Aim High in Creation!: A One-of-a-Kind Journey inside North Korea's Propaganda Machine

by Anna Broinowski

An Authentic Glimpse of a North Korea We’ve Never Seen Before, by a Prize-Winning Filmmaker

Anna Broinowski is the only Westerner ever granted full access to North Korea’s propaganda machine, its film industry. Aim High in Creation! is her funny, surreal, insightful account of her twenty-one-day apprenticeship there. At the same time it is a fresh-eyed look, beyond stereotypes, at life in that most secretive of societies.

When Anna learned that fracking had invaded downtown Sydney and a coal seam gas well was planned for Sydney Park, she had a brilliant she would seek guidance for a kryptonite-powerful anti-fracking movie from the world’s greatest propaganda factory, apart from Hollywood. After two years of trying, she was allowed to make her case in Pyongyang and was granted full permission to film. She worked closely with the leading lights of North Korean cinema, even playing an American in a military thriller. “Filmmakers are family,” Kim Jong-il’s favorite director told her, and a love of nature and humanity unites peoples. Interviewing loyalists and defectors alike, Anna explored the society she encountered. She offers vivid, sometimes hilarious descriptions of bizarre disconnects and warm friendships in a world without advertisements or commercial culture. Her book, like the prize-winning documentary that resulted from her visit, is a thoughtful plea for better understanding.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

308 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2016

About the author

Australian filmmaker

Reviews

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aim High in Creation!: A One-of-a-Kind Journey inside North Korea's Propaganda Machine by Anna Broinowski is an Australian filmmaker's experience in North Korea. Broinowski fell into filmmaking by accident – when she uncovered Japan’s queer, bikie, and Otaku subcultures in cult hit, HELL BENTO!! She’s been working as a director/writer/producer ever since. Her last film, FORBIDDEN LIE$, about hoax author Norma Khouri, was one of the top ten highest grossing Australian theatrical docs of all time. She was born in Tokyo and grew up traveling across Asia as a daughter of an Austrailian diplomat.

I have read several scholarly books on North Korea over the years and over time the information begins to repeat. There is a limited knowledge of what goes on in North Korea and, for that matter, what has happened in the past. North Korea is unique among nations. The US and Cuba had been enemies for years and both countries political systems fed off the mistrust and hate. But, in Cuba, many still know and remember capitalism. North Korea is closed off to such an extent that the people there believe they are the second wealthiest country in the world trailing only China. Aid from the West particularly from the US is passed out as war reparations from the vanquished Americans. Kim Il-Sung was a child of missionary trained protestants, a background he used to create his own state religion with himself as the savior. His son Kim Jung-Il was a talented cinematographer and propagandist. North Korea is a country controlled by its government's ability to entrap its population in a perverse Disney-like "reality." Those who look behind the curtain are sent to prison camps.

My first thoughts were this is going to be an excellent book. Here is a Westerner allowed into the propaganda center of the country and this will be interesting and possibly enlightening. Broinowski starts her story with coal seam fracking in her hometown and decides to fight the corporate propaganda by making a movie about it. She turns to the North Korean professionals to help her make the movie. Despite difficulties, she gets a visa and permission to meet and work with leaders in the North Korean movie/propaganda industry. There is praise and discussion of Kim Jung-Il's cinematography methods and earning the trust of her North Korean minder and the directors. There is a bond that develops between the author and the North Korean professionals. They help Broinowski make her anti-fracking film in North Korean style.

In reading the preview for the book, I noticed it was made into a Netflix movie. I started the movie and found it to be more of a slapstick mockery than a serious look at the North Korean propaganda machine. The book, however, offers a few good points and bits of new information. One point that is left out is that although North Korean directors have a free hand in their movie making and do not have to listen to investors and sponsors, there is little doubt what would happen to a filmmaker who made a movie that was unfavorable to the regime. Broinowski had great potential to do some serious work in an area of North Korea that has not been opened to the West. Instead, I found her book to be light. My background is political science and as mentioned I have read quite a bit on North Korea. This book may be of more interest as a film study book than to those interested in the workings of North Korea and its propaganda machine.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angered and dismayed at the plans being made for “fracking” near her Sydney home, film-maker Anna Broinowski decided to do something about it. And, somewhat bizarrely, she wondered if North Korean propaganda film techniques could help her make her own effective and persuasive film. Surprisingly she was given permission to go to North Korea and work with some of the country’s leading directors, producers and actors, and gained an astonishing insight not only into the North Korean film industry but also into daily life in this most secretive of countries. What resulted is a fascinating film and book from someone who, whilst always acknowledging the faultlines and absurdities in North Korean society, was open-minded enough to see beyond the political reality. Yes, her visit was stage-managed to a large degree – visits by Westerners always are, this I know, I visited myself last year – and no, of course she wasn’t permitted to see any of the dark side of the country. But she was allowed a certain freedom to interact with ordinary people and she offers the reader and viewer an invaluable glimpse into a country and way of life which far too often is demonised or simply treated with mockery. The people aren’t synonymous with the regime, and I feel that both film and book give a nuanced and compelling picture of North Korea.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some funny and interesting anecdotes told in this unique project, but the bottom line is that a privileged tourist traipsing around Pyongyang barely sees the tip of the North Korean iceberg. There is too much we can't see and can't know to accept this author's naive view that maybe North Korea isn't so bad. The stories told of those held prisoner by the regime and those who have defected hold more sway. Meanwhile, projects like this (glorified tourism) financially prop up an unstable autocracy.

