Exotic Super-8 film from Northkorea

Post by aj » Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:15 pm

Seems like a leftist complaining about a left regime.

There are plenty goods produced in North Korea which are not affordable for most citizens of North Korea. Either for export or the happy apparatski. Kim and his friends aren't really suffering.

Maybe read the OP text and keep your lecturing for somewhere else.

BTW there was plenty of Svema S8 in USSR. People there weren't that happy either...

Post by **megavolt** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:42 pm

> Seems like a leftist complaining about a left regime.

;-)

> Kim and his friends aren't really suffering.

Probably right. I suppose they are playing around with a HD cam and a plasma tv.

> Maybe read the OP text and keep your lecturing for somewhere else.

This 150+ post thread just reminds me of a modern age version of the search for the holy grail. Perfect script for a Monty Phyton comedy. A German forum member, who posts his discovery, but never again turned up again (died of a natural cause, killed by some foreign intellligence agency?), although probably aware of the significance of his find; no relevant link in www, although the material is supposedly sold in Taiwan; trips to North Korea offered for some thousand dollars, but no possibility of contact to the factory - the whole thing is a tale, get real.

Roland

> BTW there was plenty of Svema S8 in USSR. People there weren't that happy either...

Did I say only happy societies use super8?

Post by aj » Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:58 pm

A German forum member, who posts his discovery, but never again turned up again (died of a natural cause, killed by some foreign intellligence agency?), although probably aware of the significance of his find; no relevant link in www,

Moviemaker is an old member of the forum. Used to post a lot but apparently has changed from reading yaps about ebay here to selling on ebay. Which probably consumes time..

BTW he is from Austria

BTW Kim is not suffering from lack of digestable input or anything at all. Nor do other top party guys. However, since there is a budget problem with importing quantities of modernities. The middle people may very well be stuck with S8

BTW The must unlikely thing is that Taiwan Supermarkets would still be selling S8 while many modern electronics come from Taiwan.

Interest from forummembers is in different looks. Which may come from old film types. Like Svema, Surveillance types or X-4.

Post by **timdrage** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:19 pm

aj wrote:Moviemaker is an old member of the forum. Used to post a lot

Yes, but he wasn't the one who supposedly had some of this film... he was just reporting what was posted anonymously on a german forum...
so yeah, it's not the most reliable of information... And looks fairly likely to be a hoax, thought I don;t know why anyone would bother.

I don't think it's particularly unfeasible that super-8 is produced in NK for party use though. After all, there do seem to be companies making film stock there, so 8mm of some kind isn't that much of a stretch... and while I'm sure Kim Jong and his crew have plenty of the latest electronics stuff, the rest of the country certainly don't... maybe they project super-8 propaganda in the villages or something!?!

If you look at that famous composite sattalite photo of the whole earth in darkness you can see that NK is an almost totally dark spot surrounded by the bright lights of cities in neighboring countries, which indicates the level of technology generally avaliable...

Anyway, sure it's a holy grail, but why not? What's wrong with trying to find out whether or not this is real. Maybe it's as fictional from the start as the actual Grail, but it's certainly been interesting finding out so far... hope we'll know one way or another soon!

Maybe, to take the metaphor further, we'll end up finding not the grail, but the super-8 equivelent of the ark of the covanent!?! :?

whatever that means!?!?

"I told 'em we already got one!"

Post by **tlatosmd** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:16 am

What's all this hoax talk about? After all, JÃƒÂ¼rgen received confirmation about the existence of this S8 film stock and of the cine-film company Kim Chek explicitely producing this S8 film from the North Korean embassy in Germany! :?

Post by **timdrage** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:36 am

True, i'd forgotten about that... but that's only assuming that the people at the embassy are have correctly understood/identified super-8...

Certainly Kim Chek exist and make film of some kind!

