"Enter Pyongyang" An amazing look at the everyday people of North Korea

[Katashi_itto]

http://vimeo.com/102051605
“Enter Pyongyang” is another stunning collaboration between city-­branding pioneer JT Singh and flow-motion videographer Rob Whitworth. Blending time-lapse photography, acceleration and slow motion, HD and digital animation, they have produced a cutting‐edge panorama of a city hardly known, but one emerging on the visitor’s landscape as North Korea’s opening unfolds.
North Korea was the last country seemingly immune to change—but no longer. Recent years have witnessed mobile phone penetration, a surge in tourists, and even a marathon. Numerous special economic zones have been launched in cooperation with China, Russia, and South Korea, with railways planned linking all countries in the region. “Enter Pyongyang” captures not just the city, but this dynamism and sense of potential.
This video is the single most significant multi-­media contribution to transcending clichés about North Korea as a society defined by reclusiveness and destitution. To travel there is to witness a proud civilization, though one caught in a Cold War time-warp. Korean cultural traditions are meticulously preserved and displayed in authentic richness. Anyone who has witnessed the awe-inspiring Mass Games knows that, with great sacrifice, North Koreans can pull off a performance unparalleled in its precision.
“Enter Pyongyang” captures the reality of North Korean citizens as earnest and humane, not automatons. The infamous traffic ladies and subway guards stand stiff and sentinel—but today they share a smile too. The more North Koreans one meets, the more one sees an organic society that wants to be a normal country. If you travel there not to judge but to appreciate, you will come away with a better understanding of how challenging national transformation can be.
"Enter Pyongyang" is above all an invitation to explore. Few places in the world have been as hermetically sealed as North Korea, but Koryo Tours has made it possible not just to see North Korea but to engage with it in ways that were impossible until very recently. This is a window of opportunity not to be missed. If Pyongyang is no longer off limits, no place is.
--Foreword by Dr. Parag Khanna, Director, Hybrid Reality
Koryo Group: The Koryo team brought a wealth of valuable knowledge and expertise to this project. Thanks to their extensive experience in running tourism and cultural engagement projects in North Korea since 1993, we were able to get unprecedented access in Pyongyang. We are thankful to the Koryo team and their Korean partners for an unforgettable experience.
FAQs
-How were you guys allowed to film in Pyongyang?
This project was produced in conjunction with Koryo Tours, the leading North Korea travel specialist. Co-producer Vicky Mohieddeen of Koryo Tours was with us throughout the shoot.
-Were there restrictions on what was allowed to be filmed?
We were closely assisted by two guides from the National Tourism Administration, who helped us gain special access to locations and made sure that we followed all the rules. As is standard for all foreign visitors to the country, we were not allowed to shoot any construction sites, undeveloped locations or military personnel. Other than that we were given relatively free reign.
-Isn’t this all fake? You don’t see the real North Korea.
The average visitor to Pyongyang is likely to be surprised by the scenes they encounter and are especially surprised about how clean and orderly the city actually is. Indeed, people living in Pyongyang and other major cities enjoy a higher quality of life than those in other parts of the county.
-Are people allowed to travel to North Korea?
Yes, despite what the majority of people think, it is possible to visit North Korea as a tourist. North Korea does not release official data on the number of Western tourists it receives, but estimates range from 4,000 to 6,000 per year. Most of the foreign tourists are from Mainland China, estimated in the tens of thousands annually.
-Were you paid to make this film?
We volunteered for this project with no pay at all. All other travel expenses for the 6 day trip were covered by Koryo Tours.
-Does this film support the DPRK government?
"Enter Pyongyang" is an observational film. At no point did Koryo Tours or we have to pretend to be supporters of the DPRK Government or their philosophy in order to be granted permission to shoot this film. Amazingly, we were given complete editorial control in the making of this piece.

[Drunken Irishman]

1. No. This is an everyday look at people who live in Pyongyang.

Go outside Pyongyang and I doubt you'd see anything resembling this.

[edgineered]

2. Are you suggesting that it may look more like

Ferguson Missouri?

[Drunken Irishman]

3. No. I'm suggesting much worse.

Or are you suggesting the quality of life in America and North Korea are exactly equal?

[edgineered]

4. I am suggesting that

some people are quick to use comparison. I am stating that the quality of life for the people not only in Ferguson, but in entire neighborhoods just like Ferguson, and not limited only to US cities, but in far too many areas of the world where we have no business dictating policy is horrendous. I am saying that we set a poor example of how things should be in the world when so much of our populous harbors hatred and oppression.

[Drunken Irishman]

5. The thing is, the worst of America is still better than 99.9% of North Korea...

You don't have to trivialize the plight of the North Koreans to make a point about life in the U.S.. Really, there is no perfect place and every country deals with homeless and violence. But North Korea is an isolated, brutal government that has death camps for anyone who speaks out against the government.

We may have issues in America, a diverse, and very open country, but really, to glamorize North Korea as anything other than dire does a disservice to their problems.

[edgineered]

6. Glamorize?

Let me try to glamorize something that I see and hear too much of. One of those is he whose greatest ambition is to become a hero right here and now and here on US soil, chomping at the bit for the chance to die defending his homeland here at home. Waiting for the day that the evil foreigners come goose stepping up to his fortified bunker. His moment of glory only one invasion away.

Normally hearing someone using the word but lets me know its time to give up; like the time I told my friend he had a flat tire. He said, "Yeah but its not my car". Was it foolish of me to think the tire was flat, or should I have pressed the issue?

[Drunken Irishman]

7. The video pretty much glamorizes life in North Korea...

"Hey, look, it's not different than the United States!"

Easy way for us to bury our heads in the sand to their struggle. It's exactly what the Dear Leader would want us to believe. NK is a festering hole of human rights violations.

[Katashi_itto]

8. So like Ferguson, MO

FAA restricts airspace over Ferguson, MO.
http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/26262353/faa-restricts-airspace-over-ferguson-mo
Locks media out.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/12/watch-cops-aim-weapon-at-local-official-lock-media-out-as-ferguson-protests-continue/

[Katashi_itto]

9. So you've been outside Pyongyang? Damn I didn't realize it was so accessible. I will have to make

time to go when I am visiting Japan next year.

Thanks!

FOUND OUT THERE IS TOURISM TO NORTH KOREA:
North Korea hopes surf tour leads to tourism boom
http://www.channel4.com/news/north-korea-surf-tour-tourism-boom