About IN Jeong
In Jeong Kim is a journalist and non-fiction writer from South Korea, and a former staff reporter for MBC, a Korean broadcasting company's Gwangju branch. She has co-directed and co-produced several documentary films that target civil rights movements. In 2023, she published her debut book, 'Spectating Pain,' a deep reflection on the dilemma of covering the pain of others. Currently based in San Francisco, California, Kim is exploring the effects of mass media, photography, and gender issues in her second book. She is also a co-founding editor of bimonthly photography magazine, VOSTOK. Her work has been featured in CNN, MBC, The Nation, and other publications.
PUblication
ABOUT Spectating Pain (2023)
*This book is currently available only in Korean, but I provide an introduction with a partial translation in English.
“In the midst of breathlessly fast memorials and timed mourning, there have been solemn voices urging us to "not use grief for politics." But it's strange to ask us to stay in mere grief after seeing the suffering of others. There's a lot of work to be done in order to not be a spectator, because after we see, we have to look each other in the eyes and figure out how and where we go from there. Maybe this declaration has the huge side effect of shutting down the moment when politics is activated to hold people accountable for the tragedy. There are many reasons why people’s suffering should be publicized, and grief is one of them, but not the only one.
We see suffering because we empathize with the pain of others, but we also see it because we want to mobilize a loose community through solidarity, even if only temporarily, to prevent similar suffering.”
_〈Likes, retweets, and more〉 p.34
Praise for In Jeong Kim’s Spectating Pain
"This book is like a 20th anniversary sequel to Susan Sontag's The Pain of Others (2003) localized with accurate questions."
-Shin Hyungcheol, Literary Critic, Seoul National University professor
WRITING
Responsible Statecraft
Chun Doo-hwan’s bloody Gwangju legacy is America’s problem too
VOSTOK Magazine Vol 37. YOUR SELFIE
Better Me: Social Media and Identity
An Interview with Jia Tolentino
Documentary
His Name Is · Co-Director, Co-Producer and Team Leader · Feature Documentary · Gwangju MBC · 2017
Rise of Asian Youth Activists · Co-Director and Co-Producer · Short Documentary · 2021
Candlelight Movement · Co-Director, Co-Producer and Narrator · Feature Documentary · Gwangju MBC · 2016
The Safest Place · Co-Director and Co-Producer · Short Documentary · 2022 (Not Yet Available)
NEWS & Broadcasting
Participated as a panelist of the TV show
Exclusive Coverage on Gwangju Uprising
Exclusive Coverage on a cave from the Japanese colonial period which was a site of Korean exploitation
Participated in this documentary <Minority Opinion> as one of the interviewees