KO Hee-young, born in 1966 in Jeju Island, left her hometown at the age of 23 to work as a local news reporter in Daegu for daily newspaper Gyeongbuk Ilbo, before becoming in 1996 the main screenwriter of TV variety show <Unanswered Questions> for SBS. Since her repetitive job was making her anxious, she felt like she needed to try new experiences, and so she decided to move to Beijing and start a new career in independent documentary films. One day, as she was diagnose...More

KO Hee-young, born in 1966 in Jeju Island, left her hometown at the age of 23 to work as a local news reporter in Daegu for daily newspaper Gyeongbuk Ilbo, before becoming in 1996 the main screenwriter of TV variety show <Unanswered Questions> for SBS. Since her repetitive job was making her anxious, she felt like she needed to try new experiences, and so she decided to move to Beijing and start a new career in independent documentary films. One day, as she was diagnosed with cancer, she started to question her life so far and felt a special admiration for the strong will and determination of haenyeo, Jeju’s women divers who harvest seafood without any breathing apparatus. She decided to make a movie about them, and so, in 2008, she established in Korea her film production company Sumbi, whose name comes from the exhalation technique used by these divers. She spent two years just to gain the trust of the haenyo, and many more to film them. She eventually released her movie <Breathing Underwater> in 2016, in the wake of the special mention of the jury she received in the Korean Competition of the Jeonju International Film Festival. She released the same year another documentary, <SEE-SAW> (2016), in which a former pop star who turned blind goes on a road-trip with the man who wants to donate to him the cornea of his last remaining eye.

Director of <Why Made-in-China Conquers the World> (KBS Special)
Director of <Kojima Island Monkeys – Record of Ten Years> (SBS Special) etc. produced many documentaries
2008 founded a Film production 'Soom Bee'
2008~2013 Executive director of documentary feature,<Mulsum>(A Little Bit More), <1966-1976> Less