Event

2008-10-04 The House of Sharing

As young girls in Korea, they were stolen from their homeland and forced into a violent world of torture and sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II. Somehow these eight women survived unspeakable brutalities only to return to their country as outcasts, suffering in silence for the next 60 years.

Now in their eighties and nineties, these "comfort women" live together at the House of Sharing, a communal home founded as a place of healing and strength in 1992. Here the women help educate visitors about their past through their stories, artwork, songs, and warm personalities. In doing so, they find a type of liberation following years of quiet suffering and teach a younger generation that this can never happen again.

In the twilight of their lives, the women of the House of Sharing now find themselves in a different kind of constant daily struggle-- one for justice. Despite the pains of old age and battered bodies, they continue each day to lead the fight for awareness and demand an apology from the Japanese government for the crimes committed against them and the estimated 200,000 other victims.

First-time director Hein Seok went to the House of Sharing and documented these eight survivors for over a year, witnessing every aspect of their lives. These remarkable women opened up their home for the camera and allowed an incredibly candid look into their harrowing pasts, their ongoing mission and their hopes for the future, even as their time is fleeting.