A National Film Board of Canada production
Over 40 years ago, filmmaker Min Sook Lee’s mother died by suicide. Using her camera, Lee explores long-held silences, unstable memories and unforgettable truths, attempting to understand what happened.
TW: This film contains discussions of suicide, and the effects on survivors of suicide loss. If you need support services, please call your local Distress Centre. If you need immediate help, please call of text 9-8-8.
Short Synopsis
Award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee searches for memories of her mother, Song Ji Lee, who died by suicide when Lee was 12 years old. A looming figure in this search is Lee’s now 90-year-old father, who met her mother while serving in a national intelligence agency under dictator Park Chung Hee in 1960s South Korea. Through a fabric of real and imagined histories, Lee reveals that some stories must still be told, even when the words are forgotten.
Long synopsis
Award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee turns the camera on herself in this urgent documentary, searching for memories of her mother, Song Ji Lee, who died by suicide when Lee was just 12 years old.
Confrontational and speculative, There Are No Words contemplates how trauma fractures memory as Lee revisits the people and places of her childhood in Toronto, Canada, and Hwasun, South Korea, her place of birth.
A looming figure in this search is Lee’s now 90-year-old father, who met her mother while serving in a national intelligence agency under dictator Park Chung Hee in 1960s South Korea. He is her last direct connection to her mother, although he’s an unreliable narrator with a history of abuse who speaks in a mother tongue she cannot fully understand.
Through a fabric of real and imagined histories, Lee reveals that some stories must still be told, even when there are no words for grief.
This film contains discussions of self-harm and abuse.
Written & Directed by
Min Sook Lee
Cinematography by
Iris Ng
Edited by
Eui Yong Zong
Music by
Andrew Yong Hoon Lee
Visual Research by
Erin Chisholm
Mi Re Kim
Emmanuel Moon-chil Park
Producers
Sherien Barsoum
Chanda Chevannes
Executive Producers
Chanda Chevannes
Anita Lee
Featuring
Min Sook Lee
Chung Beum Lee
Luna Lee
Samuel Park
Hae Yeon Choo
Hyeong Im
Myeong Soon Oh
Hye Sook Park
Yong Ju Kim
Sue-Binn Lee
Megan Deveaux
Frank Bark
Clara Bark
Gut Ceremony
Jung Hee Kim
Eun Jeong Kim
Dong Cheol Lee
Gyeong Hwan Shin
Jeong Sam Kim
Yong Woo Moon
Production Manager
Adrianna Marling
Production Managers – Korea
Mi Re Kim
Sunah Kim
Production Supervisor
Marcus Matyas
Unit Production Manager
Calvin Serutoke
Senior Production Coordinators
Adrianna Marling
Katie Murray
Vaishnavi Sambhus
Production Coordinators
Omorose Osagie
Calvin Serutoke
Eponine Young
Development Producers
Lea Marin
Anita Lee
Development Associate Producer
Kate Vollum
Studio Operations Manager
Mark Wilson
Studio Administrators
Victoria Angell
Andrew Martin-Smith
Studio Coordinators
Victoria Anderson-Gardner
Carly Kastner
Calvin Serutoke
Administrative Assistant
Elana Emer
Studio Technician
Q’Mal Labad-Workman
Additional Photography
Eunsoo Cho
Mrinal Desai
Min Sook Lee
Ésery Mondésir
Jason O’Hara
Hong Yeol Park
1st Assistant Camera
Chelsie Boreland
Elana Emer
Yoon Beom Lee
Ashley Mach
Jeongwoo Noh
Talia Woodland
Marisa Wu
2nd Assistant Camera
Young Hwa Ahn
Doyeon Kim
Nigel Tang
Roy Zheng
Gaffer
Hyun Jae Park
Key Grip
Wilny Su
Grip
Jasmine de Boer
Set Dresser
Meryl Romo
Sound Recordists
Jason Hopfner
Yongseok Kim
Min Jae Lee
Huan Nguyen
Dominic Tan
Amanda Wong
Digital Media Technicians
Jasmine de Boer
Set Shuter
Talia Woodland
Steadicam Operators
Jeongwoo Noh
Talia Woodland
Drone Cinematographer – Korea
Hong Yeol Park
Drone Cinematographer – Canada
Tom Comet, DroneBoy
Drone Camera Operator – Canada
Matt Joniec, DroneBoy
Narrator
Min Sook Lee
Story Consultant
Ricardo Acosta
Research Interviewer
Lisa Valencia-Svensson
Field Producer – Korea
Emmanuel Moon-chil Park
Hwasun Field Manager
Yongchul Im
Production Assistants
Seo Woo Bae
Alexander Efimov
Ebony Green
Toby Karass-Rohan
Minsoo Lee
Song Ji Lee
Siwon Park
Kyeong Min Son
Interpreters
Hae Yeon Choo
Hyunjung Lee
Sue-Binn Lee
Samuel Park
Stills Photographers
Elana Emer
Adrianna Marling
Rachael Reid
Drivers
Hyun Jin Kim
Yongbum Kim
Location Support
Hyo Kyoung Jeon
