Juche Strong
SCREENING
October 26, 2013
6:00 PM / TIFF Bell Lightbox
W/ Q&A with filmmaker
Canadian Premiere
Playing with “Seoul Train”
Buy Tickets
USA, North Korea
2013 / 19m
Film Website
Proudly Co-Presented with:
Scarborough Film Festival PSCORE
Most Americans are deeply misinformed about North Korea. People tend to assume the country is wildly irrational and teetering toward collapse. That’s understandable. Decades of economic mismanagement have left the general population desperately poor. And the ruling Kim Family’s militarism and nuclear brinkmanship have deeply isolated the country in the global community. Common sense says this is a formula for disaster. International observers have been predicting North Korea’s imminent economic implosion for over two decades. And yet, North Korea has survived. It’s still defying popular expectations.
How?
Juche Strong provides an answer. This film explodes the most pernicious misconceptions of North Korea and argues that the propaganda-fueled national ideology has played an integral role in keeping the country together. The Kim regime has crafted a very specific national ideology designed to tap into the unique cultural and religious heritage of the Korean people. Juche Strong delves into the specifics of that ideology and shows how it instills a collective sense of purpose.
“Juche is North Korea’s founding philosophical precept. Roughly, it translates to “self reliance” – the idea that North Koreans are free from polluting foreign influences and capable of building a prosperous nation on their own.
The film is grounded in interviews with over a dozen prominent North Korean scholars. Juche Strong also includes interviews with a North Korean defector now living in the United States. (Courtesy Official Website)