“The George Washington of Video Art”
“Cultural Terrorist”
“Citizen Zero of the Electronic Superhighway”
But who really was Nam June Paik, pillar of the American avant-garde in the 20th century and arguably the most famous Korean artist in modern history? Director Amanda Kim tells, for the first time, the story of Paik’s meteoric rise in the New York art scene and his Nostradamus-like visions of a future in which “everybody will have his own TV channel.”
Thanks to social media, Paik’s future is now our present, and NAM JUNE PAIK: MOON IS THE OLDEST TV shows us how we got here.
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Amanda Kim’s documentary charts Paik’s artistic evolution by tracing his formative education in Munich and his life-changing encounter with avant-garde musician John Cage, through his immigration to New York City and collaboration with the seminal experimental Fluxus movement, into his revolutionary work with video art—including his radical public television broadcasts of “Global Groove” in 1973 and “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell” in 1984—and beyond into Paik’s lasting influence on the art world and his predictions of our technological future.
Featuring an extensive archive of performance footage, original interviews from Paik’s contemporaries and collaborators, and a voiceover narration of Nam June Paik’s writings read by Executive Producer Steven Yeun (Minari, Nope), NAM JUNE PAIK: MOON IS THE OLDEST TV is a timely meditation on the contradictory ways in which technology elicits both fascist tendencies and intercultural understanding.
Filmmakers
Amanda Kim – Director & Producer
Amanda Kim is a Tokyo-raised, Korean American director and producer. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in Comparative Literature, she worked many odd jobs in music, fashion, and design, before landing a job at Vice Media. A former creative director at Vice Media, she led U.S. video direction for i-D, Creators, and Garage magazine. Kim also worked on Viceland, Vice’s TV channel, as a creative producer in an experimental incubator where she directed a nimble production crew to test out pilots and innovative content formats.
Steven Yeun – Executive Producer
Steven Yeun is an Academy Award-nominated actor and producer. Recently, he starred in and served as Executive Producer for the Netflix dramedy, BEEF, alongside Ali Wong for Netflix and A24. For his performance and producing, he earned a Golden Globe, Emmy, Critics Choice and SAG award. He produced and voiced the Sundance documentary, Nam June Paik, to critical acclaim through his production company, Celadon Pictures. He currently lends his voice to popular animated series, “INVINCIBLE.”
Other notable credits include, “The Walking Dead, Jordan Peele’s “NOPE”, Lee Isaac Chung’s Oscar-nominated “MINARI,” and Lee Chang-Dong’s “BURNING”, all of which earned critical acclaim and award nominations. Upcoming, Yeun stars alongside Robert Pattinson in “MICKEY 17,” directed by Bong Joon Ho. The film will be released globally on January 31, 2025.
Steve Jang – Executive Producer
Steve is a technology entrepreneur and venture capital investor at Kindred Ventures, which he founded in 2014. He started Lone Palm Pictures to support independent filmmakers and storytelling. Over the last 25 years, Steve has served as an executive producer of documentary films, digital art collections, and music videos, including the recently released critically-acclaimed “Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV” which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2023, and “Vitalik”, an upcoming film about the creator of Ethereum and the world’s most vibrant decentralized internet community, as well as CG-aided music videos for J Dilla and The Strokes early on in the current digital video era.
Kenzo Digital – Executive Producer
Kenzo Digital is an artist whose work is dedicated to synthesizing new narrative forms with groundbreaking technology to create impactful, emotional stories. He is the founder of Kenzo Digital Immersive, an immersive storytelling studio based in New York. Kenzo Digital is known for Beyoncé: I Was Here (2012), Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV (2023) and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (2010).
Jennifer Blei Stockman – Producer
Jennifer Blei Stockman produces documentary films on artists and the art world. Her 2018 Emmy nominated film The Price of Everything had its world premiere at the Sundance Festival and is shown on HBO and Apple. In 2017 she produced Love, Cecil , a film about legendary photographer, illustrator and writer Cecil Beaton, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. She helped produce HILMA, a narrative about Hilma af Klint, with Director Lasse Hallstrom, which was released in Europe in September 2022. Her current release Nam June Paik: The Moon had its world premiere in Sundance in January 2023. It is being distributed widely internationally and will be in theaters and on PBS.
Stockman is President Emeritus of the GUGGENHEIM and served as President for 15 years. The GUGGENHEIM has museums in New York, Bilbao, Venice, and soon-to-be Abu Dhabi.
She is a Founder of DMINTI, which brings digital and web3 fluency to the more ‘traditional’ art world. DMinti’s metaverse actively hosts lectures, tours, weekly programs; plus exhibits work from Museums, Estates, crypto and legacy artists — helping to bridge and build communities.
Stockman is a partner of GMSG(Global Museum Strategy Group) and currently has high level projects in the Middle East advising on the development of multiple art museums.
