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A State of Mind February 19, 2006 |
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One of the best documentaries I’ve seen on DVD in a long time has been “A State of Mind”, recently released by Kino, a British production by Daniel Gordon about North Korea and their ridiculously produced Mass Games, an bi-annual extravaganza put on by the masses to celebrate the country’s independence, and the Great Leader’s awesome power. Given unprecedented access into Pyongyang and the surrounding areas by the state run film board to follow the daily lives and training of two handpicked gymnasts preparing over a six month span for the celebration, Gordon and his crew (a soundman and a cameraman) document a country they describe as the least understood, and least known about on the planet. What they find is a poor country that has been cut off from the rest of the free world (save for communist China) because of its political socialist ideas, but a country with people, albeit with different beliefs, who are very much like you and me. They get up early for school, listen to the radio (state run propaganda is still radio), watch television (ditto the propaganda thing), prepare mightily for their celebrations (held usually on the birthday of Kim Jong Ill, or on the anniversary of the victorious Korean war), gather for family dinners and country vacations, and hold pride in their country’s history and political figures, though to be fair, in North Korea the later isn’t an option like it is in the United States, it’s a must. The cameras capture the young gymnasts, 11 and 13, preparing for the games with ungodly determination, hoping desperately for the chance to perform in front of the great general, Kim Jong Ill, in the Mass Games, a spectacle that incorporates highly choreographed colors and masses of synchronized performers to not only celebrate the glories of the country’s illustrious independence, but to symbolize the very fabric of communism, that there is no one, but a collective whole made up of millions of individuals all working for the same goal: The State, and it’s greater well being. What comes off is something scary and beautiful, a kind of Olympic ceremony where every individual - color coordinated so, from a wide shot, the colors will represent an image (often propagandistic and wonderfully imaginative) – works in unison with his fellow performer to create an orgy of colors and images unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The preparation is absolutely grueling – the girls practice their limber balletics on outdoor concrete platforms – and the payoff, despite the “Great General’s” absence at all 40 performances, is uncanny, as the cameras (all British, with no state implied restrictions, miraculously), capturing the grand joys of countless hours of perfected study and preparation. You may think a film produced by an Ally about a country as supposedly evil as North Korea would be political, but “A State of Mind” is surprisingly neutral, presenting Pyongyang as a normal metropolis, one that just happens to run under a dictatorship, incorporate very few modern inventions we’ve come to know as essential, and one that seemingly brainwashes it’s citizens into believing the Americans to be the lowest form of scum; imperialist pigs who wouldn’t think twice about stealing their glorious freedom, and destroying their godlike leader. The west bashing propaganda isn’t demonized, yet showcased as matter of fact (in one scene, during a nightly power-saving blackout, the grandmother of one of the girls is overheard blaming all of their problems on America, a baseless accusation obviously drilled in from years and years of upper level goading), and the people - the citizens, not Kim Jong Ill and his gaggle of uniformed cronies - come off less as the inhabitants of an “Axis of Evil” and more as a proud people who fought for their independence, and struggle every day to keep from losing it. North Korea may be a strange place from a western standpoint, but Gordon’s cameras capture a vibrant society, and a truly gorgeous landscape, the breadth of which is glorified when the girls take a 40-hour train ride to Mt. Paektu, a sacred mountain landmark that is considered by the faithful to be the birthplace of the great leader, and is a destination for every N. Korean to make at least once in his or her lifetime. With scenery as breathtaking as Mt. Paektu, spectacles as awe inspiring as the Mass Games, and citizens as seemingly normal as you and me, “A State of Mind” shows us a North Korea we may not know, but one we can certainly try to understand, on a human level, all politics aside. by Adam Suraf
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