Archive in the State of Emergency: Realizing Film Preservation in cold war South Korea

Abstract

This article examines South Korea’s formation of a film archive in the 1970s and 1980s. Founded as a governmental institution, the Korean Film Preservation Center (KFPC) was not intended to be a nationally representative archive for Korean films but rather to facilitate cultural diplomacy by becoming a member of FIAF, a global network of film archives. However, KFPC faced obstacles to joining FIAF, not only because of the regime’s myopic approach to archives, but also because of the cold war bifurcation between East and West and between developed and developing countries. In addition to the political dispute over South Korea’s FIAF membership instigated by North Korea, the process was troubled by the ‘developmental frame’ used by international organizations such as UNESCO and its links to the making of the ‘Third World’. FIAF, reflecting UNESCO’s attention to preservation in postcolonial countries, increasingly prioritized these nations’ film preservation capacity in an effort to help them catch up with the ‘advanced’ Western archives. By historicizing the developmental frame and geopolitical conflict in this example of the South Korean film archive, this essay provides one plausible vantage point from which to understand the cold war system and its impact on the local/global cultural scene.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Christopher Dupin of the FIAF and Hyeyoung Park of the Korean Film Archive for their generous help with this study. The author would also like to acknowledge two anonymous reviewers and James Chapman for helping to improve this essay.

Notes

1. Interview with Yi Hyŏngpyo on May 26, 2007 at his house in Bundang, South Korea. Yi Hyŏngpyo has spoken elsewhere of the shipment of the negative print of his film to Hong Kong; it never returned to South Korea. According to Yi, due to the lack of technology that could generate a release print in Hong Kong, Korean film companies had to sell an original negative print without any guarantee that it would be returned. This problematic system led to the permanent loss of numerous negative prints sent to foreign film markets. Korean Film Archive, Oral History Research: Yi Hyŏngpyo (Interviewer: Yi Sunjin) (Seoul: KOFA, 2009), 253.

2. Korean Film Archive, Hankukyŏngsangchalyo wŏn 40nyŏnsa [40 Years of the Korean Film Archive] (Seoul: KOFA, 2014), 39.

3. Scholars have often complained that the significant loss of film prints, scripts, and stills is the greatest source of frustration in writing Korean film history. It is hard to find historical writing that does not point to the ‘lack of historical sources’ or ‘meager archival structure’ as the primary obstacle to writing (especially pre-1945) history as rigorously as required. For a critique of this tendency and a more nuanced approach to historiography, see some of the many works by Kim Soyoung, Yi Hwajin, and Yi Sunjin.

4. For a historical overview of film preservation in Western contexts, see Roger Smither, This Film Is Dangerous (Brussels: FIAF, 2002) and Penelope Houston, Keepers of the Frame: The Film Archives (London: British Film Institute, 1994).

5. Christophe Dupin, ‘The Origins of FIAF, 1936–1938’, Journal of Film Preservation 88 (2013): 43–58. FIAF was founded in 1938 by Olwen Vaughn (British Film Institute), Henri Langlois (Cinémathèque Française), Frank Hensel (Reichsfilmarchiv), and Iris Barry (MoMA Film Library). It should be noted here that FIAF as an acronym came from the French (Fédération internationale des archives du film), reflecting the fact that the first FIAF headquarters was located in a Paris Royal office provided by the French government. The representatives of the four archives also appointed a French filmmaker, George Franju, as the Federation’s first Executive Secretary. During the first decade of the postwar era, the federation expanded by incorporating newly formed archives across the world, making a transition to ‘broader organizational objectivity’. The official history claims that its organizational mission then was to ‘bring together institutions dedicated to rescuing films both as cultural heritage and as historical documents’. It currently has more than 150 members in over 77 countries. See FIAF, 50 Years of Film Archives 1938–1988 (Brussels: FIAF, 1988).

6. For a helpful analysis of the post-1945 film preservation effort in the West, see Caroline Frick, Saving Cinema: The Politics of Preservation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 27–52.

7. ‘P’ŭlomp’ut’ŭ, p’illŭm laipŭlŏli [Prompt: Film Library]’, Donga Ilbo, August 21, 1959.

8. ‘Kim Chinkyu, mikukŭlkata [Kim Chinkyu goes to America]’, Donga Ilbo, December 16, 1963.

9. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Korean critics and filmmakers frequently used the term ‘film author’ in newspapers and magazines. The idea of film authorship not only led to a rediscovery of silent-era filmmakers such as Na Unkyu, but also profoundly changed the ways postwar filmmakers such as Yu Hyŏnmok, Shin Sangok, and Kim Kiyŏng viewed their works. While most of the films that marked important milestones in the development of Korean cinema have not survived (for instance, the first Korean silent film and the first Korean talkie film have both been lost), postwar filmmakers deemed a certain group of pre-1945 films to be ‘classic’ and imagined their works in relation to their own precedents as well as to the world’s acclaimed films. For more on Korean understandings of postwar authorship, see Steven Chung, Split Screen Korea: Shin Sang-ok and Postwar Cinema (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014), 83–127.