Priorly, Stockman worked as an executive for decades in business (IBM, Sears World Trade and running her own firm SAI) and was actively involved for years as an activist for womens rights.
She has been an avid collector of contemporary art (including NFTs) since the 90s.
David Koh – Producer
David Koh is an Award Winning Film Producer, Curator & Sales Agent. He has been involved in over a dozen Academy nominated films and several that have won. He currently co-manages a portfolio of over 20+ projects a year through the label Curatorial. David was previously a partner at Submarine and founded distribution imprint Arthouse Films. He previously worked as an assistant to filmmaker Jonas Mekas and as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik, and was Head of Acquisitions & Production for Chris Blackwell’s (founder of Island Records) Palm Pictures. He is currently a Curator for the Faena Rose Miami and has served as a Curator/Advisor to Samsung, Microsoft, Shelter Capital, Mona Museum, and the End Fund. He has worked in the Film Curatorial departments of MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, MFA Boston, and Anthology Film Archives; and served as an Editor of Film Culture Magazine. David was also the founder of the Santa Fe Film Festival, the Goldeneye Film Festival, and Seoul Nymax. Recent and upcoming projects Produced/Executive Produced include Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, All the Streets Are Silent, Robert Irwin: a Desert of Pure Feeling, Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story, Not Without Hope, and Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV.
Amy Hobby – Producer
Amy Hobby is an Academy Award nominated, and Emmy Award winning film producer. Her documentary features include CONVERGENCE (Netflix, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel), WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? (Netflix, directed by Liz Garbus), AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE (IFC + Criterion Collection, directed by Steven Soderbergh), LOVE, MARILYN (HBO, directed by Liz Garbus), SHEPARD & DARK (Music Box, Cannes Film Festival) and THE LAST LAUGH (ITVS, featuring Mel Brooks, Rob Reiner, Sarah Silverman). Her scripted features include SECRETARY (Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader), HAMLET (Ethan Hawke, Bill Murray), LUCKY THEM (Toni Collette, Johnny Depp), PAINT IT BLACK (Janet McTeer, Alia Shawcat), and NADJA (Executive Producer David Lynch), among many others.
Hobby was the Executive Director of the TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE from 2016 to 2020, where she and her team supported hundreds of global filmmakers each year. In 2021, she co-founded DISTRIBUTION ADVOCATES which works to collectively reclaim power for independent storytellers in the current system of distribution and exhibition.
Jesse Wann – Producer
As a TV & Film producer Jesse worked with Oscar-winner Errol Morris on the documentary series Wormwood for Netflix, starring Peter Sarsgaard (Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival), the documentary series It’s Not Crazy, It’s Sports for ESPN Films, The B Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography (Telluride Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, New York Film Festival), and Three Short Films About Peace (Telluride Film Festival, The New York Times Op-Docs). Other TV & Film credits include the MTV documentary series How’s Your News?, Best Man Wins (Tribeca Film Festival), Rufus (also writer) (LA Shorts Fest), and The Park, a short film series for The New York Times (also co-writer).
Mariko Munro – Producer
Mariko Munro (Producer) is a filmmaker and art advisor working in both fields for over a decade. Notable works include MILKSHAKE (director, producer), feature film premier at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, FALSE TRUE LOVE (director, producer) included as Emily Sundblad’s participation in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, with screenings at 356 Mission Rd, Los Angeles and LUMA Foundation Zurich, JACK (Short, director) 2016 premiered at BAM Cinema Festival. Munro has been a regular contributor to Sesame Street since 2014, earning her an Emmy Nomination for her music video THE AMAZING SONG – SESAME AND AUTISM. Since 2020 Munro has been working in the Premium Documentary space for Story Syndicate on projects for HBO, Netflix, FX, and Apple TV+. Munro is currently in development as a producer on a documentary feature with Monkeypaw Productions.
Prior to her work in film Munro was director of 303 Gallery, New York. Munro continues to work in fine arts as a consultant to galleries, artists, and collectors, and since 2017 has been a sales director at Reena Spaulings Fine Arts. Recent curatorial projects include organizing an exhibition of work by Seth Bogart for Drag City’s Soccer Club Club in Chicago IL, and building Tartine Bakery’s art collection focused on emerging artists working in California.
Taryn Gould – Editor
Taryn Gould is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. After Graduating from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, she began her career on the road documenting artists like Lil Mama and The Roots, and filming for Atlantic records. Her work has been shortlisted for an Academy Award, and nominated for a Best Music Film Grammy, an Outstanding Documentary Emmy, and a Critics Choice award. It has screened at Sundance, Tribeca, Berlin, SXSW, Hot Docs, SIFF, IDFA and Locarno and had a theatrical run at Film Forum. It has been featured by the New York Times and Variety, who called her work “movingly intense”, and is currently streaming on Netflix, Amazon, and HBO.