I agree. We do lack good quality documentaries which would enable us to understand better the country, it’s geography, history, culture and social issues.
Copying here from my post on Variety shows
Here is a list of things I found on the internet. There should be dozens more.
See this BBCdocumentary South Korea: The Silent Cultural Superpower.
Documentary films about S.Korea (a short list on Wikipedia)
South Korean documentary films (a list by Wikipedia)
The Sewol. A S.Korean documentary about the Sewol Tragedy.
The Foreigner An incredible group of pro Korean gamers take the world by surprise in an international tournament.
The Last Tear (2015) About “comfort women,” or more accurately, the estimated 200,000 women who were recruited to sexually serve the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
A Trip to South Korea - People of Life (2012) The filmmaker travels all over Korea and talks to everyday people.
Fading Away (2013) A series of never before told stories from a group of unique Korean War veterans and refugees through a series of insightful interviews and the use of rare historical film footage, photos and other archival material.
Weekends (2016) Every weekend, a group of gay men gather around the heart of Seoul, Korea, to sing. They are more like a bunch of amateurs than a harmonized choir, but they are voicing for equality and against discrimination towards sexual minorities in Korea. G-Voice is the one and only gay men’s choir in South Korea.
Reach for the SKY (2015) Belgian/Korean coproduction that tells the story of several South-Korean high school students, their families and teachers, as they prepare for the annual National Exam. The exam will not only determine where the high school seniors will attend university but ultimately also their status in the Korean hierarchical society.
Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits (2014) A life documentary of a woman who was shunned for being possessed by spirits as a girl, oppressed for following superstitions as an adult, how she grows to be a great shaman who embraces the pain of all people, and how she comes to be honored as a national treasure of Korea with her outstanding artistic talents throughout Korea’s tumultuous history.
My Fair Wedding 마이 페어 웨딩, In an intimate and candid documentary shot by Jang Hee-sun, we follow Gwang-Soo and Dave as they plan their landmark wedding, the first same-sex marriage performed in South Korea. However, with tradition and conservatism broken, gay marriage opponents make their displeasure heard loud and clear before and during the grooms’ special day.
Kim Dong-won’s Sanggye-dong Olympics (1988) , about the forcible relocation of slum residents during construction for the Olympics, is considered by many to represent the first major work of the Korean documentary movement. When it was decided that the 88 Olympics would be held in Seoul, the residents of Sanggye-dong were forced from their homes and they struggled against the government to at least guarantee them new residences. The director filmed the difficulties and the hardships of the relocated residents.
Smashing Homophobia Project (2007) documentary triptych about the lives of three Korean lesbian teenagers.
An Omnivorous Family’s Dilemma (2014). About the challenges faced by a South Korean woman deciding to go vegetarian.
Repatriation (2004) a film project which spanned 12 years and 800 hours of videotaping, is about Korea’s long-term prisoners of conscience. Jailed for their Communist beliefs, and refusing to renounce their ideology despite torture and intimidation, many of these men spent decades (up to 45 years) in South Korean prisons. Only in the 1990s, with pressure applied from Amnesty International and against the backdrop of democratic reforms, did large numbers of unconverted prisoners gain their freedom. Repatriation begins as the men are released from prison, focusing on their efforts to adapt to South Korean society and their campaign to be repatriated to North Korea. See a Variety review here.