Lawrenceville Students Earn National Honors for Human Rights Documentary

A documentary produced by Lawrenceville students Ethan Lee ’27 and Teri Kim ’27 has earned national recognition for its examination of housing insecurity and urban redevelopment in South Korea. Their film, “Guryong Village: The Last Shantytown of Gangnam,” received third prize in the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Speak Truth to Power Video Contest and was screened earlier this summer at the Tribeca Film Festival as part of the Kennedy Human Rights Center’s annual showcase.

Created through a Hutchins Civic Media Grant, the seven-minute documentary explores the competing interests surrounding Seoul’s last remaining shantytown while centering the experiences and dignity of the people who call it home. The grant program supports student-produced films that examine civic issues through ethical, community-centered storytelling.

 "Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have for building our civic capacity to inform, connect, and activate,” said Zaheer Ali, executive director of the Hutchins Center for Civics. “As part of the Hutchins Civic Media program, Ethan Lee's and Teri Kim's film exemplifies the power of nonfiction storytelling to examine civic issues through ethical, community-centered storytelling."

He continued, “"Having their film showcased as part of the Kennedy Human Rights Center's showcase at the Tribeca Film Festival is truly an honor and tribute to the power and agency our students already have as civic actors. The Hutchins Center for Civics is extremely proud of their accomplishment."

Selected from approximately 450 submissions, “Guryong Village” was one of five award-winning student films screened at the showcase.

“The number one piece of feedback I received was, ‘I see a lot of this issue happening in the U.S.,’” Lee said. “It was amazing to see how these stories could resonate across continents and languages.”

Although both students grew up only minutes from Guryong Village, neither had ever explored the neighborhood or fully understood its history. Discovering how little they knew about a community so close to home became the impetus for the documentary.

Working together from the outset, Lee and Kim combined their complementary strengths to tell the story. Lee led the reporting, interviews, and overall narrative, while Kim served as principal videographer, capturing much of the footage and translating interviews from Korean into English.

Before filming, the pair visited the neighborhood several times without cameras, introducing themselves to residents and building relationships before conducting interviews.

“The people were extremely kind,” Lee said. “They treated me like their grandson. They gave me food. They always had something to offer me. It almost made me forget about the difficult circumstances they were living in.”

Kim said she was equally surprised to discover that the community existed just beyond places she had passed every day growing up.

“I realized it was right next to my previous school, and I was really shocked,” she said.

As they spent more time in the village, both students found their assumptions challenged.

“I realized no one would voluntarily do this for 30 or 40 years,” Kim said. “It was really ignorant of me to think people were staying there just for compensation. It’s much more complicated than that.”

The students deliberately sought out a wide range of perspectives, interviewing longtime residents, urban planning researchers, redevelopment officials, and other stakeholders connected to the project.

“I didn’t want to keep this as a black-and-white story,” Lee said. “I wanted viewers to see the nuance and come to their own conclusions while making sure the residents’ dignity remained visible.”

Editing proved to be one of the project’s greatest challenges. Interviews with residents, pastors, academics, and redevelopment representatives had to be distilled into a concise film without sacrificing nuance.

“There were so many precious moments,” Kim said. “We wanted to focus on the people whose stories best contributed to the overall narrative while still including different perspectives.”

Both students credit Hutchins Center Director Zaheer Ali with encouraging an approach rooted in empathy and respect.

“From the beginning, Mr. Ali emphasized respecting people’s inherent dignity,” Lee said. “That philosophy was incredibly important in making a film that tells their stories without reducing them to a social problem.”

The documentary has also inspired additional scholarship and legislative advocacy. This summer, Lee is continuing his research through a Lawrenceville School Welles Grant, examining the legal and policy complexities surrounding redevelopment in Guryong Village while comparing housing initiatives in South Korea and the United States. Working with Korea University faculty, he drafted amendments to two redevelopment laws for review by a South Korean National Assembly member.

Kim said the project ultimately changed the way she thinks about public policy and the people most affected by it.

“Every important decision happens around a table,” she said. “But some people aren’t even invited to sit at that table.”

For more information, contact Lisa M. Gillard H'17, director of public relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.