COVID Testing
Pulsar UV
Post-Production Coordinator
Lia Tarachansky
Assistant Editor
Cat Senior
Additional Assistant Editors
Meraj Badiuzzaman
Cassidy Croft
Chorong Kim
Compositor
Cat Senior
Technical Coordinators
Luc Binette
Phillip Hawkes
Kevin Riley
Shaghayegh Haghdoust Yazdi
Post-Production Picture Services
Urban Post
Colourist
Andrew Mandziuk
Conform Editor
Kyle Campbell
Online Editors
Jessica Goebell
Andrew Mandziuk
Post Producer
Sarah Elliott
VP of Operations
Roberta Bratti
Director of Sales at Urban Post
Kingsley Fialho
Picture Operations Manager
Bruce Rees
Post-Production Sound Services
Formosa Group Toronto
Re-Recording Mixer
Matthew Chan
Sound Designer
David Rose
Dialogue Editor
Elma Bello
ADR Mixer
Paul Lynch
Head of Production
Ginny Koole
Director of Sound Services
Alex Aslund
Additional Sound Effects Provided by
Dahee Kim
Heejin Kim
News Reader
John McGrath
Title Design
Ali Qadeer
Transcription
Chorong Kim
Hyun-Chul Kim
Translation
Chorong Kim
Power of Babel
Subtitles
Chorong Kim
Sophie Bowman
Hae Yeon Choo
Min Sook Lee
Eui Yong Zong
Film Development
Niagara Custom Labs
Film Scanning
Frame Discreet
Senior Marketing Advisor
Kay Rondonneau
Marketing Coordinator
Harmonie Hemming
Publicist
Jennifer Mair
Legal Counsel
Peter Kallianiotis
Mental Health Consultant
Karen Dougherty
Archival Material
5·18 Archives
8mm Time Travel film footage licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE
AP Television
Archives of Ontario
The Canadian Press
CBC Archive Sales
CBS News/Veritone
Courtesy of MBC
CTV News © BELL MEDIA INC. All rights reserved.
Hamilton Spectator | November 7, 1977 | page 4
IMS, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
KBS Media
Korean Film Archive excerpts from:
The Widow (1955), directed by Nam-ok Park and
Madame Freedom (1956), directed by Hyung-mo Han
KTV excerpts from: Establishing the Electrical Incident Response Centre, Vigorous Economic Development, News Briefs, Coal Mining Village, and Miners of the Tunnels
Min Sook Lee
National Archives and Records Administration
NBC News Archives via Getty Images
© NDR, distributed by OneGate Media GmbH. A Studio Hamburg Company
National Film Board of Canada
Periscope Film
Michael Rogge
Société Radio-Canada (SRC) / Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Starting From Nina: The Politics of Learning
Stock Media provided by DogPhonics / Pond5
Toronto Star. © 1977-78 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Used under license.
Music Rights Research
Emmanuel Moon-chil Park
Music Licensing Consultant
JinLyeol Kim
Music
HWA RYU BAEKSEO
Written by Yaincho, Jeong-hwa Lee Performed by Geum-sim Hwang
CAMELLIA LADY
Written by San-do Han, Young-ho Baek Arranged by Chul-hyuk Lee Performed by Mi-ja Lee Courtesy of Leeway Music & Media Music Rights Holder: Jigu Records Administrator (Licensing Agent): KBS Media
Thank You
Manfred Becker
Sophie Bowman
Nathalie-Anne Brassard
Grace M. Cho
Michelle Cho
Hyun Mi Choi
Moon Sun Choi
Sungjai Choi Nora Currie
Richard Fung
Vanessa Gooden
Ja Hywan Gu
Melanie Heath
Cathleen Hoskins
Jordan Huffman
Yehji Jeong
Joseph Juhn
David Kazala
Chung Bi Kim
Je Weon Kim
Jong Dae Kim
Lalita Krishna
Jagadishkumar Gandhimurthy
Lokchi Lam
Andres Landau
Bo Hyeong Lee
Helen Lee
John Lee
Mi-Jeong Lee
D’Arcy Martin
Kyo Maclear
Marilyn J. McKay
Ipsa Mohanty
Vinh Nguyen
Junu Park
Thy Phu
Barum Rho
Kerri Sakomoto
Jesook Song
Shin Yeong Song
Douglas Stewart
Attila Szanyi
Nadine Valcin
Lisa Valencia-Svensson
Victory Social Club
b.h. Yael
John Yoon
Peter Yu
Mariam Zaidi
Min Ji Byun
Jin Ok Cho
Gwang Chan Go
Jiyu Hong
Gi Hyun
Jeongnim Ji
Dohyun Kim
Dong-Choon Kim
Rose Kim
Jae Boong Lee
Dong Chul Lim
Song Ju Park
Paul Ryu
Hong Seop Shim
Bongsan Mask Dance Preservation Association
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Cultural Tourism Division, Hwasun County Office
Galleria Supermarket
Hwasun Bus Station
Hwasun Dolmen Park
Nakwon Waldorf Kinderhaus
Parliament Smoke & Gift
Signature Realty
Seongsan Neighborhood Park, Mapo-Gu Office Parks and Greenery Department
Suncheon Naganeupseong Folk Village
York Cemetery
Haim Zong
Hana Zong
Haron Zong
Jin Ho Zong
Moon Yong Zong
John T. Blundell
Luna Lee
Song Ji Lee
© 2025 National Film Board of Canada
If you need counselling services, please call your local Distress Centre.
If you need immediate support, please call or text 9-8-8