After hearing a rare recording of Korean Shaman Kim Seok-Chul’s music, Australian drummer Simon Barker knew right away that he was listening to one of the world’s greatest improvisers. So unique, in fact, is the artistry of the Shaman that the Korean Government bestowed upon him the honorary title “Intangible Asset Number 82,” recognizing him as the pre-eminent practitioner, Grand Master and protector of his art form. Intrigued, Barker commits to find and learn from the enigmatic master. Yet Kim Seok-Chul proves elusive, despite the fame accompanying his official honor as being South Korea’s 82nd Intangible Asset.

Imbued with a sense of destiny, the journey becomes a rite of passage as Barker experiences life-changing encounters with the engaging and exotic characters who eventually lead him to the Shaman. Intangible Asset Number 82 is a true testimony to the universal language of music and its transformative power.
 
 
 
 
“A masterly conceived and filmed documentary, ‘Intangible Asset No. 82′ represents a beautiful balance between an educational document and a moving human drama. Through the personal journey of the Australian drummer Simon Barker — guided by the Korean percussionist and vocalist Kim Dong-Won — audiences are provided a rare window onto the meanings and aesthetics of Korean traditional music. The breathtaking beauty and ethos of Korean instruments and voices is matched by the equally enthralling and heart-breaking funeral experienced at the dramatic conclusion.”

Dr. Nathan Hesselink
University of British Colombia
Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology
Research Associate, Centre for Korean Research

Grade Level: Grades 10-12, College and University
Subjects: Culture, Music
Language: Korean and English, with English Subtitles
Copyright: © 2009 In the Sprocket Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Set: DVD Only
Total Running Time: 90 minutes
ISBN-10: TBA
Educational Prices: (includes Public Performance Rights)
Educational with Public Performance Rights: $249.00
 
 
 
Educational without Public Performance Rights: $129.00
 
 
 

To Pre-Order this title please contact info@alivemindeducation.com or call us at 212-398-3112.

For public exhibition inquiries please contact us for more details!
 

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Video Librarian Review January/February 2010
Rating: 3 out of 4 Stars - Recommended!

Filmmaker Emma Franz’s Intangible Asset No. 82 follows Australian jazz drummer Simon Barker as he searches for elusive percussionist and esteemed hereditary shaman Kim Seok-Chul. For seven years, Barker has traveled to South Korea for inspiration. After a friend introduces Barker to the complex improvisations of Kim Seok-Chul (whose work has received minimal documentation), he decides to find out everything he can about the man, proclaiming Kim “one of the greatest musicians alive”—and later discovering that Korea officially considers him “Intangible Cultural Asset Number 82” (“intangible” because one can’t see his contributions). Barker finally meets Kim Dong-Won, a fellow drummer who offers to introduce him to the grand master. To make the most of their journey, Dong-Won recommends that they drop in on a few folk on the way to Busan, including Jeong Sung-Dok, a woman who became a shaman at the age of eight, and Bae Il-Dong, a pansori singer who tells epic stories through song and who built up his voice by singing next to a waterfall for several years. Simon, Dong-Won, and Il-Dong hit it off so well that they end up performing and recording together. But as they get closer to Kim Seok-Chul’s hometown, Barker learns that the octogenarian is in declining health, and the pilgrimage turns out far different than planned. Recommended.

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Opening with scenes of jazz drumming and promotional blurbs of praise for Australian drummer Simon Barker, this first full-length documentary by Australian jazz singer Emma Franz soon has Barker narrating his deeply personal musical philosophy, beginning with a need to base his own performance on something more ‘regional’ than American jazz traditions. After hearing a recording of Korean drummer Kim Seok-Chul, Barker traveled 5,000 miles north to South Korea and found the sound he sought in performances and teachings of Korean musicians who revered and emulated Kim. During his seventeenth trip to Korea, he was finally granted an audience with the grandmaster himself. This film documents that trip.

