Filed Under: Events, Film, Immigration, North Korea, Politics, South Korea

October 29, 2008

Screening and Discussion with Nicholas Bonner, Co-producer, Crossing the Line

In 1962, a U.S. soldier guarding the DMZ deserted his unit, walked across the most heavily fortified border on earth and defected to North Korea. His name was James Joseph Dresnok, but today, after 40 years of living in Pyongyang and starring in North Korean propaganda movies, he’s better known as Comrade Joe.

Crossing the Line, a documentary directed by Daniel Gordon and co-produced by Nicholas Bonner, goes inside North Korea to tell Dresnok’s story for the first time. Allowed unprecedented access to Dresnok by the North Korean authorities, the filmmakers reveal the full story of his defection, as well as the political intrigue and personal passions that have kept him behind the Cold War’s last frontier ever since.

Co-Sponsored by: The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, The Sejong Society of Washington, D.C., and The National Committee on North Korea (NCNK)

This screening is part of a nationwide tour organized in part by the Korea Society.

About the Speaker
Nicholas Bonner is the director of Koryo Tours, which has specialized in travel to and cultural exchanges with the DPRK since 1993. Working in conjunction with VeryMuchSo Productions, Bonner has produced three documentaries inside North Korea: The Game of Their Lives (2001), A State of Mind (2005) and Crossing the Line (2007). He is currently developing a romantic comedy feature film to be shot in Pyongyang in 2009. Also a collector of North Korean art, pieces from Bonner’s collection of woodcut prints is currently on display in North Korean Images at Utopia’s Edge at The Korea Society Gallery.