Dates: June 3 - June 29, 2024
Location: Naro Island, South Korea
Enrollment: 10 participants
Cost: $10,000
Artistic Objective: Create the film Naro’s Search for Space, a documentary feature about South Korea’s emerging space program and its unexpected impacts on the villagers of rural Naro Island.
Meet Your Mentors
Matthew Koshmrl
Matthew is an Emmy nominated filmmaker, cinematographer, and professor based in Minnesota and South Korea. His work has played at The Jeonju International Film Festival, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, DocumentaMadrid, and True/False Film Festival. Matthew personally focuses on cinema vérité documentary films that explore the evolution of tradition, individual and national identity, and unseen processes.
In 2016 he received the Antarctic Service Medal from the US congress when he was commissioned by the National Science Foundation to travel to the Antarctic Peninsula to make a documentary about paleontological expeditions and has a film playing at Carnegie Museum of Natural History about dinosaurs of Antarctica.
Matthew has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota Duluth, St. Edward's University, Austin Community College, and the Austin School of Film. Since 2017, he has worked with the US State Department as a mentor to fellows participating in the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which provides young leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa with the opportunity to hone their skills in the USA. In 2018, he organized and taught a month-long film workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe through a State Department Reciprocal Exchange Grant. https://www.koshfilm.com
Haeryun Kang
Haeryun Kang is a documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Seoul, South Korea. She has written for the New York Times, the cover of Rolling Stone, NPR, Washington Post and more; her films have shown in art exhibitions and film festivals, including the Korean American Film Festival in New York and DMZ Docs.
She began her filmmaking career in 2017, occupying a unique niche in the world of Korean media startups. As the managing editor of Korea Exposé, an investigative outlet highlighting underrepresented Korean stories in English, she produced and story edited multiple documentaries. In 2019, she became the creative director of InterV, a documentary startup focusing on community engagement. She developed InterV’s brand identity and spearheaded various community projects, including educational workshops on media, journalism and film. She also directed, shot and edited eight short documentaries. Since 2022, Kang has been working on her first and independent feature documentary, Naro’s Search For Space, on the Korean space program. In the summer of 2023, the project was accepted by the global pitching program from EBS International Film Festival, one of Korea’s most prominent documentary institutions. https://www.haeryunkang.com
Ben Thwaits
Ben is founder and director of Blue Fractal. Prior to this new adventure, he worked as a photographer, nonprofit executive, and founder/director of the In a New Light therapeutic nature photography program. There, he guided hundreds of young people on high-adventure therapeutic nature photography and filmmaking expeditions around the US and abroad. He has also guided expeditions for college-age students to Costa Rica, the Caribbean, and Central America. To date, Ben’s students’ award-winning photos have been featured in over 60 exhibitions around the US, as well as on national TV, film, books, a TED talk, and other media.
Your Expedition:
Watch this early trailer for Naro’s Search for Space
Become an essential member of a documentary film crew and learn all aspects of production, from developing the story to cinematography to editing and more. This film will likely achieve wide release on major platforms and your name will be forever featured in the credits.
Understand the specific process behind “finding your voice” and learn how to infuse your work with your voice, especially while working as a team.
Through intensive individual and group mentorship sessions, achieve new clarity on your life’s journey, with a focus on specific career directions.
Gain insight into your strengths and weaknesses, your unique skills and blind spots. Learn how to leverage your strengths and weaknesses—both technical and emotional—to your advantage.
Who is this expedition designed for?
This is for creatively-oriented people from all backgrounds and expertise seeking either to take their creative work to the next level, define and refine their creative voice, and/or reinvent and recalibrate their creative/life paths. While documentary film is the medium we will use to teach universal creative principles, a background in film is not required. However, seasoned filmmakers will also feel challenged and fulfilled by this course. Additionally, this experience is for those open and eager to deeply connect with people and culture that may be vastly different than their own.
Location:
Naro Island
Naro is a fascinating paradox. On one hand, it is the home of South Korea’s space program, the epicenter of the nation’s ambitious vision of a future to the moon and Mars. Massive rockets launch regularly over Naro’s skies. Testing of some of earth’s most advanced space technology happens here.
On the other hand, Naro is a secluded rural island of small villages and pristine natural ecosystems. The culture and its people are firmly rooted in the ways of the past.
How do these two seemingly opposing realities converge? Let’s find out together.
Naro Island is connected to South Korea’s mainland by bridges, and it is drivable throughout. Our main base will be in Bongrae, the island’s small coastal downtown, a ten-minute drive to the Naro Space Center. The downtown has modern amenities including several supermarkets, small hospital clinics, restaurants and a 24-hour convenience store. From Bongrae we will explore and film in multiple small communities to the tell the story for Naro’s Search For Space. One example is Yenae Village, a tiny outlying coastal community right next to the Space Center, anchored in time-honored traditions, charismatic characters, and stunning landscapes.
Accommodations and Food
All accommodations will be comfortable and simple, with modern amenities. Participants will have individual bedrooms. During our time based in the town of Bongrae, we will stay at local hotels, villas and what are known in Korea as “pensions,” which are lovely, multi-unit vacation rentals with shared dining andgroup spaces. We will utilize designated conference spaces for group work when we’re not out shooting on location.
All meals are included in the expedition fee. Meals will be provided through a mix of restaurants, catering by local chefs, and even some of our own grocery shopping and group meal prep. This is your chance to learn how to prepare South Korean cuisine! We will be able to accommodate any dietary restrictions or preferences you may have. Do you want to take your turn in the kitchen to show off your favorite dish? Go for it!
What’s included?
Besides food and lodging, we will provide the following:
-Once you arrive, we’ll provide all ravel to and from Incheon Airport near Seoul, South Korea. This is South Korea’s main air hub, and tickets are readily available and reasonably priced. We’ll pick you up at the airport and bring you back at the end of the expedition, but you cover cost of the flights to and from Incheon Airport.
-All group travel for the expedition. We will have a large van for for this. Individual travel for things such as personal sightseeing will be your own responsibility.
-Intensive group and individual filmmaking instruction and mentorship from Haeryun, Matt, and Ben
-Individual mentorship sessions with Matt, Haeryun, and Ben. This is where we dig into the specifics of navigating your creative and life path. There’s no set limit to the number of sessions you will have.
-Professional filmmaking equipment will be provided. However, if you have a few pieces of your own gear that you want to bring, go for it.
-Group sightseeing and tourism activities. We’re heading to one of the most beautiful areas of the Korean Peninsula!
Sample Daily Schedule
8:00 breakfast / group morning reflection / discuss plans for the day
9:00 Filmmaking lesson of the day
10:00 Depart for location of the day’s shoot. Action!
12:00 lunch break
3:30 Cut! Return from the shoot. Unload gear and back up files.
4:00: Take a break / dinner prep if needed
5:30 dinner
6:30 free time / independent work time / group work time
8:30 evening group reflection / check-in
10:00 Good night, everyone. Sleep well.