[Heather Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anna Broinowski is a documentary filmmaker and one of the few granted access to North Korea's film industry. This look into North Korea's culture and industry shows how interesting and dichotomous this are and its leader can be. Ms Broinowski has a great style and makes it feel like you are listening to a close friend wow you with details of a crazy vacation.

[Jade Cahoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how to rate this. I wish there ha been more about Korea and less about the authors life. She seemed very naive and rather selfish. But when it DID focus on Korea, it was interesting! I would also have liked more pictures -- they were interesting.

[Killian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that has so much potential, but ends up falling unfortunately flat. Pretty much anything about North Korea is bound to be interesting simply because we know so little about what actually goes on there. Broinowski was given amazing access to the top filmmakers in DPRK, but didn't spend much time parsing apart what she learned and why she was given this access in the first place.

Here's the (somewhat convoluted) premise: Broinowski lives in Australia. There is a company that is coming into her neighborhood to extract coal seam gas. According to the author this is very bad, and in order to save her countryside and the people there from being harmed by the side effects of fracking, she decides to make a documentary. Somewhere along the way she decides to make it in the style of the North Korean "propaganda" films (aka all of their films) and to do that she wants to talk to those DPRK filmakers. Somehow she manages to get access, and the rest of the book consists of her surface level observations of her time there.

During her first trip she is convinced of her Western superiority. Luckily this doesn't last, and during the second, longer, trip she is more open minded. However, this doesn't lead to better understanding and observations. Her North Korean minders give plenty of evidence of the strict redaction and reality editing they are known for. She gives a few examples of times where she felt the ordinary citizens she saw were being genuine (I think the scene at the theme park was the most successful of the entire book), but for the most part the narrative is just her bumbling around and seeming to try to get in trouble by saying and doing the wrong things. There was a certain lack of cultural respect that I kept coming back to, which I think was the ultimate reason this book failed for me, as well as the film. It all seemed to be more about her as a filmmaker, than her subject.

Speaking of, this book is a companion piece to her documentary film by the same name, which I went and watched on Netflix when I was done with the book. I can't say that I liked it any better, and actually only made it halfway through. Personally, the slap-stick way it was made smacked of disrespect, though I think they were actually trying to mimick the film style in DPRK. Either way, neither of them were made for me, but I'm sure others would find enjoyment in them. This isn't badly written, I was just looking for something about the DPRK and their filmakers which this is not.

Review also posted on my blog.

Copy courtesy of Bonnier Publishing Australia/Echo Publishing, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Truusje · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I went to North Korea last year, I read quite a few books about the country. The number of books that claimed to provide a unique insight into the hermit kingdom was frankly staggering, and to be honest, most didn’t deliver. Aim High in Creation! makes similar claims, but in this case it’s mostly true. I’ve read books about North Korean films and propaganda before, but I never felt as close to the action as I did while reading this book. I found Ms Broinowski’s story interesting, even if it was a bit slow in places. I also didn’t always recognise her description of the country as the North Korea I know, but then I was there a few years after she made her documentary (and much changed in those few years), at a different time of year, and – most importantly – I never drank the Kool-Aid. At the same time I really enjoyed reading about places I was familiar with.
After reading the book I’m very interested in seeing the characters come to live so I’m definitely going to watch the documentary tonight.

*** I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway

Aim High in Creation starts out really slow and doesn't get much better until about halfway through. I'm still a bit unclear how Broinowski's whole adventure to North Korea started but maybe that's my fault. In the end though I did find myself finishing the book because I enjoyed it and found at least the latter half throughly interesting.

[Gloria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book offers an interesting view of North Korean cinema and culture, I found it way more detailed than I was interested in. It is not really about propaganda in the rhetorical sense (which interests me greatly), but rather about the writer's attempts to enter North Korea and understand its film industry and how it is intimately and irrevocably linked to its rulers.