The Wheaton Record
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Forgive Is a Verb
Professor Joonhee Park reveals how documentary filmmaking has taught him the meaning of forgiveness.
September 7, 2024 02:03 pm
When Joonhee Park became an empty-nester, he expected to feel a sense of freedom. But when his youngest child left home in 2018, he found himself inundated by guilt. He was surprised by an intense period of regret and questioning. What could he have done differently as a father? How could he have been better? As time continued, his guilt only snowballed.
"I don't know how to name it, but I regretted everything," Park said. "I could not accept myself as who I am now, so I really punished myself."
Park, associate professor of art and communication at Wheaton College, teaches classes on cinema, digital photography and narrative filmmaking. "Passionate" is a word many students use to describe him.
Charity Lurvey, a senior art major, said, "Professor Park is the perfect example of someone who is passionate about what he teaches. He doesn't just teach digital media and film; he shows us how to interact with it and truly digest it.
So, in the wake of what he describes as his mid-life crisis, Park sought to find internal reconciliation through his passion filmmaking. His latest project, entitled "Right to Forget, Duty to Remember," debuted earlier this year. A still Park's exhibit "Blood and M ilk. " on Instagram.
The project, created over six years, is the latest film in his "trilogy of forgiveness:" "Blood and Milk," "Hold Your Breath," and "Right to Forget, Duty to Remember." The first installment of this project focused on forgiving an enemy. His subject: Victims and perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a tribal conflict that killed roughly 800,000 Rwandans.
Working alongside Christian Action for Reconciliation and Social Assistance (CARSA), Park interviewed and filmed 41 Rwandans involved with "Cows for Peace," a CAR SA program that cultivates trust between survivors and perpetrators as they raise a cow together. His research culminated in a video portrait series called "Blood and Milk" (2019). In a dim-lit gallery in the Rwandan Reconciliation Center, between video portraits of victims and perpetrators, Park hung their personal testimonies of reconciliation. Instead of labeling them 'guilty' or 'innocent,' Park's gallery portrayed his subjects scratching their faces or holding their children — they were human beings.
"How is it possible for people to forgive somebody who killed their family members? But they did. They forgave and they were forgiven," Park said. After his experience, Park concluded, "I think if I chose only one thing that makes humans the most godlike, it would be forgiveness.
Park was not the only one affected by his project — Dan Haase, the department chair of Christian formation and ministry at Wheaton, has shown "Blood and Milk" in several ofhis classes.
Speaking of"Blood and Milk," Haase shared, "Joonhee's exhibits have always drawn me into a deeper contemplation and response to love my neighbor. I have learned to be more Christian because ofhis invitation to pay attention.
"Blood and Milk" drove Park to double down on his exploration of forgiveness, focusing on self-forgiveness. Choosing students and faculty at Wheaton ms his subject, Park created another multimedia gallery display called "Hold Your Breath" (2021). This project featured black-and-white video portraits accompanied by a voiceover of the subject sharing a secret they had never told anyone.
"It was very emotional, as people talked about their mom, their grandfather, themselves, their own mental health issues and suicidal ideation," Park said. "It was a very powerful experience.
After "Hold Your Breath" debuted, Park decided to conclude his trilogy of forgiveness with one final project: a documentary about environmental reconciliation.
"My new focus was reconciliation between nature and humanity, asking forgiveness from the human side, to nature, God's creation," said Park. "Our neighbors are not limited to only human beings, but animals ms well. Vegetations, trees, air, water and everyth ing.
After receiving funds from Wheaton's Faculty Global Research Grant and the John Stott Faculty Grant, Park traveled to South Korea in the fall of 2023 to film his near project. He released "Right to Forget, Duty to Remember" (2024), a documentary about plastic waste and recycling, on Youtube.
"Right to Forget, Duty to Remember" steps away from the form ofPark's past video projects. While "Blood and Milk" and "Hold Your Breath" were mixed-media, gallery exhibits, Park made his new film as much like a typical documentary as possible. His process was simple: Film interviews and capture b-roll and location shots.
"I wanted to make everybody understand it," Park said. "In straightforward documentary form, people do not have to wonder, 'What does that mean? What is this camera movement? Is this symbolic? What is the implication ofthis editing?' They can skip all these barriers of artistic decisions and just go straight to the message.
The documentary begins with shots of the natural world — close-ups of flowers shaking in the wind and drone footage of cloud-tipped mountain ranges. Then it cuts to overhead footage of landfills, interspersed with intimate zoom-ins of empty take- out boxes, discarded outside. Park's message is laid bare it is individual waste in those landfills, and humans are responsible.
At the same time, Park strives to feature concrete examples of what people are actively doing to support the environment, such as zero-waste refill stores, environmentally friendly churches and toy- recycling companies. In a documentary that could be bleak, Park is hopeful.
Although South Korea produces a high amount of plastic waste, the country is also one of the world's top recyclers — according to the New York Times, 60 percent of South Korea's plastic waste is recycled. In contrast, the United States produces the second largest amount of plastic waste worldwide — and the MIT Technology Review found that the U.S only recycles 5-6 percent of it.
"I wanted to show the positive, so we might learn something as Western viewers," said Park. "If South Korea does that well, then we can do it better here.
Although Park's film has done well in South Korea — it was broadcasted nationwide on the Christian Television Network (CTS) — he says he believes the United States is too apathetic to care about recycling. But he does have hope for Wheaton College.
"I hope students will rethink their waste, like how many plastic containers, spoons, forks, cups and plates they emit per week," Park said.
As his trilogy of forgiveness closes, Park says he hopes that viewers of "Right to Forget, Duty to Remember" will understand what he has learned through his six-year project — that reconciliation is an action we must take, especially concerning environmental care.
"Forgiving is a verb, not an adjective," Park said. "Forgive. Reconcile. Love. Verbs — they are all verbs, not adjectives. Christian faith is not just a fulfillment of my emotions by the Holy Spirit. It's a verb. It's action."
Kate Walsh
Kate is a senior English Writing major from Jacksonville, Florida. She loves baking, long walks, reading poetry, and coffee.