10. Emerging cine club and film societies allowed groups of people with an interest in watching films outside commercial theaters to come together to view films that had been lost to public view. In January 1964, a group of filmmakers, including Yu Hyŏnmok, formed a club called ‘Cine Poem’, where members and interested film fans regularly watched European and American avant-garde films. ‘Sinep’oem tonginhoe palchok [Foundation of Cine Poem]’, Donga Ilbo, January 21, 1964; ‘Chohŭnyŏnghwalŭl poyŏchucha: pullansŏŭi sinek’ŭllŏpuntong [Let’s see a more artistic film: French Cine Club Movement]’, Donga Ilbo, September 29, 1962.

11. ‘Sae Sŏlkye Yŏnghwa [New Design for Cinema]’, Donga Ilbo, January 10, 1962; ‘T’onghap ihu yŏnghwa hyŏphoe saŏpŭn yŏnghwahoekwan kŏnlip [The First Initiative is the Establishment of the Film Council Building]’, Chosun Ilbo, January 6, 1962.

12. ‘Sekyeŭi p’illŭmlaipŭlali [Film Libraries around the Globe]’, Donga Ilbo, June 28, 1961.

13. Developmentalism naturalized the needs of the developing nations that were attempting to catch up with more developed, modern, industrialized nations in the capitalist economy. It did so by inventing an underdeveloped, underproductive subject to be named, located, studied, and ultimately policed through development policy and projects; once located, these subjects could presumably benefit from development projects imparted from above by governments under the direction of international agencies. See Arturo Escobar, Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).

14. ‘Munhwakongpopu chaep’yŏn [Reforms of the Ministry]’, Seoul Sinmum, August 19, 1968.

15. ‘Pŏplyulan t’ongkwa [The Bill Passed]’, Kyunghyangsinmun, July 2, 1973.

16. ‘Munyechunghŭngsŏnŏnmun [Manifesto for the 5-Year Plan of Cultural Restoration]’, in the file of the Ministry of Culture and Public Information. Unless otherwise noted, South Korean governmental publications are located in the National Archives of Korea in Daejeon.

17. This state of emergency was called the Yusin system, meaning literally ‘revitalization’. The new system gave Park the authority to appoint one-third of the National Assembly; to appoint and dismiss all members of the Cabinet, including the prime minister; and to issue emergency decrees that immediately became law. For the broad contours of Park’s era, see Pyŏng-guk Kim and Ezra F. Vogel, eds., The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).

18. ‘Che1ch’a munyechunghŭng 5kaenyŏn kyehoeke ttalŭn yŏnghwachinhŭngsaŏp kyehoek [A 5-year Plan for Improvement of Film]’, Donga Ilbo, February 20, 1974.

19. It is worth pointing out that one of the biggest concerns for Korean film producers in the early 1970s was revenue slippage; while production costs had gone up significantly, local films were less popular at the box office than in the previous decade, leaving film producers devastated. The production cost per film varied according to the financial condition of film studios and the genre of the film, but usually did not exceed 25,000 dollars (1000 won in Korean currency) in 1974. That said, the government’s investment in blockbuster productions, which cost in total about 3 million dollars, was unprecedented in all sorts of ways. For the average production cost of feature films in the early 1970s, see ‘Sŭk’ŭlinkae chechakpi chŏlkampalam [Calls for Reducing Production Costs]’, Maeilkyŏngche, April 16, 1974.

20. ‘Saemaŭlyŏnghwa tŭng 12p’yŏn, yŏngchinkongsŏ chechakkyehoek [12 titles including New Village Movement Films, MPPC Planned to Produce]’, Maeilkyŏngche, February 12, 1974; ‘Chalananŭn sae setaeeke minchokŭi chapusimŭl simŏchul munhwachaewa yŏksasang silchonhaesstŏn yŏngungŭi chŏnkilŭl yŏnghwahwa [For the Newer Generation, Cultural Properties and Story of Historical Heroes Will Be Filmed]’, Kyunghyangsinmun, February 27, 1974.

21. MPPC, ‘Kukchep’illimpokwansoyŏnmaeng kaip [An Affiliation with FIAF]’, September 24, 1973, in the file of the MPPC.

22. Sun Tai Pak, ‘Accent on Conservation: The National Film Archive of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’, Museum International 4 (1994): 14–15.

