Book Café: The Women Divers of Jeju Island

Details

Category: Book Café

Award-winning author, editor and photojournalist Brenda Paik Sunoo presents images from Moon Tides: Jeju Island Grannies and the Sea. Jeju Island’s sea women, or haenyeo, scour the sea floor as their maternal ancestors did, harvesting seaweed, octopus, sea urchins, turban shells, and abalone. Driven by economics, these women divers plunge more than 20 meters underwater, hold their breath for over two minutes, and labor well into their 80s. Their numbers have dwindled from fifteen thousand in the 1970s to just over five thousand today. Photo excerpts from the book received the International Museum of Women’s Community Choice Award.

Ms. Sunoo’s presentation will be preceded by a screening of Liz Chae’s short documentary film, The Last Mermaids, the story of the women of Jeju Province in Korea who have used the ocean to give them life, shield them from war, and educate their daughters for more than 2,000 years.

Thursday, June 2
  

 

Book Café: The Women Divers of Jeju Island

The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue @ 57th Street, 8th Floor

About the Author

Brenda Paik Sunoo is a third-generation Korean-American writer and photojournalist based in Orange County, California. She spent seven months living on Jeju Island conducting interviews and photographing the lives of these aging women divers. Author of Seaweed and Shamans: Inheriting the Gifts of Grief and Vietnam Moment, Ms. Paik Sunoo also wrote for the Orange County Register, Korea Times, Modesto Bee, Argus, and the Los Angeles Times.


About the film maker and Short film

Liz Chae was born in Jamaica to Korean parents. She and her family immigrated to New York City where she pursued her love of writing and photography before studying film in Paris. Liz began her career in film exhibition and then moved into film production, working on Tony Bui’s Three Seasons and Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool. This led to a career producing movie trailers for Paramount and Nickelodeon.  

A 2009 graduate of the School of the Arts Film Program, Liz’s first documentary, The Last Mermaids, won the A&E Development Award and the ASCAP Music Composition Grant. The film premiered at the 2008 Pusan International Film Festival. Awards include Faculty Honors from the School of the Arts Film Program, Special Jury Mention for Short Documentary at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, and the Gold Medal in Documentary at the 2009 Student Academy Awards.