VICE
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 5 months, 2013–2023
20:52 · 11M views · Dec 19, 2011
Vice founder Shane Smith travels to North Korea, speaking with refugees in South Korea before crossing the DMZ. It is part one of a three-part documentary with rare on-the-ground footage.
HN commenters recommend it as a rare, eye-opening look inside North Korea, though one notes such tours are staged.
5 comments from Hacker News
IIRC, I was introduced to Vice with their fascinating coverage of North Korea: this video (first trip - Shane Smith was banned from the country as a result) [LINK] (second trip years later, where they got in under the guise of a Basketball game) Unfortunately it's been increasingly hit or miss ever since and now their process seems to be along these lines: [LINK] Also, how is it that so many of these media companies are having layoffs at almost exactly the same time? You'd think it'd be more scattered...
I ran across their North Korea report when it was posted 11 years ago and was an instant fan. Shane was compelling and of course the topic was fascinating. Very few people had gotten in there and brought film out like that before, that I had seen at least. Very eye opening this video
Vice has a three-part 1-hour-total documentary on North Korea with footage from the country. Part one: this video
> Each time I recommend them to watch YT videos from non main-stream media, no one reply back with what they found out... Youtube videos from randos aren't very good sources, period, especially on topics like this. I mean, that guy seems like laowhy86's mirror universe twin. > And apparently everyone is happy to bash the credit of mainstream media, except for China/XInjiang, it's like suddenly a bunch of guys never set foot in Xinjiang, start to trusting another bunch of guys also never set foot in Xinjiang, and claim that they are good friends all along... Even the people who bash the MSM rely on it for pretty much all of their information about the outside world. Also, you put far too much weight on "setting foot" somewhere. For instance, would taking a regime-lead guided tour of North Korea (like this this video ) really help anyone understand North Korea at all? It's probably the only way to "set foot" there as a foreigner. The answer is no. You'd get much better understanding reviewing documents (both officially distributed and otherwise), interviewing defectors, and maybe even looking at satellite photos. The highly produced tour would be superfluous (and in this case, potentially dangerous).
There is a documentary on YouTube where Shane Smith (of Vice mag) visits North Korea. He is put up in a fake hotel, given fake ceremonial dinners, fakely entertained in fake karaoke places, and so on. Seems like the same situation as the author of this article, the difference being Smith is explicitly not under any illusions of authenticity. Link to documentary: this video