23. CIA, ‘Kukchep’illimpokwanso yŏnmaengkaipe taehan ŭikyŏn t’ong-po [Notification of FIAF Affiliation Plan]’, November 14, 1973, in the file of the MPPC. The South Korean Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement with the proposal for a film archive might be striking to some readers, but its control over and interventions with bureaucrats were ubiquitous at that time. The Korean Central Intelligence Agency supervised both international and domestic intelligence activities and criminal investigations and possessed virtually unlimited power to arrest and detain any person on any charge during Park’s presidency.

24. ‘Kukchep’illŭmpokwansoyŏnmaengkwa kakkukŭi p’illŭm laipŭlŏli hyŏnhwang [FIAF and the Status of Other Countries’ Film Libraries]’, Wŏlkanyŏnghwa [The Monthly Cinema], September 1973, 25.

25. The MPPC’s immediate reaction to FIAF’s rules can be seen in the way it constructed the KFPC’s inaugural executive committee. Over half of the committee members were leaders of the MPPC (Director Kim Chaeyŏn and Executives Choe Hŭn, Tong Ch’an, and Chŏng Yŏnku), and they also invited filmmakers (Yu Hyŏnmok, Kim Sotong, and Chŏng Chinu) who had good relationships with the MPPC.

26. FIAF, ‘Statutes and Rules, incorporating amendments ratified by the Ottawa General Assembly in 1974’. Unless otherwise noted, FIAF materials are published and located in FIAF’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

27. Proposal submitted to the Ministry of Culture and Public Information, ‘Kukchep’illimpokwanso yŏnmaeng kaipkyehoek [A Plan for Becoming Part of FIAF]’, May 14, 1975, in the file of the MPPC. In response, the MPPC donated screening prints of twenty previously scattered old Korean features to the Library of Congress. An uncategorized memo of John Kuiper, August 26, 1974, Division files, Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (Washington: Library of Congress).

28. Bruce Cumings, ‘The Wicked Witch of the West Is Dead. Long Live the Wicked Witch of the East’, in The End of the Cold War, edited by Michael Hogan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 88–89.

29. The historian Odd Arne Westad criticizes the typical assumption that the Cold War was ‘a contrast between two superpowers over military power and strategic controls’, pointing to an equally significant yet often dismissed aspect of it: the creation of, and development in, the ‘Third World’. See Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 396. For an illuminating critique of the ways Cold War studies have insufficiently engaged with decolonization, see Heonik Kwon, The Other Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 15–36.

30. For instance, see Christian Dimitriu, ‘Eileen Bowser: A Life between Film History, MoMA and FIAF’, Journal of Film Preservation 81 (2009): 25–46. A pioneering archivist, Bowser noted that the Federation was ‘always split between the film enthusiasts and the administrators, never between East and West’.

31. As one FIAF leader recalls, FIAF’s national membership principle rested upon the UN and UNESCO model: one country, one member. See Eva Orbanz and Karl Griep, ‘Wolfgang Klaue’, Journal of Film Preservation 89 (2013): 55.

32. FIAF, ‘General Meeting Minutes’ (1966): ii.

33. An archival emphasis upon the science and technology associated with preserving films further assisted in shifting the field away from the access-centered model proffered by Henri Langlois, co-founder of FIAF and for decades its general secretary, director of the Cinémathèque Française, and a role model for many younger film archivists. Unlike Langlois, the newer generation put more emphasis on a scientific foundation for the work of film archives, bringing the importance of professional training and scientific knowledge-based functions of archivists to the fore. As Caroline Frick demonstrates, these two different models – access-centered vs. preservation-centered – brought more conflicts into the Federation, ultimately leading Langlois and the Cinémathèque Française to leave FIAF. See Frick, Saving Cinema, 108. For a more detailed account of Langlois’s departure, see Sabine Lenk and André Stufkens, ‘‘Then Began the Battle Royal’: Marion Michelle and the FIAF Crisis’, The Moving Image 1 (2013): 199–217.

34. FIAF, ‘General Meeting Minutes’ (1967): 2–3.

35. On the close relationship between FIAF and UNESCO, see Frick, Saving Cinema, 109–112.

36. UNESCO, ‘Final Report’ (1975): 5–9. Unless otherwise noted, UNESCO documents are published and stored in its archive in Paris, France.

37. FIAF, ‘General Meeting Minutes’ (1976): 12.

38. UNESCO, ‘The Recommendation for the Safeguarding and Preservation of Moving Images’ (1980): 156–157.

39. UNESCO, ‘Moving Images’ (1989): 1–2.

40. Korean Film Archive, 40 Years of the Korean Film Archive, 51.

41. FIAF, ‘General Meeting Minutes’ (1984): 30.

42. FIAF, ‘Congress Report’ (1985): 40.

43. Ibid., 41.