Behind the Scenes on Documentaries in North Korea with Nick Bonner

Documentaries in North Korea (& Aim High in Creation)

Q: How do you get started doing films and documentaries in North Korea? How did the unique story of Aim High in Creation come about? 

A: Well we started working with our North Korean producer Ryom which gives us pretty good access, as we see in the trilogy of A State of Mind, The Game of Their Lives, and Crossing the Line.

For example, in A State of Mind, we got access to not just the family but the family home. And meeting the American defectors! We wouldn’t get just access to Joseph Dresnock but we got access to the kids and the story just develops.

She gets you and understands exactly what we’re after. She pushes on our behalf which you know you can imagine it is very difficult in the country where you’re given officially very limited access. So she was working for us and we decided after making so many documentaries that we actually wanted to make a feature film. So, we started the idea of the story of a girl who is a coal miner and dreams of becoming a trapeze artist (Comrade Kim Goes Flying).

Aim High in Creation

This feature film started off as a short story but we started the writing and by 2012 we were in post-production. Then a director Anna contacted who wanted a film in North Korea looking at how they make propaganda Films which also sort of interested me making a film within a film and the story of gas fracking was happening in Australia.

She said she wanted to make a film about the gas fracking and how dangerous is it was and why – not slightly clear and until I wasn’t quite too sure at first but she seemed to have a genuine interest in the film industry.

Indeed, she had read Kim Jong-il’s Art of Cinema and there was a level of trust there. Anna had tried to go through North Koreans with no avail and a few different companies who’d charged her crazy amounts.

So I decided to take it on. The only way that we would need to go into North Korea to meet my colleagues to explain that they want to make a story on propaganda with the intention to make a film and understand propaganda. We had a meeting there with nationally famous directors – the North Korean directors and worked out a few things so Anna and her crew could go back in for filming. 

So it’s exhausting. But it’s really all about your contacts and you just doing an incredible job to understand that and trust and it’s a big ask of the North Koreans.

The footage we were shooting we could have written totally different story behind that that’s one of the play. And people do end up doing this. Unfortunately it does ‘ruin’ things in a way because it makes it difficult for the rest of us.

Q: Any favourite bits from this visit?

An absolute gorgeous bit was with all the North Korean directors. These were very famous people within the country, listening to Anna’s pitch and everyone was very stern and silent and Anna is explaining the concept.

She asks them ‘do you understand what climate change is’? and one of the directors asks ‘does she think we’re from the moon’?, the silence just disappeared and everyone relaxed and laughed.

The atmosphere into this for the wonderful to the lightness and what comes out of his film and she’s very good at picking up at this up is the characters and that’s why this film works so well. 

Q: Going back a bit, where did you meet this director & how do you get this access in North Korea?

A: This goes back to 1999. This is about the story of the North Korean Football team of 1966 who did the greatest shock in World Cup history by beating the Italians. It’s an amazing amazing amazing story and incredible characters and their lives.

There was no news of what happened to these famed footballers on their returned to North Korea and there were loads of rumours they’d been put into camps and whatnot having been drunk on a night in Liverpool and lost the next game to Portugal.

There was one guy that wasn’t drinking that night though and we tracked him down and asked if he wanted to be part of a movie and it all went from there. 

Q: How do you deal with sensitive issues?

A: Because of the stories about the camps and being sent to prison we had sensitive issues to discuss and we did and we dealt with it in a very dry way.

In mean, we’d ask them directly and she was happy with the film and everyone was in the end. In fact, almost every year in July when the matches takes place they then show the film on television. And suddenly these footballers who kind of disappeared started to get recognised.

There’s one story where one of the players was given a Mercedes. A policeman stopped him from driving over some discrepancy or something but he recognised him from the film and let him go. They suddenly became massive heroes again because their face is everywhere! 

Q: On the issue of filming, trust, and things being ‘hidden’ from camera, how do you deal with the inherent issue of it being North Korea and the hype around it, particularly with YouTubers and vloggers?

A: The thing is that you take an observational stance.

But if you’re going to come in with a view you know that this isn’t real and you have different intentions with your footage. Going into North Korea to make yourself famous and shooting the most closest country in the world. You will get you this but it leaves a lot of mess behind.

And also if you think you’re an expert after 1-week in North Korea like most people shooting films as a tourist then I’m not sure how much you could’ve understood.

People say that you know, you only film one side but that is the only side you get to see.

So as long as people understand that it’s fine. But it’s important to note that it is real life. Pyongyang, you know, it’s the real life of 2.5 million but we do go to the countryside and see what the countryside looks like.

You don’t get to see the areas like the camp something else like that. It’s just is not going to happen. 

Q: What about when things go wrong? Any examples in Aim High in Creation? 

A: Slightly bit of a weird one but basically the sound-man wasn’t such a… sound man… and ended up doing a runner.

Bit of an alcoholic with some issues and as we were waiting at the airport for him to board the flight to North Korea he just didn’t show.

Of course with North Korea you can’t just walk into the country. There’s the visa to apply for and everything. So in the end we got one of the North Koreans.

Q: Is it becoming easier as you go along over the 30 years?

A: Actually, access gets less and less as more and more documentaries are produced, There is less and less trust as the people abuse this kind of as people go in saying they’re going to make one thing and end up making another. And the North Koreans of course don’t like it. 

Q: What were the reactions of the North Koreans to Anna’s Aim High in Creation?

A: I would say… probably pretty similar to your reaction.

You have to watch it and you’ll understand! 

Q: North Korean film; art or propaganda?

A: You know, that’s a big question.

And whether it be art or propaganda or whatever.

They’re still working because its their job and whether it be a piece of propaganda or a piece of art they’re still going to try to do their best in it not because they’re worried something will happen to them in their job if they do it badly but because that’s their job, to do it well. 

Documentaries in North Korea;
Where to Watch?