Kim had been a lifelong shaman and p’ansori percussionist and a shaman. A p’ansori performance consists of one drummer accompanying one singer of dramatic, epic ballads. Not all p’ansori performers are also shamans, whose ritual ceremonies are held to have great curative and creative power. We learn from drummer and teacher Kim Dong-Won, who took his time deciding to trust Barker’s integrity and respect for Korean culture enough to shepherd him around the country and introduce him to other musician and shamans, that Kim Seok-Chul’s work had been officially designated a cultural ‘intangible asset.’ It was the 82nd such honor to be bestowed by the government-sponsored system begun in the 1960s. Kim Dong-Won now shares the role of film narrator with Barker, allowing us to learn his musical philosophy. How will this East/West encounter develop? Franz keeps us wanting to see what happens next.

A p’ansori singer may produce hard, throat-constricted vocal attacks and hoarse sustained notes that leave audiences concerned for the safety of his or her larynx. Kim Dong-Won introduces Barker to Bae Il-Dong, who demonstrates how he developed his p’ansori voice by shout-singing next to a waterfall for seven years. (One of the amazing revelations of this film is Bae’s gorgeous, smooth speaking voice, so different from his barking p’ansori outbursts; he could recite kimchee recipes in Korean and convince you he is describing mouthwatering honey cakes.) Interaction between Korean standing singers, dancers, or bangers on huge, colorful hanging drums and percussionists playing double-headed barrel drums while seated on the ground is a recurring theme and serves to emphasize how important concentration between two performers is to the essentially improvisatory nature of a satisfactory musical outcome. During a lesson with one musician, Barker repeatedly throws himself on the floor in order to be one with the force of gravity – to learn to ‘relax’ into that special technique Korean drummers have mastered that makes them look like their arms simply drop into the required rhythm of their own accord.

Intercultural trust and respect are so often illustrated that they become major subjects in the program. An older Korean master of p’ansori drumming allows questions from Barker and praises the research the Westerner has obviously done in preparation for the interview. Korean spiritual shamanism is sensitively addressed. A young woman who felt called to be a shaman at age eight is visited and excerpts from various healing ceremonies are shown, preparing viewers for the climactic encounter with old, infirm Kim Seok-Chul, just after his release from a long hospital stay. His family has arranged for a shamanist healing ceremony to be performed at his home. Barker and the Australian film crew have been allowed to witness it. Kim Dong-Won finds this astonishing and is obviously awed by the event. Kim Seok-Chul dies only days afterward and formal expressions of grief ensue, with mourners in traditional white funeral garb expressing both heartfelt outpourings of loss and joyous appreciation for Kim’s gifts.

Koreans and Australians seem equally affected by the musical exchanges documented in this film. Barker’s jazz group, Kim Dong-Won, and Bae perform and record together, with a ‘crossover’ sonic result that moves and motivates them all to pursue the collaboration. Simon Barker speaks of all he has learned from the Koreans – about ‘rough beauty’ and breath and rhythm as a circular, ongoing force. Dong-Won says Simon’s entry into the Korean musical world was ‘destiny’ and that ‘something like brotherhood’ has been achieved.

Both the sound and look of this program allow Korea to remain in focus. We, along with Barker, are visitors who wish to understand and be taught something about a beautiful county’s traditions. Lovely images of natural areas, rice fields, and temples balance scenes of city crowds and instructional interiors. Recordings of Kim Seok-Chul introduce us to the sound that initially captivated Barker, but plenty of other music making is shown, and development of the cross-pollinated jazz-p’ansori merger that ends the film seems appropriately inevitable. We are left wanting more. The musicians in the film have formed a group called Daorum whose work can be sampled on YouTube.

Highly recommended to collections supporting studies in Korean music, percussion, jazz, and general cross-cultural studies.

-Educational Media Reviews Online

Additional Information

• The Main Characters
• Musicians Featured in the Film
• Notes on the Film
• Director’s Statement
• Credits - Coming Soon!