\n\tA new private grantmaking initiative dedicated to films about North Korea has launched out of Los Angeles, with an advisory board drawn from documentary filmmaking, journalism, and human rights advocacy.<\/p>\n
\n\tBearing North<\/a>, founded by entrepreneurs and film investors Blaine Vess<\/a> and Esther Paik Vess<\/a>, will award grants to independent filmmakers worldwide at any stage of production. The initiative covers documentary features, narrative features, and short films, with a stated preference for projects brought forward by North Korean defectors.<\/p>\n \n\tThe founders bring prior involvement in the space: Blaine Vess has served on the board of Liberty in North Korea for more than a decade, and the couple have previously supported North Korea-related documentaries including \u201cI Am Sun Mu,\u201d \u201cAssassins,\u201d and \u201cBeyond Utopia.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSome of the films that have most shaped how we understand history arrived decades after the events they depict,\u201d Blaine Vess said. \u201cWe created Bearing North because important stories about North Korea are unfolding now, while the people who lived them, the places where they happened, and the perspectives surrounding them are still within reach.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe initiative\u2019s advisory group includes Matt Tyrnauer, director of \u201cValentino: The Last Emperor\u201d and \u201cWhere\u2019s My Roy Cohn?\u201d; Anna Fifield, journalist and author of \u201cThe Great Successor\u201d; Joseph Kim, North Korean defector and author of \u201cUnder the Same Sky\u201d; Hannah Song, CEO of Liberty in North Korea; and Sokeel Park, chief strategy officer of Liberty in North Korea.<\/p>\n \n\tBearing North\u2019s first supported project is \u201cSchool for Defectors,\u201d directed by Jeremy Workman. The documentary tracks students at the Jangdaehyun School in Busan, South Korea \u2013 an institution serving North Korean defectors and their families.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNorth Korea is often reduced to headlines about missiles and politics,\u201d Blaine Vess said. \u201cGreat filmmakers have the ability to show us something much harder to capture: how ordinary people live, hope, adapt, and endure.\u201d<\/p>\n