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Determined to stop a gas mine being built near her inner-city Sydney home, Anna Broinowski, in a world first, goes to North Korea to meet the masters of propaganda filmmaking, who teach her how to make a revolutionary drama in which "heroic workers" overthrow the "evil gas miners" - all executed in the Dear Leader's proudly melodramatic style. Back in Sydney, Anna's brave western cast follow the North Koreans' instructions, culminating in an uplifting, anti-capitalist drama.

With gentle humour and insight Broinowski manages to weave together an intricate tapestry

Local filmmaker Anna Broinowski is well known for her insightful and provocative documentaries. Her debut film was Hell Bento!, which explored the little known world of underground Japanese counter culture, while her best known film is Forbidden Lies, which uncovered the literary deception of Norma Khouri&#39;s fabricated biographical tale of a Muslim honour killing. Her latest film starts from a more personal perspective. When Broinowski learned that a global energy company was about to start drilling for coal seam gas in a local park in her neighbourhood, the alarm bells started ringing. The controversial practice of &quot;fracking&quot; as it is known was explored most effectively and frighteningly in Josh Fox&#39;s eyeopening documentary GasLand, which demonstrated how the process leaks dangerous chemicals into local water supplies causing massive health problems. It was also the subject of Gus Van Sant&#39;s recent drama Promised Land, starring Matt Damon and Frances McDormand. Determined to try and stop the gas mine being built, Broinowski set out to make a film aimed at convincing the locals to rally against the operation. But how best to make such a film? She didn&#39;t want to make a conventional documentary. She found inspiration in a book that a friend had given her. It was called The Cinema And Directing, and had been written by none other than Kim Jung Il, the notoriously repressive ruler of North Korea. Apparently Jung Il was a cinema buff, who had a private collection of some 20,000 Hollywood films in his private DVD library. He had also overseen the production of thousands of films between 1964 and 2012, many of which were remakes of Hollywood classics. His manifesto was the guide book by which all Korean films were made. North Korea was one of the largest makers of propaganda films in the world and has a thriving film industry. Broinowski wanted to make her film in the style of the Korean melodramas exploring the plight of the downtrodden working classes, full of action set pieces, songs, and heavy handed condemnation of the evil and corrupt capitalists. Broinowski was given permission to travel to Pyongyang and was granted unprecedented access to Korea&#39;s film industry and some of its leading film makers, including Jung Il&#39;s favourite director and even Ri Gwannam, who has been dubbed Korea&#39;s answer to Oliver Stone. But rather than the repressive regime and restrictive nature of the country, which has no internet and little access to outside sources of news and information, Broinowski found many of the people she met surprisingly open, warm and welcoming, well informed and curious. But we also see Broinowski take the lessons she learned during her time in Korea back to Sydney where she sets out to make her film in the style of those Korean propaganda films. Local actors like Peter O&#39;Brien, Susan Prior and Matt Zemeres take part in her short film. But most telling of all are those scenes in which Broinowski talks to many farmers to discover the impact that coal seam gas mining has had on their health and lifestyle. It is clear that Broinowski has an agenda to follow here, but she does so in an entertaining and informative fashion. Aim High In Creation is something of a passion project for Broinowski who spent nearly two years working on the film. With gentle humour and insight she manages to weave together an intricate tapestry that includes environmental issues, geopolitics and filmmaking theory.

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Aim High in Creation

I really liked this movie! The Australian filmmaker, Anna, goes to North Korea to learn how to make an inspirational film to protect her local park from the power company that wants to extract natural gas from underneath it. This unusual documentary definitely held my interest by showing apparently unconnected vignettes from Australia and North Korea, while outlining the rules of cinematic technique from a primer written by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. I didn&#39;t see how these things were connected, but, by the end, the melodramatic North Korean propaganda clips, the zany, half-baked actors, and the bizarre, potentially dangerous practice of fracking all coalesced into a beautiful, short film that galvanized the community and saved the park. Using the example of the much-invaded country of North Korea, the documentary gives hope to embattled people who stand together to protect their homes from invasion. Slapstick zany, deadly serious culture shock with a message.

I&#39;ve studied North Korea and found her insulting to Westerners and N. Koreans. She never gets to the heart of the truth either via her actions, words or those of her cast, none of whom seem to really know quite what is going on. The cast reminded me a little like the basketball players that blindly followed Dennis Rodman into N. Korea before it was too late to ask questionsWTF are we doing here? I found her disingenuous when she described on three levels the brilliance of N. Korean elite filmmaking. Through each point, clips of their work showed us films that had a feel of Oklahoma and Godzilla combined. She just wasn&#39;t believable and I don&#39;t think the N. Koreans were buying it either. She appreciated the strong roles women had unlike western films where women play roles only as girlfriends. Spoiler: She did put to some things to rest. Nobody is starving in N. Korea anymore and America started the Korean War.

User reviews

Aim High in Creation

With gentle humour and insight Broinowski manages to weave together an intricate tapestry

quirky, amusing, informative

Seemed disingenuous

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