ART CREATES CHANGE – FILM SCREENING FOR CROSSINGS

OCAD University’s Faculty of Art, in partnership with the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, presents The Kym Pruesse Speaker Series:

Featuring: Deann Borshay Liem

I attended Liem’s film, CROSSINGS, which is a documentary which follows a group of women peacemakers who take off on a journey through the demilitarized safety zone between North and South Korea. In it, these women call for an end to a 70-year war which divided the Korean peninsula and its people. This film raises awareness of political issues in Korea. Before watching this film, I was trying to be aware of the political issues in Korea. 

Crossings is a social movement film that documents women activists fighting for peace as they try to cross the third parallel, the border dividing North and South Korea. In a dynamic conversation, a demonstration of collective action, the film follows women as they navigate racial and national politics—declared in the Korean War. This film sets the stage in Hanoi for talks between the leaders of North Korea and the United States. 

The film made me anxious about a possible violent confrontation between the women peacemakers and the political factions in North Korea. The film’s emotions made me reach out to Christine Ahm, the executive director of Women Cross DMZ, a collective for Asian-identifying students and their supporters. 

Crossings is a documentary about the Asian diaspora, which has been going on for many years. This film played a critical role in helping viewers understand social changes in Korea.  This film considers voice representation and what it means to be a socially engaged artist by learning the power of organizing and gathering through work with student groups and the collective. 

This collective Women Cross DMZ aims to connect friends and co-creators through art activism and to talk about social issues, identity, and culture. I met the women in the collective for the screening. I found their political values were the same as mine in many respects – freedom of speech, family, and political association. In many ways, our identities inform every decision we make as creators. Engaging with the collective has shown me what it looks like to take personal experiences and values which guide and inform creative work.