Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV

Amanda Kim: Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV (US 2023).

2023

Badass / Biopic / Experimental / Art / Tech / Society

Theme: Power of Art

Country: United States

Director: Amanda Kim

Production: Jennifer Stockman, David Koh, Amanda Kim / Curatorial, Lone Palm Films

Duration: 110 min

Rating: K12

Kino Engel 1, Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF), 17 Sep 2023

Tytti Rantanen (HIFF 2023): " Korealaissyntyinen mutta Yhdysvalloissa vaikuttanut Nam June Paik (1932–2006) tunnetaan videotaiteen isänä. Hän oli visionääri, joka ensimmäisten joukossa teki televisiosta taiteensa instrumentin ja halusi purkaa joukkotiedotusvälineiden yksisuuntaisen viestinnän. Television pauhua ei tarvitse vain vastaanottaa passiivisena: sille voi ja pitää väittää vastaan. Paikin ajattelu ja kuvakieli on vuorostaan vaikuttanut mainosten ja musiikkivideoiden estetiikkaan. "

" Vaikka Paik syntyi äveriääseen yrittäjäperheeseen Koreassa, hänen taiteellinen elämänsä, vapautensa ja rohkeutensa saivat toden teolla alkunsa Länsi-Saksassa 1958 eräästä John Cagen konsertista. Kansainvälinen antikolonialistinen taiteilijaryhmä Fluxus antoi väylän taiteelle sabotaasina – mutta myös kujeiluna, joka on aina läsnä Paikin hahmossa ja teoksissa. "

" Amanda Kimin Sundancessa ensi-iltansa saanut viihdyttävä ja informatiivinen muotokuva Paikista on olennaista katsottavaa jokaiselle nykytaiteesta kiinnostuneelle. Arkistomateriaalia Paikin innostavista teoksista rytmittävät aikalaisten haastattelut sekä amerikankorealaisen näyttelijä Steven Yeunin lukemat otteet Paikin kirjeistä ja kirjoituksista. " Tytti Rantanen

Quoted by HIFF 2023: " Every so often, you’ll see a portrait-of-the-artist documentary that’s so beautifully made, about a figure of such unique fascination, whose art is so perfectly showcased by the documentary format, that when it’s over you can’t believe the film hadn’t existed until now. It feels, in its way, essential. Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV is like that. Directed by Amanda Kim (it’s her first feature, and so well-done that I expect it to be the first of many), it’s a tantalizing portrait of Nam June Paik, the revolutionary Korean-born video artist who, in the late ’60s and ’70s, did nothing less than invent an art form. " Owen Gleiberman, Variety

" The Korean-born video art pioneer Nam June Paik once said: “I use technology in order to hate it properly.” It’s a great quote, but the truth, as this engrossing documentary makes clear, is more complex. From his early forays as an avant-garde musician who dragged a violin on a string around the streets, to his TV and video distortions, Paik (1932-2006) was all about disrupting means of communication. It’s not hard to understand why. Communication was a daily struggle for the artist, who, as one interviewee recalls, “spoke 20 languages, all exceedingly badly”. " Wendy Ide, The Observer

Language: English, Korean, German

Subtitles: Finnish

Distribution: NonStop Entertainment

Print source: NonStop Entertainment

Cinematography: Nelson Walker

Editing: Taryn Gould

Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto

Sound: Greg Tobler

AA: Amanda Kim's breathtaking tour into the pioneering and pathbreaking work of Nam June Paik, the avantgardist father of video art and television art and a visionary of new media in general, the one who first coined the expression "information superhighway". We get an intoxicating survey into his work from the 1950s to the end of his life. His aesthetics is still the analogue world of the cathode ray tube, different from the digital era. His inspiration is originally in music, in Arnold Schönberg, which brings him to Germany. There his biggest revelation is the meeting with John Cage. He becomes a key artist in the Fluxus movement, crossing boundaries between different domains of art. His background is in authoritarian Korea, surviving a brutal Japanese occupation and the Korean War. The Cold War ambience is repeated in Germany, also a divided country. New York opens him the door to global influence, but the life of an experimental artist can always be desperately difficult. Amanda Kim has interviewed a wide range of fellow artists and experts. After the screening, Perttu Rastas reminded me of a key colleague, Paul Garrin, instrumental during Nam June Paik's final period, missing from the film. But even as it is, the sum total of the movie is wonderful and in the end credits, the list of works displayed is awesome. At times I find the fast edit and the sound bite approach shallow. The stimulating flow of authentic Nam June Paik footage compensates that.