Comfort(2020)

The Women Outside(en)

They're called bar women, hostesses, or sex workers and "western princesses." They come from poor families, struggling to earn a decent wage, only to be forced into the world's oldest profession. They're the women who work in the camptowns that surround U.S. military bases in South Korea. In 40 years, over a million women have worked in Korea's military sex industry, but their existence has never been officially acknowledged by either government. In The Women Outside, a film by J.T. Orinne Takagi and Hye Jung Park, some of these women bravely speak out about their lives for the first time. The film raises provocative questions about military policy, economic survival, and the role of women in global geopolitics

Graeae: A Stationed Idea(ko)

My Own Breathing(ko)

"My Own Breathing" is the final documentary of the trilogy, The Murmuring about comfort women during the World War II directed by BYUN Young-joo. This is the completion of her seven years work. BYUN's first and second documentaries spoke of grandmothers' everyday life through the origin of their torment, while My Own Breathing goes back to their past from their everyday life. Deleting any device of narration or music, the camera lets grandmothers talk about themselves. Finally, the film revives their deep voices trampled by harsh history.

The Silence(ja)

The Silence narrates the struggle of fifteen "comfort women"—former sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII—for recognition and reparation. The "comfort women" issue has previously been treated almost exclusively within the framework of Korean nationalism. The Silence will provide insight into the ways in which nationalism and the emergence of post-war Asian nation-states have hindered the understanding of "comfort women" narratives through Zainichi Korean documentary filmmaker Soo-nam Park's point of view.

Agents Unknown(en)

Vietnam 1967: Military intelligence has collapsed, Viet Cong have infiltrated the clandestine American spy network, and the U.S. can't rely on the South Vietnamese. John Murphy, then an elite adviser, analyst, and operative for the Army, CIA, and South Vietnamese intelligence services, reveals the gray areas of critical, on-the-ground intelligence work, where trust is hard-won and easily lost.

Coming Out Under Fire(en)

A historical account of military policy regarding homosexuality during World War II. The documentary includes interviews with several homosexual WWII veterans.

Red Maria 2(ko)

Korean sex worker Yonhee goes to Japan to build solidarity with her counterparts there. YAMASITA Youngae heads for Kyoto to give a lecture on how former prostitute-turned-comfort women were left out of the movement to achieve justice for comfort women. Korean professor PARK Yu-ha is sued by former comfort women because of her book Comfort Women of the Empire. Reportage writer KAWADA Fumiko Tells the story of BAE Bonki, a Korean who worked as a comfort woman in Okinawa. Shuttling between the issue of sex workers who refuse to be pictured as victims and the issue of comfort women who couldn’t even be acknowledged as victims, the film reveals stories that had disappeared from official memory.

Army Champions(en)

This Pete Smith Specialty short focuses on the young men who have signed up for the U.S. Army. The film uses the analogy of the speed, accuracy, and teamwork of sports and how these qualities are translated into the weapons training of American soldiers. We watch target practice by Army personnel with shoulder weapons, mortars, and various artillery pieces.

The Murmuring(ko)

Every Wednesday at noon, women who were kidnapped for sexual purpose by the Japanese army during its imperialism and their supporters demonstrate against Japanese government to request official apology and indemnity for their crimes. This documentary portrays sexually abused old women's suppressed story of overcoming of their shame and forced silence.

Operation Market Garden: Nijmegen(en)

Following on from the story of Hell's Highway, the series reaches the battle to seize the great Bridges over two of Europe's largest water ways; the Maas and the Waal at Nijmegen. Here the 82nd US airborne were, as elsewhere, denied coup de main attacks to seize the bridges by the air commanders. While the Grave Bridge was captured, confusion in US orders meant that the barely defended bridge in Nijmegen was only attacked when the Germans had taken the opportunity to reinforce the garrison. The resulting battle to regain control of the situation is an epic of Anglo-American military history. This programme tells the story of the amazing courage of the American and British soldiers who won this battle against desperate odds.

A Long Way Around(ko)

Life story of sexually harassed women by Japanese army, so called "comfort women" and the reflected story of Grandma, Ok-seon Lee in that period of time

Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue(en)

A Japanese-American director digs deep into the controversial 'comfort women' issue to settle the debate on whether the women were paid prostitutes or sex slaves, and reveals the motivations and intentions of the main actors pushing to revise history in Japan.

My name is KIM Bok-dong(ko)

In 1992, KIM Bok-dong, reported herself as a victim of the sexual slavery, "comfort women" during World War Ⅱ. She wanted to receive the proper apology from the Japan government but they denied its responsibility. In 2011, commemorating the 1000th Wednesday demonstration, Statue of Peace was installed in front of the Embassy of Japan. The fight over Japan confronts a new stage.

The Tillman Story(en)

Pat Tillman never thought of himself as a hero. His choice to leave a multimillion-dollar football contract and join the military wasn't done for any reason other than he felt it was the right thing to do. The fact that the military manipulated his tragic death in the line of duty into a propaganda tool is unfathomable and thoroughly explored in Amir Bar-Lev's riveting and enraging documentary.

The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan(en)

Private McKinley Nolan vanished 40 years ago in Vietnam on the Cambodian frontier. Some say he was captured, some say he was a traitor, some even say he was an American operative. The US Army officially claims he was radicalized and went native, joining the Viet Cong and later encountering the Khmer Rouge. In 2006, retired US Army Lt. Dan Smith, revisiting the battlefields of his youth, may have encountered the elusive McKinley, alive. So began a journey into the heart of darkness.

OK, Joe !(fr)

In autumn 1944, during the Liberation of Brittany, writer Louis Guilloux worked as an interpreter for the American army. He was a privileged witness to some little-known dramatic aspects of the Liberation: the rapes and murders committed by GIs on French civilians. He also discovered the racism of American military justice. This experience haunted the novelist for thirty years. In 1976, he recounted it in a short novel, "Ok, Joe", which went unnoticed. This film compares his account with the memories of the last witnesses to these forgotten crimes and their punishments.

The American War(en)

Using obscure archival footage, animated illustrations and interviews, this film tells the story of the Vietnam War from the perspective of five Vietcong veterans: a soldier, an officer, an informant, a guerilla, a My Lai survivor, and the leader of the Long Hair army.

Song of Arirang - Voices from Okinawa(ja)

In the final hours of the Pacific War, Okinawa was the destination for Korean men conscripted as “military laborers” and Korean women taken as “comfort women.” Little is known about the number of casualties or their experiences. In 1989, Park Soonam started to track down the survivors of the Battle of Okinawa to record their testimonies. In 1990, Park visits Korea in search of former “military laborers” who had survived Okinawa and repatriated to Korea. The survivors vividly recount their experiences of their compatriots’ murder and about the “comfort women” to the Zainichi Korean female director. The film zeroes in on the murder of Korean “military laborers” and the presence of “comfort women” in Okinawa via testimonies of former Japanese soldiers.

KOKO SunYi(ko)

Okinawan Harumoni - Testimony: Military Comfort Women(en)

Bae Ponggi, a Korean woman who became a comfort woman for the former Japanese military in 1944, testifies for the first time in Okinawa in 1975, after Okinawa was returned to the mainland. In the "red-tiled house" on Tokashiki Island, Okinawa, which was turned into a comfort station, she talks about her life and relationships, her situation after being left behind on the Korean Peninsula and unable to return to it after the war, and what happened afterwards.