Post by **S8 Booster** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:22 am

found this link. i leave to JÃƒÂ¼rgen to checkem out:

http://www.asiatradehub.com/n.korea/trade.asp
http://www.asiatradehub.com/n.korea/links.asp

upd: possible writing Kimch'aek

s/hoot

Post by **S8 Booster** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:05 am

possible key info avail but needed to reg for it so i dont bother:

north - ICON Group International
The 2003 Import and export Market for Cinematograph Film in north Korea ...
The 2005 Economic and Product Market Databook for Kimchaek, north Korea ...
http://www.icongrouponline.com/industries. asp?sid=85664742&kw=North

kind of leads to:
http://www.icongrouponline.com/data/rep ... d=85664742

kind of leads to:
59 Camera and Photographic Supplies Stores
60 Cameras
61 Cameras and Film

kind of leads to:
http://www.icongrouponline.com/chapterv ... d=85664742

s/hoot

Post by **Mogzy** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:53 am

This is very interesting. It's photos from North Korea posted on the BBC News website with captions

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/p ... html/7.stm

The caption for this one reads

"This department store in the centre of Pyongyang has the latest goods for sale. The food counters sell vacuum-packed foods. There are also traditional medicines and imported pharmaceuticals. Electronic devices are also on sale, including digital cameras and the occasional MP3 player.

Just who can afford these items on a Korean salary is not clear. Perhaps some are just there for show."

Interesting, maybe Super 8 is in North Korea a niche/ retro thing like it is here in the west.

One theory I had was that as a silent medium it would be more difficult to use for subversive purposes than video (which I understand is banned). Furthermore the state can "review" what has been recorded and censor it when the film is sent for processing, something which can't be done with video.

Post by **Muckymuck** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:49 pm

Incredible! I just read about this on the super 8 wiki and managed to find this thread!

Did anyone get any of this film? Didn't Russia continue making super 8 longer than most countries too?

Post by **Juergen** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 6:30 am

This was the only confirmation about the film:

"Dear Sir,

Yes, there's a company called Kim Chaek in Wonsan producing such films.

We're not a chamber of commerce so we cannot provide further information,
pictures, prices, etc.

Best regards,

Alejandro Cao de Benos
Special Delegate
DPRK Government"

My next eMail had been answered this way:

"Dear Sirs,

Information can be provided only directly by the company itself to one
person that will visit the country. Either a businessman or correspondent.

Best regards,

Alejandro Cao de Benos
Special Delegate
DPRK Government"

This is one year ago.

Post by aj » Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:33 pm

Muckymuck wrote:Incredible! I just read about this on the super 8 wiki and managed to find this thread!

Did anyone get any of this film? Didn't Russia continue making super 8 longer than most countries too?

??

Svema stopped early nineties. The stack of refills I have are process before 1992...

Kodak still is producing and this is not in USSR

Post by **timdrage** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:02 pm

Yes, there's a company called Kim Chaek in Wonsan producing such films.

Yeah that's as close as we got apparently, and even this statement I read as not neccessarily proof that there's definitely super-8, only that Kim Chaek does exist and make photographic film.

Post by **woods01** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:43 am

Well film is still very much alive and well in N.K. During the last round of
scare tactics from North Korea there were many news clips of old Kim on
tv. The CBC Newsworld report I watched was clearly a video clip of him
giving a speech at some rally. What caught my eye was the cameraman
in the shot. There was a guy filming a closeup with what was clearly a film
camera, if my memory hasn't failed me it was a coaxial magazine. What
made it more interesting was how he swapped positions with another cameraman, likely to reload film and keep the shot going.

Most likley all of Kim's speeches and other bits of his life are filmed for
documentaries about the great leader. Given what little we know about
the country, life there is probably on the 1950s level. I bet much of the
population does not own a tv and gets news and entertainment at state run movie theatres.

Post by **Lunar07** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:19 pm

This thread reads like a section of a Max Frisch novel. Great material!

What we need is a volunteer to visit NK and meet Kim Chek, then report back. Of course, we are not responsible if the volunteer ends up processed into a photographic plate on display in the Museum of One Thousand Flowers and Leaps. :lol: