DC/DOX: “School for Defectors” Teaches a Way Forward
The jump from Jeremy Workman’s 2024 film, Secret Mall Apartment, to his most recent documentary, School for Defectors, does not make sense on paper. How does a man who made a film about a bizarre artist colony that cropped up in the Providence Place shopping mall in Rhode Island find himself in Busan, South Korea? The answer comes from another film Workman directed, Lily Topples the World. While traveling with that film, he was invited to a small school in Busan, South Korea, that would inspire this next project. School for Defectors, which is screening as part of the 2026 DC/DOX Film Festival, is a fly-on-the-wall documentary about a few months in the lives of students as they adjust to life outside North Korea.
After World War II ended, Korea was occupied by Soviet and U.S. forces. The Soviets took over the north while America claimed the south. Communism was instilled in the Soviet-controlled area and the United States pushed democracy. As a result, Korea has been divided for over 80 years, with families still separated by the Demilitarized Zone. Life in North Korea is isolating. Poverty and famine are the norm, work is often dangerous, and citizens must put the country above all else. School for Defectors is about students who have either escaped from North Korea or are the child of someone who has. The Jangdaehyun School is located in Busan, South Korea, and is a boarding school for children to help their transition to their new home. Jangdaehyun School is the smallest of the defector schools, with spots for only 20 students.
Courtesy of DC/DOX
It’s beautiful to see these kids just being silly kids after everything they’ve been through. Some of the students form a group that seeks to write an oral history of the journey they and their families took to get to South Korea. Not all the kids remember the dangerous crossing, but some do. The parents they talk to recall every detail. For many of the students, this is the first time they’re hearing from their loved one about the path they took. To call it harrowing wouldn’t capture the danger these people went through in the hopes of giving their kids a better life. That’s why the students’ project, and this film, are so important. To hear firsthand another person’s reality is to gain a better understanding of our world.
It’s also nice to see the kids do their silly TikTok dances, just like every other teenager on Earth. They grumble about chores, have their passions, and stress out about their futures. It can be so easy to find differences with those who don’t look like themselves, but the kids in School of Defectors look like any group of teenagers in any country. As defectors, they often struggle to fit in at general public schools and are often bullied. Other students make fun of their accents or where they came from, but by being around other kids who understand, they’re given a chance to thrive.
Courtesy of DC/DOX
The mentality of the teachers and the Jangdaehyun School as a whole is one that should be adopted around the world. More than grades, the Jangdaehyun School wants its students to be happy, kind, productive members of society. The kids’ understanding of what it means to be “productive” has to be rewired. It’s not about output for a country who doesn’t return the effort, but in wanting to contribute to be a part of something. That’s one concept the school mentions having to teach its students. How to be part of a democratic society and what that means for their sense of self.
“What kind of person do you want to be?” is asked by the panel of teachers to the students. Many may not have had a chance to consider the future until setting foot in the Jangdaehyun School. It’s a question we take for granted in places like the United States. We have dreams of careers, professions, love, marriages, and futures, so it’s hard to imagine a world where the prospects of identity and the future are not considered. School for Defectors is an act of love for the kids who finally have the opportunity to fall in love with life and their parents who risked death for a chance at a brighter future. Perhaps it’s best to let one of the students sum up the film: “Love has a way of turning fear into courage.”
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