Beep

What would South Korea be, wonders filmmaker Kyung-man Kim in this collage of anti-communist propaganda, without the collective fear of its northern counterpart? The beeps punctuating the sections create a sense of urgency and evoke associations with censorship.

Kim demonstrates the potency of South Korea’s hate campaign through the story of Seungbok Lee as told in official propaganda films, news reports, and archive footage from the 1960s to the 1980s. This 10-year-old boy was supposedly killed in the late 1960s by North Korean soldiers because he expressed anti-communist sentiments. In a series of surreal scenes, the South Korean government seizes upon this event to unleash an unprecedented campaign that feeds glorification of this “martyr” and hatred of North Korea.

In a wave of mass hysteria, statues of the child appear, museums and scale models are erected, and schools and TV programs are dominated by the words of Seungbok Lee. A fascinating overview of the role of the media on political perceptions.