“Unforgotten” by Sujin Kim
Title:
- Unforgotten
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Filmmaker, Video Artist, or Animator(s):
Symposium:
Venue(s):
Artist Statement:
The animation Unforgotten tells a traumatic historical event that happened to the most vulnerable group of women during a wartime and had been forgotten for a half-century. The animation shines a light on the victims’ voices and their willingness to give testimonies that deliver the historical truth rejected and denied by mainstream history. The women who give the testimonies in the animation spent the last moments of their lives fighting for women’s human rights so that women will never be sexually sacrificed again during wartime.
Unforgotten tells the atrocious wartime sexual violence through fairy-like visuals that are metaphorical and poetic so as not to perpetuate violent imagery and retraumatize the victims. This approach is for changing how we conceive victims of wartime sexual violence, who were commonly considered filthy women by their community and retraumatized in media by repeatedly reproducing sexual sensations. The animation ultimately intends to change the way we conceive our past and historical trauma and, most importantly, pursue our future to embrace the history of marginalized people.
