Tour of Duty

There remains only silence in a US military camp town in the northern part of Gyeonggi province which will be pulled down any time soon.

In the town, three women are still living with pains engraved in their bodies. Aunt Bobby who used to make burgers in Seonyu-ri for 30 years; Ms. Insoon Park who used to collect scraps and draw paintings on them in the abandoned narrow alleys of Bbat-bul, Uijeongbu; and Ms. Sungja Ahn who is half-Korean and half-African American. Following the pieces of their memories, the film travels into the forgotten town to reveal the truth left behind.

This documentary by Kim Dong-ryung and Park Kyoung-tae chronicles the lives of three women impacted by the US military presence in South Korea. The Seonyu-ri red light district located at the Paju U.S. military camp town became a well-known site after the Korean War. Now awaiting its fate to be demolished, this film sets out on a trip through time and space in this place where certain memories and people have long departed and others still linger.

In Korean with English subtitles.

Film website: www.dmzdocs.com/eng/addon/00000002/history_film_view.asp?m_idx=101967&QueryYear=2011

Part of the series Power of Seeing 보는 이의 권력 hosted by the East Asia Program at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.