The documentary “The Last of the Sea Women” arrives on Apple TV+ on October 11, and director Sue Kim tells the story of the haenyeo, a company of women who free dive – and hold their breath for up to two minutes - in the ocean to catch seafood with their hands. Sue focuses on Jeju Island in South Korea, where the haenyeo are in their golden years but have been diving for decades. The practice has been passed down for generations, but today, the haenyeo profession is decreasing, and Sue explores the reasons for this and spends time with these fascinating women.
Sue also met with the Phoenix Film Festival to discuss her new film, which won the NETPAC Prize at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
PFF: I didn’t know the haenyeo’s story, but I understand that you learned of their history when you were a kid. Can you expand on that?
SK: I did. I’m Korean American. My parents are Korean immigrants, and they took my brother and me back to Korea several times during my childhood. The very first time, I was eight years old, and we took a short trip to Jeju Island to have a fun, tropical vacation. That’s the first time I ever saw the haenyeo. I didn’t know anything about them. We were by the ocean, by a cove area, and we saw this large gaggle of women in their wetsuits, putting their masks on, and getting ready to go in the ocean. I was so fascinated with them. To my young-girl brain, they looked so cool and tough, and I didn’t know what they did, but they looked like some kind of underwater, secret girl gang. I totally fell in love with them in that moment.
PFF: It’s almost like you’re describing a scene from “Dr. No”.
SK: Totally. Also, they’re quite loud, feisty, and funny, so they gave off this vibe of fearless, bold confidence. (With) the whole energy around them, I just fell in love with them. That started my fascination. I stayed fascinated with them as I grew up, read everything I could get my hands on about them, watched every news piece I could, and then I finally started going back to Jeju as an adult to try to find them.
PFF: The haenyeo are engaging. During their everyday life, when they aren’t diving, they are friendly and seem unassuming and warm. What are the women like off-camera?
SK: They were the exact same off-camera that they are on-camera, which is so wonderful. I’m a documentary filmmaker, and you don’t really know how people will be on camera. Sometimes, (your subjects) will freeze on camera, or they become a more muted version of themselves. The haenyeo, in general, don’t care about what people think. They are very unapologetically who they are. Even though we filmed for quite a long time, they kind of ignored us in the best way, which is exactly how I prefer to film subjects. They forgot that we were there, and then they were their truest, most authentic selves. The way you see them in the film is exactly how I experienced them: tough, feisty, and argumentative at times, but also loving and community-minded, and (they have) an absolute sisterhood, so it was the whole gamut. It was like filming with our aunties, (who) were sometimes bullying us and a lot of times taking care of us.
PFF: The haenyeo are in their golden years, but you introduce two haenyeos in their 30s from Geoje Island, Jeongmin and Sohee. I loved how you introduced them, as the pair filmed themselves dancing for their social media page. Jeongmin and Sohee do the same work as the haenyeo from Jeju Island, but how are their working and lifestyle choices different?
SK: They do the exact same work, and that work is quite physically arduous. All haenyeos share the same qualities, a determination and a resilience to figure out how to make a true living from work. The way that (Jeongmin and Sohee) came to this occupation is totally different. The older haenyeo learned this occupation by virtue of having it passed down through a familial lineage. At the same time, all of our older haenyeo subjects, who are in their 60s and 70s, recalled (that) their introduction to this culture wasn’t really a choice. It was the only occupation that was really available to them. It was a great occupation because it gave them financial independence and freedom, but it was what they were destined to do.
It’s very different with Jeongmin and Sohee, who both came to the haenyeo culture without any connection. But they found it and latched onto it for very post-modern reasons. Sohee found the haenyeo culture after having an office job for eight years, and she was just very disillusioned sitting in a cubicle for 10 hours a day with digital fatigue and email. She found the haenyeo occupation a complete change where she could be close to nature and (feel) satisfied having this connection to nature in her daily work. She sought out (the haenyeo profession) as a break from our modern, white-collar, digital-exhaustion office life.
For Jeongmin, her husband lost his job, and she wanted to contribute to the household income, and the haenyeo occupation allowed her very flexible hours as a working mom. It’s a very post-modern dilemma of how (to) balance work and family life. She found that the haenyeo work (allowed her) to make her own hours. She can decide which days to dive, and it provides her (with) this awesome occupation that can totally coexist in harmony with her family.
So, yeah, they had different choices (than the older haenyeo). They chose this (job) because it gave them freedom. It (is) the most rewarding to them. It (keeps) them connected to the planet, and they grew to love it for very different reasons.
PFF: Jeju Island is a beautiful place, but I appreciate that you also filmed garbage lying on the shore. Sometimes, documentaries about nature may not address or film actual pollution in the environment.
SK: (The plan was to) find out the existential threats to the haenyeo culture. What is really jeopardizing their continuation? From the beginning, all of our haenyeo subjects spoke about ocean pollution and (how it affects) marine life. When filming, we were on boats pretty frequently, and we could see the garbage piling up. Of course, we wanted to show that. Jeju Island is renowned for being this paradise, this beautiful, beautiful coastal island, but the minute you see that garbage piling up, it’s distressing. You can see the physical splendor of this island and the juxtaposition of years and years of pollution and garbage. So, we wanted to show that because (it’s) a very real threat, not just to the haenyeo way of life but to this beautiful island. Look at what we’re doing to it. Yeah, it was an important part of the story.
