of 43,000 Koreans who were brought by the Japanese to Sakhalin Island during World War II for forced labor.[4]

In 1999 Kim-Gibson released a book about the history of Korean comfort women during WWII and how the women's lives were impacted. In the year 2000 Kim-Gibson's film Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women was released.[1]

In 2014 Kim-Gibson's most personal film People Are The Sky was released. Kim-Gibson returned to North Korea for the first time in almost 70 years for the film, exploring the social history of North and South Korea through her own story. The film uses "interviews, epic images, and graceful musings" to provide history and explore if North Korea is "still home."[9]

Film Festivals

In 2011 the fifth-annual Korean American Film Festival honored Kim-Gibson in Manhattan with a six-film retrospective and discussions led by her long-time collaborator, Charles Burnett.[10][11]

The United States' longest-running Asian film festival, the Asian American International Film Festival presented Kim-Gibson's latest film People are the Sky in 2016.[12]

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival honored Kim-Gibson with the Artist Spotlight award in 2016 for People are the Sky. [13]

Book
  • Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women (Mid-Prairie Books, 1999)[1]

Filmography
  • America Becoming (Writer, 1991)[14]
  • Sa-I-Gu (Co-director, producer, 1993)[15][16]
  • A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans (Director, producer, 1995)[17]
  • Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women (Director, producer, writer, 2000)[1][18]
  • Wet Sand: Voices from LA (Director, producer, 2003)[19][20]
  • Motherland: Cuba Korea USA (Director, producer, 2006)[21]
  • People are the Sky (Director, producer, star, 2014)[22]

Personal life

While working at NEH Kim met Donald Gibson. The two were wed on October 1, 1979.[2] Don Gibson died in 2009.[6]

In 2013, Don Gibson's posthumous memoir Iowa Sky was published by Shoulder Friends Press. The book was compiled and annotated by Dae Sil and described their partnership as soulmates.[23]

"Shoulder friends" was a term Dai Sil and Don used to describe their close relationship. The term is a direct translation from the Korean word ‘eogaedongmu,' meaning friends who can put their arms around each other's shoulder.[2]

Kim-Gibson resides in New York City.[24]

References
  1. "Silence Broken:Korea Comfort Women, reviewed by Howard". koreanstudies.com. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
  2. "Dae Sil Kim-Gibson: Documenting Life in Diaspora | Boston Korean Diaspora Project". sites.bu.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  3. Gateward, Frances (2003). "Breaking the Silences: An Interview with Dai Sil Kim-Gibson". Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 20: 99–110 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  4. "A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans". CAAM Home. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  5. Kim-Gibson, Dai Sil (2000). Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women. Parkersburg, Iowa: Mid-Prairie Books. ISBN 978-0931209888.
  6. "About". Shoulder Friends. 2011-12-06. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  7. "HRWIFF: Film Archive - America Becoming". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  8. POV. "Sa-I-Gu | POV | PBS". POV | American Documentary Inc. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  9. PEOPLE ARE THE SKY: A JOURNEY TO NORTH KOREA WITH DAI SIL KIM-GIBSON (FREE), retrieved 2018-10-19
  10. Indiewire Staff (2011-02-25). "Korean American Film Festival Unveils Fifth Anniversary Lineup". IndieWire. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  11. "Fifth Korean American Film Festival to honour Kim-Gibson". Screen. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  12. "Asian American Film Festival is coming to Queens venues next week - QNS.com". QNS.com. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  13. "A Programmer's Guide to 5 Must-See Films at #LAAPFF2016". www.yomyomf.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  14. "HRWIFF: Film Archive - America Becoming". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  15. Kim, Ju Yon; Kim-Gibson, Dai Sil (2014). "Remembering SA-I-GU". Transition (113): 144–152. doi:10.2979/transition.113.144.
  16. "ExEAS - Asian American Filmography". www.exeas.org. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  17. Epstein, Stephen J. (1998). "Review of A Forgotten People: The Sakhalin Koreans". Western Folklore. 57 (1): 77–79. doi:10.2307/1500256. JSTOR 1500256.
  18. Harvey, Dennis (1999-04-05). "Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women". Variety. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  19. Wet Sand: Voices from L.A., retrieved 2018-10-24
  20. Kim, P.J. (2005-01-01). "Wet sand to douse the fire next time: an interview with Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, documentary filmmaker". Asian American Policy Review. 14.
  21. Falato, Brian (3 September 2008). "Motherland: Cuba, Korea, USA - Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO)". libweb.lib.buffalo.edu. Archived from the original on 18 June 2009. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
  22. Oppenheim, Robert (March 2018). "PEOPLE ARE THE SKY | By Dai Sil Kim-Gibson | Pacific Affairs". The University of British Columbia | Pacific Affairs. 91: 219–221. ISSN 1715-3379.
  23. Gibson, Donald; Kim-Gibson, Dai Sil (2013). Iowa Sky: A Memoir. Shoulder Friends Press. ISBN 9780692019047.
  24. PARK, JI HYUN. "Korean-American Film Festival New York showcases Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, Maria Yoon, Iris Shim - NY Daily News". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
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