Jung Myung-sook

Looking for Hope

Four years ago, I visited Yakutat, the northernmost town in Southeast Alaska. There, I followed uncle Geeneeneik, an elder of the Tlingit Humpback Salmon Clan, through pristine forests and seas. In the fall of 2023, I visited Yakutat again, and I began to record the beautiful world they dreamed of. A flower of hope is blooming in the land where only despair and ruins were thought to remain.

Legend of the Waterflowers

Hyun Soonjik is the oldest living resident in Jeju Island. A natural diver with good skills, she became a high rank Haenyeo at an early age and has led an astonishing career of diving for eighty-seven years. Though she looks more comfortable when she is under water than when she is at home, she quit diving in October, 2020, and goes to sea every day, missing her old life as a diver. When she does, Chae Jiae who has been disciplined by Hyun, accompanies her and looks after her. Together they head for Deulmoolyeo, a place that only Hyun can find, to see the water flowers that bloom under water.