What North Korea Can Learn from the Oscars

Censorship destroys creativity.

      At the Academy Awards ceremony in the United States on February 9, 2020, South Korea's film, Parasite, won Best Picture of 2019. Filmed in black and white with sub-titles U.S. movie audiences had to read as they watched the movie. Yet Parasite bested eight English-speaking films in color. The film also won Best Original Screenplay. Bong Joon Ho, who was one of the screenplay's writers, also won Best Director. Although the wife of North Korea's Kim Jong Un is a singer, she was never considered as one of the possible voices chosen to sing, in her native tongue, the nominated song from Frozen at the Academy Awards.

     Nor can China brag about any international film accolades. In 2016 China's wealthy Danan Wanda Group constructed an $8 billion complex to attract international movie-makers to the coastal city of  Qingdao. Despite offering generous financial incentives, the project is not a success. Censorship by China's State Administration of Press Publications, Radio, Film and Television proved to be incompatible with the creative process.

     South Korea offers North Korea a way to escape the Chinese film censorship trap. Missiles and nuclear weapons attract international attention, but so does a blockbuster film. North Korea is lucky to have a prize-winning movie-making community of educators available next door. Those trouble-making North Koreans locked away in the country's concentration camps may be just the creative talent that could net Kim Jong Un and his wife tickets to an Academy Awards celebration and positive international attention for North Korea.       

Star-struck Realities

What dancers, singers, and actors have in common is the opportunity to perform anywhere in the world. Since producers, agents, managers, and casting companies around the world can watch YouTube videos, singers, songwriters, musicians, bands, and actors in every country have a global platform for discovery, record deals, films, TV shows, advertising projects, and tour engagements.

     Books about an eighth grader who makes it to Broadway, Tim Federle's Better Nate Than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, Nate, can inspire young performers, but competition is intense. For evidence, consider the number of young people who try out for TV shows devoted to dance: Dance Moms, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, Breaking Pointe, Bun Heads; for TV shows devoted to singers: Glee, American Idol, The Voice, X Factor; and for professional and amateur performances around the world. The little girl at the right is performing in a play in Montevideo, Uruguay.

     The audition is all important, when it comes to being discovered. What goes into this little showcase is the choice of a perfect performance piece that highlights your talent without boring the "judges." Hunting for new audition material is a necessity throughout a career. A middle school student who wowed the audience playing Miss Hannigan in Annie cannot use a song or monologue from that role to audition for an age appropriate part in the real world. Young performers also need to seek out  honest appraisals of their talent from others than Aunt Gertrude.

     Looks matter. Yes, Danny DeVito and Dustin Hoffman made it, but tall guys like Ben Affleck and George Clooney always will be the most desirable leading men and country western singers. A stage actor may be able to get away with less than perfect skin but a film star can't. What does Sofia Vergara have that you don't? A hair style like "the Rachel" may set you apart the same way Barbra Streisand's nose does. But how many roles are there for other chubbies like Rebel Wilson and Gabourey Sidibe?

     One piece of advice I heard given to a young performer merits repeating. If you see a long line of actors in front of you, start trying to find a shorter line. That may lead you to form your own garage band or to develop original material, like a Taylor Swift or Tina Fey. Original YouTube performances have launched careers the way Meagan Cignoli's six-second Vines have launched hers. In her book, Pamela D. Pollack asks and answers the question, Who Is George Lucas? Reading about the creator of Star Wars is a sure way to inspire creative youngsters to consider their own new ways to develop special sound and visual effects and even to become film producers, screenwriters, and directors.

     The need to stand out could lead to crazy stunts, like twerking, tongue-flapping by Miley Cyrus or outrageous costume-wearing by Elton John, that may or may not get the kind of attention you want. At one audition, a singer got rid of a long line by lying to those waiting. He said he had been asked to tell them there wouldn't be any more auditions that afternoon, because the pianist had another engagement.

     Performers need to beware of scams. When its performances were canceled, a Russia ballet company ended up in the U.S. State of Delaware with no way to get home. Always make sure to get round trip tickets (and don't surrender your passport to anyone) before leaving on a foreign, or even a domestic, tour.

     Change is rapid in all fields of business these days and the business of show business is no different. When my daughter was a child actor, we co-wrote the book, Stars in Your Eyes...Feet on the Ground: A Practical Guide for Teenage Actors (and their Parents!). It is one of many books that gives advice to young actors. But just like diet and self-help books, one "size" does not fit all. Each performer has to craft together bits and pieces of advice and, most of all, hope for a lucky break. It helps to understand the business of show business, too. Sweden's Academy of Music and Business is a model for other schools that could teach performers how to turn their talent into a career.

Global Drawing Power

Show me a refrigerator, and I'll show you a child's drawing attached to it. Written for young people 9 to 12 years old, Meredith Hamilton's A Child's Introduction to Art and Stone Giant: Michelangelo's David and How He Came to Be by Jane Sutcliffe help inspire young artists by introducing them to the masterpieces, painters, sculptures, and styles of the past. The interesting thing is: all forms of art have begun to move beyond refrigerators to have an impact on communities and the world today.

     In an earlier blog, "The World of Fashion," I told how fashion designer, Iris Shiloh, founded Kids for Kids, an organization that sells T-shirts printed with artwork created by orphans and children in lesser developed countries and then contributes a portion of sales back to the organizations that support and educate these young artists. You can read about Ms. Shiloh's work in India and Swaziland and purchase these T-shirts at kidsforkidsfashion.com. Her idea could inspire schools, scout troops, and other youth organizations to raise funds for international causes by creating art with a global message that could be printed on shirts, cards, calendars, towels, etc. How about bibs and aprons with world hunger-fighting messages?

     "Shop for Social" (shopforsocial.com), which supports non-profit and social business organizations, provides international shipping of items, such as the ceramic mugs, totes, and notebooks designed by the artists with special needs, especially autism, from The Everyday Solution.

     Internationally renowned opera sopranos, Monica Yunus and Camille Zomora, saw an opportunity "to uplift, unite, and transform individuals and communities" by mobilizing singers, painters, dancers and choreographers, puppeteers, directors, makeup artists, costume designers, poets, and photographers. With a roster of these volunteers, "Sing for Hope" (singforhope.org) brings professional artists to under-served schools, community centers, and healthcare facilities in the New York City area. Outreach into these venues also is an option for young performers lining up to try out for "American Idol," audition for "Dance Moms," or strut their stuff on "Toddlers and Tiaras." The fact is: young artists in cultural centers from London to Beijing and from Mumbai to Moscow could do the same to "uplift, unite, and transform."

     There is a building being renovated in Kassel, Germany, with materials from the Black Cinema House in Chicago, USA, because of the vision of artist and urban planner, Theaster Gates.  The July, 2013 issue of W reported that Gates studied urban planning at Iowa State University and religion and fine arts at South Africa's University of Cape Town. His background prepared him not only to train workers to reclaim buildings and abandoned objects but also to form the Black Monks of Mississippi gospel band that plays a mix of spirituals and Buddhist chants. Although Gates has art on display in Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, he is considered part of a global movement that takes art out of galleries and museums and uses it as a social platform to transform impoverished areas. Viewed from this perspective, globalization gives greater meaning to the art youngsters around the world are creating, when they make villages out of cereal boxes, drums out of tin cans and sticks, or clay pinch pots to hold flowers.