Kim Dong-won

For a director the same name, see Kim Dong-won (director, born 1962).

This is a Korean name; the family name is Kim.

Kim Dong-won
Born	(1955-02-24) February 24, 1955 Seoul, South Korea
Alma mater	Sogang University
Occupation	Documentary filmmaker
Years active	1988–present
Korean name
Hangul	김동원
Revised Romanization	Gim Dong-won
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Tong-wŏn

Kim Dong-won (born February 24, 1955) is a South Korean documentary filmmaker. Kim is best known for his documentary films Repatriation (2004) and 63 Years On (2008).

Career

Born in 1955 in Seoul, Kim Dong-won graduated from Sogang University, majoring in mass communication. He works as an assistant director as well as a documentary filmmaker. In 1991, Kim founded the documentary film collective P.U.R.N Production and has since produced and directed about thirty documentaries.

His acclaimed documentary Repatriation (2004) documents the lives of North Korean spies who were captured in the South Korea and takes a look at their journey back to their homeland after being detained in the South's prisons for over 30 years. A labour of love that took him more than a decade to finish, it has been hailed as the most successful documentary ever in South Korea. It was presented with the Freedom of Expression Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the first time a Korean film has ever been presented with an award at the prestigious U.S. festival. It also won Special Mention at the 24th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards and Special Jury Prize at the 5th Busan Film Critics Awards in 2004, as well as Best Documentary Award at the 19th Fribourg International Film Festival in 2005.

His latest documentary 63 Years On is about the comfort women enslaved by the Japanese military in stations across Asia during World War II. The film provides a historical investigation along with interviews with victims still living in Korea, China, and the Philippines. It won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2nd Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2008.

Filmography

As director

• Seoul Jesus (1986) (in directing department)
• James' May (short film, 1986)
• Sanggye-dong Olympic (documentary short, 1988) (also credited as cinematographer)
• Standing on the Edge of Death (short film, 1990)
• God Saw That It Was Good (short film, 1991)
• Haengdang-dong People (short film, 1994)
• Becoming One Is To Become Larger , We’ll Be One (short film, 1995)
• People In a Flood of Media (short film, 1995)
• The Six Day Fight in Myong Dong Cathedral (short film, 1997)
• Another World We are Making: Haengdang-dong People 2 (short film, 1999)
• A Man (short film, 2001)
• Takken Family (short film, 2001)
• Repatriation (documentary, 2004)
• If You Were Me 2 (segment: "Jongno, Winter") (2006)
• 63 Years On (documentary, 2008)

As screenwriter

• Repatriation (documentary, 2004)
• If You Were Me 2 (segment: "Jongno, Winter") (2006)

As producer

• People In a Flood of Media (short film, 1995)
• A Purple Handkerchief (short film, 1995)

As script editor

• If You Were Me 2 (segment: "Jongno, Winter") (2006)
• 63 Years On (documentary, 2008)

Awards

• 2004 5th Busan Film Critics Awards: Special Jury Prize (Repatriation)
• 2004 24th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards: Special Mention (Repatriation)
• 2014 23rd Buil Film Awards: Yu Hyun-mok Film Arts Award

External links

• Kim Dong-won at the Korean Movie Database
• Kim Dong-won at the Internet Movie Database
• Kim Dong-won at HanCinema