A Korean friend happens to live down the hill from this impressive off-the-beaten track garden of sculptures. Located on the hill above a small town in Gimpo and in sight of North Korea, the garden’s leaflet states that the works shown here are based on the theme of reunification. I’d been here twice before seeing the leaflet, and hadn’t looked at the works through the lens of reunification. Most recently, I was here shortly before dusk on a cold December day. What few other people that were here were the typical exercising people you see on every Korean mountain. I like walking, too, and these sculptures seemed to attain such vitality, as I myself felt the vitality that comes with walking fast to stay warm. The park has at least 28 sculptures, made by sculptors across Korea, Japan, Europe, and America.
I present here a few of the works.

The day before departing Korea, a friend drove us up to the top of the Gimpo region, near the North Korean border. Along most parts of the border, the heavily fortified green space of the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, separates the North and South. In this part, soon after the merging of the Imjin and Han Rivers, and not far from the Yellow Sea, the river essentially takes over the function of the DMZ. The river is made inaccessible by a barbed fence and frequent guard towers. In the hills beyond, military transport roads can be seen.
It has been more than half a century since the Korean war divided the nation. Life goes on here near the border, and I wonder if it’s even on the mind of the people I see here, or if they’ve just gotten used to the idea that they live near a wall. Meanwhile, the birds and the bugs travel freely back and forth.

This film presents autumn scenes filmed around Seoul in November 2007, particularly on the walking trails of Namsan Mountain in central Seoul. A lot of the footage comes from the day I spent hanging around with my friend Matt – he was shooting photos, and I was doing video. It seems like I’m less shy about shooting people if I’m with someone. This video also represents my first film with the HD camera (Canon HV-120) that I bought from my friend Billy just a day or two previous. I love being productive with new technology right after I get it.
The music is an old Korean song by Kim Min-Gi called “Kaeul Pyunji” (“Autumn Letter”) (in Korean: 김민기 – 가을 편지).

Footage of Jeju Island, its waterfalls, waves, and diving woman set to the music of Jet Echo’s “Nizium.” (myspace.com/jetecho)
Most of the footage was recorded in June 2001 on a rainy day with my old Digital-8 camera. I just didn’t have any idea what to do with the footage, until I somehow thought it would go nice with this song.

This is a document of my New Year’s Eve in Seoul, 2006. One month later, I would be leaving Korea to return to Canada. The new year’s festivities took place on Jongno road in central Seoul. There were just 1000s upon 1000s of people there, and no regard for safety with firecrackers and fireworks going off in all directions. Nearby is the Cheonggyecheon stream, so early in this video, there’s some scenes from there. My friend Matt Lamers was there, and he took some photos and video, too, a few of which I included here.

Video for Jet Echo’s “Drift Speaking.” I’d had footage of them playing different venues in Seoul, and they went on a tour of Japan, China, and Korea. That inspired me to dig up some of my Japan footage, and imagine Northeast Asia at night, while Jet Echo played live somewhere.

music link: myspace.com/jetecho

I’m working on a collection of videos for MakBak, a Seoul band of 2 ex-pats (sometimes 3). I hung out with them in the studio and recorded different vignettes. This video is for the first 45 seconds of MaK Bak’s “Run/Stop/Restore.” An experiment with blue screens – or rather, blue yoga mats! Check their site at myspace.com/makbak/

This is a 10 minute documentary made on the occasion of MaK BaK’s debut CD launch party, which was also their last show. MaK BaK was a band of two Canadian ex-pats living in Seoul, Korea. The film shows footage from their various live shows in Seoul, before going into the studio with them as they record the CD. And finally the final live show.

Band page: myspace.com/makbak

Made in Seoul in 2006. Music by Jet Echo (myspace.com/jetecho). Words by Jack Quin. Video by DoAn Forest.
The audio has the sample, “The train for Bong-hwa-san is now arriving.” The word “bong” can’t really be translated into English (but of course, think BONG), and “hwa” means fire, and “san” means mountain. This video is kind of a short story, but not too easy to follow.

This video concept was born when I bought a 6-DVD of Korean pop music videos around 2001. In almost these videos, it seems that someone meets a tragic end — it could be a disease, a crash, a suicide, a gunshot wound, or just of heartbreak. Living in Korea for a long time, I find this tragic appetite of their pop culture to be almost tragicomic.
The video was cut to a song which was a collaborate between Jet Echo (myspace.com/jetecho) and MakBak (myspace.com/makbak) … two bands who lived in Seoul in the mid 2000s.