If you haven't already seen this movie I would highly encourage you to watch, "A State Of Mind." Two British documentary movie makers had a chance to follow the lives of two North Korean young girl gymnasts who are preparing for the Mass Games, a colorful mix of athleticism, gymnastics, dance, song, and military power held by North Korea and broadcasted to the world as a symbol of it's pride, loyalism to their leader, and virility to the world. The event lasts about 7-10 days and is held every 2-3 years.
What you will see will shock you. It's really weird for us to see these people blame their problems on the "evil Americans." At the same time you can see the innocence of the young girls who want to make their family, teachers, and leader proud of them. What we call propaganda and lies are taught to them as real history and facts to live by. There's no two sides of the story. In that country, you are feed what you need to hear. Questioning it will get you in trouble. One of the oddest things they require for all citizens to do is to apply for a travel visa within its own country. This means North Koreans are banned from visiting parts of their own country. That's something that I can't even fathom in the US at all. Watching this movie makes me wonder how an entire nation can allow for this kind of heavy restriction to continue but then there are many people, including young children, who have bought into it as their way of life. There's still a lot of innocence there...especially in the eyes of the gymnasts. I wonder if they would ever be told another side of the story. The biggest question is if they were told the other side of the story would they be able to handle it? It's hard to say.
Maybe this is a bit weird to admit on a blog but I've always had a major interest in reading and watching movies and the news about North Korea and how it's so different from the US. I think a lot of it has to do with my parents and what they have shared and taught my sister and me. My parents left Vietnam due to the rise of communism and wide-spread propaganda. When my husband and I went to Vietnam for our honeymoon you can see two sides of Vietnam: The propaganda side, and the vibrant economic expansion side. In a conversation with my dad last week he said he'd never go back to Vietnam again. I didn't press for why. In his eyes I knew there was pain and personal anger that should not be relived.
All of this news is a somber reminder that I am really blessed with the opportunity to be ale to see both sides of the story and be able to choose what I want to learn and believe in. It was not something my parents got to experience growing up, and it's no available to the people of North Korea either. Although our country has our own problems with distribution of wealth. uncontrolled government spending, under-funded public education, etc. we still have a voice and an opportunity to try to find facts on our own. And with these extra opportunities we can control and change our own "state of mind."
If you've watched the movie let me know what you think it! It's a beautifully well-made documentary and well worth the time spent in watching it.
