Review of Camp 14: Total Control Zone (2012) by James R — 17 Jan 2015

The combination of the intense subject matter and excellent film style makes for something truly great, sad, and inspirational all at once. It's really more like a character study within the base concept of the documentary itself, and the way it was edited with pauses really helps to illustrate the frustration of the victim as well as the two former guards for their acts.

Also with no narration and only rare moments of brief prompting from the interviewer, this really helped to keep the focus where it needs to be: on the subject matter and off the creator or interviewer of the film.

Serious kudos to them for keeping themselves out of it and letting the people talk at their own pace about things that must be more painful to discuss then I could possibly imagine. The artwork/animations lent themselves quite well, and I usually hate any kind of animation in serious docs.

Also I think Shin left one kind of slavery to enter another in his view. Of course the former was far worse but the things he says about life in South Korea really makes me wonder if he could ever learn to live a normal life.

A normal healthy childhood is crucial for everyone to have the best chance for this and it's too disturbing to even think that so many in this world never experience that.