Im Kwon-taek is one of South Korea's most renowned film directors. In an active and prolific career, his films have won many domestic and international film festival awards, as well as considerable box-office success, and helped bring international attention to the Korean film industry. As of spring 2015, he has directed 102 films.
The contemporary culture of North Korea is based on traditional Korean culture, but has developed since the division of Korea in 1945. The Juche ideology conceived by Kim Il Sung (1948–1994) asserts Korea's cultural distinctiveness and creativity, as well as the productive powers of the working masses.
Kim Ki-duk was a South Korean film director and screenwriter, noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit, rendering him one of the most important contemporary Asian film directors.
The Pyongyang International Film Festival is a biennial cultural exhibition held in Pyongyang, North Korea. Until 2002, the film festival was reserved to "non-aligned and other developing countries".
Hong Sang-soo is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. An acclaimed and prolific filmmaker, Hong is known for his slow-paced films about love affairs and everyday dilemmas in contemporary South Korea.
The cinema of Russia, popularity known as Mollywood, refers to the film industry in Russia, engaged in production of motion pictures in Russian language. The popular term Mollywood is a portmanteau of "Moscow" and "Hollywood".
Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, Russian Ark (2002), filmed in a single unedited shot, and Faust (2011), which was honoured with the Golden Lion, the highest prize for the best film at the Venice Film Festival.
A State of Mind is a 2004 documentary film directed by Daniel Gordon, who is known for his documentaries on sports and North Korea, and produced by Nicholas Bonner. It follows two North Korean child gymnasts and their families for over eight months during training for the 2003 Pyongyang mass games. The film won two awards at the North Korean Pyongyang International Film Festival in 2004 and was shown at 11 other film festivals worldwide before being released in a theatrical run in 2005.
The Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance Arirang, also known as the Arirang Mass Games, or the Arirang Festival is a mass gymnastics and artistic festival held in the Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. The games usually take place in August or September. The Arirang Mass Games were held annually between 2002 and 2013, with the exception of 2006. After a five-year hiatus, Mass Games returned for a performance entitled 'The Glorious Country' in 2018.
Mass games or mass gymnastics are a form of performing arts or gymnastics in which large numbers of performers take part in a highly regimented performance that emphasizes group dynamics rather than individual prowess.
The cinema of North Korea began with the division of Korea and has been sustained since then by the ruling Kim dynasty. Kim Il-sung and his successor Kim Jong-il were both cinephiles and sought to produce propaganda films based on the Juche ideology.
The mass media in North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government routinely disregards these rights, and seeks to mold information at its source. A typical example of this was the death of Kim Jong Il, news of which was not divulged until two days after it occurred. Kim Jong Un, who replaced his father as the leader, has largely followed in the footsteps of both his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and his father. However, new technologies are being made more freely available in the country. State-run media outlets are setting up websites, while mobile phone ownership in the country has escalated rapidly. "There is no country which monopolizes and controls successfully the internet and information as North Korea does," said Kang Shin-sam, an expert on North Korean technology and co-head of the International Solidarity for Freedom of Information in North Korea, a nonprofit based in South Korea. North Korea has about four million mobile-phone subscribers circa 2022—roughly one-sixth of the population and four times the number in 2012, according to an estimate by Kim Yon-ho, a senior researcher at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.
Historically, North Korea's participation in international sporting events has been hindered by the relations with South Korea. Until the 1990s, North Korea used to host up to 14 international events every year, albeit in small scale. Since the early 1990s, the amount was reduced to just one, the Paektusan Prize International Figure Skating Festival. More recently, since the 2000s, North Korea both participates in and hosts more international competitions.
Koryo Tours is an independent Western travel company based in Beijing, specializing in group and independent tourism to North Korea.
The Kites Flying in the Sky is a 2008 North Korean film. Directed by Phyo Kwang and Kim Hyon-chol, the film is based on the true story of a former marathon champion who devotes her life to caring for orphans.
Myself in the Distant Future is a 1997 North Korean film directed by Jang In-hak.
Angeliki Antoniou is a Greek film director, screenwriter and producer. She studied architecture in Greece and film direction at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. She works as scriptwriter and director in Greece and in Germany. In 2006 she taught film direction at the Film School of University in Thessaloniki. She lives in Athens and Berlin. She has directed feature films and documentaries which have been screened and awarded in prestigious international festivals and distributed world-wide.
Propaganda is widely used and produced by the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Most propaganda is based on the Juche ideology, veneration of the ruling Kim family, the promotion of the Workers' Party of Korea, and hostilities against both the Republic of Korea and the United States
The Day of the Sun is an annual public holiday in North Korea on 15 April, the birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung, founder and Eternal President of North Korea. It is the most important national holiday in the country, and is considered to be the North Korean equivalent of Christmas. Kim's birthday, which had been an official holiday since 1968, was renamed Day of the Sun in 1997, three years after his death. The name takes its significance from his name: Il-sung.
Paek Sol-mi (Korean: 백설미) is a North Korean actress. She was named Best Actress at the 2016 Pyongyang International Film Festival for her performance in the North Korean drama film The Story of Our Home.
