A State of Mind

A State of Mind (2005)

Two young North Korean gymnasts prepare for an unprecedented competition in this documentary that offers a rare look into the communist society and the daily lives of North Korean families. For more than eight months, film crews follow 13-year-old Pak Hyon Sun and 11-year-old Kim Song Yun and their families as the girls train for the Mass Games, a spectacular nationalist celebration.

Date of release
2005-08-10
TMDB
7.8 / 10 (25)
Runtime
1h 33m
Genres
Documentary, Music
Director
Daniel Gordon

Casting

Interesting facts

A State of Mind is a 2004 documentary film directed by Daniel Gordon, who is known for his documentaries on sports and North Korea. 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.

Production

Daniel Gordon received US$600,000 from the BBC and WNET to produce the film. He and his team initially intended to have the documentary feature on one gymnast and one backdrop creator. They requested to meet with the mass games' best gymnast, and in September 2002 they met Pak Hyon Sun and her family. After speaking with Pak, they met with her friend, fellow gymnast Kim Song Yon.

Gordon and his team were accompanied by guides and translators during the production of the film. According to Gordon, they "neither interfered nor sought to censor the material".

The film did not have any input from North Korean authorities during the editing process, and their footage was not screened prior to leaving the country.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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