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38th Parallel

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Katie Davies, 2021

  • Katie Davies, 2021

    Katie Davies, 2021

Synopsis

Filmed at the Demilitarized Zone on the border between North and South Korea, the work 38TH PARALLEL seeks to portray the particular reality of this contested site. It is a reality marked by an eerie sense of latency. Constantly alert, constantly inert, North and South face each other in a stalemate situation sealed by a cease-fire agreement 55 years ago. In her video, Davies operates in this void.

Working with the United Nations Armistice Commission and the United States Armed Forces in Korea, she shows how political reality manifests itself here, beyond representation, in the ways how space is structured and time is regimented in this militarized environment. Facing each other across the turnpike, for instance, border guards of both sides execute the silent ceremonies of authority proscribed by their military protocol. It’s choreography of empty gestures enacted on the stage of a deserted strip of land and bleak interrogation rooms.

Davies then shows the local epicentre of conflict of global proportions to be a non-place where power manifests itself in ghostly acts of decorum performed in suspended time.
http://www.katiedavies.com/38thpara

Details

Year
2008
Type of film
Shorts
Running Time
8 min
Format
SD Video
Director
Katie Davies
Producer
Katie Davies
Editor
Katie Davies
Director of Photography
Katie Davies
Sound
Katie Davies

Production status

Complete

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Last updated 4th May 2021

Production Company

Katie Davies
http://www.katiedavies.com