ISSUE 1 | BUSINESS LINK
ANN SHIN
O
n a bitter cold January morning in a small farmhouse at the border of North Korea and China, I met with a human smuggler and 6 North Koreans escaping from their country. I followed them on what turned out to be a 3,000 mile journey to freedom, across China and Southeast Asia. It was a harrowing experience, dodging inspectors on trains and buses, hiding out in safehouse apartments, and hiking along smuggler routes in the jungles of southeast Asia. I was able to film the defectors’ incredible journey and produced the documentary The Defector: Escape from North Korea which won 3 Canadian Screen Academy awards. It was the first documentary for our fledgling company, Fathom, and that 42
