Annabel Park ( ko, 박수현) is a

Korean American Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...

documentary filmmaker, political activist and community volunteer.

Early years

Born in 1968 in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, South Korea, Annabel immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

with her family when she was nine years old, and was raised in Texas and Maryland. She studied Philosophy at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

and Political Theory at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

as a

Marshall Scholar The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...

.9500 Liberty
Profile of Annabel Park
Coffee Party activists say their civic brew's a tastier choice than Tea Party's

Career history

Park has worked in her family owned truck diner, worked as a nanny in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and briefly worked in strategic planning at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as a strategy analyst. She has also worked as playwright, theater director, and documentary film maker.

Political activism

Park was the national coordinator for a network of second-generation Korean Americans, the 121 Coalition, and was instrumental in the passing of House Resolution 121. She co-directed and produced the documentary, ''

9500 Liberty ''9500 Liberty'' is a 2009 documentary film about the struggle over immigration in Prince William County, Virginia. It was directed by Annabel Park and Eric Byler. Content The film chronicles an eight-week period wherein an "Arizona-style" imm ...

'', about the battle over the "Immigration Resolution" law in Virginia. She is a co-founding member and was initially the de facto-coordinator of Coffee Party USA, an organization which described itself as a fact-based, non-partisan and solutions-based network that considered itself to be a "more thoughtful and reasoned alternative to the

Tea Party A tea party is a social gathering event held in the afternoon. For centuries, many societies have cherished drinking tea with a company at noon. Tea parties are considered for formal business meetings, social celebrations or just as an afternoon ...

." Park served for a time as spokesperson and Advisory Board member for Coffee Party USA. She has since departed the organization due to dissatisfaction with its governance process. She was a volunteer for

Jim Webb James Henry Webb Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Counsel for the United States ...

's 2006 US Senate campaign and for

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

's 2008 presidential campaign. Park is the creator and content producer for the interactive documentary ''2010 Okinawa'', exploring the controversy over U.S. bases in Okinawa. She teamed with film director

Eric Byler Eric Byler (born January 15, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist. Personal life Byler identifies as hapa biracial, born to a Chinese American mother and a white American father. He grew up in Virginia, Hawa ...

on the web series Story of America (StoryofAmerica.org) which helped to launch both the

Moral Monday Moral Mondays are protests that originated in North Carolina, United States and emerged elsewhere in the United States. Led by religious progressives, the leaders of the protesters sought to restore "morality" in the public sphere. Protests began ...

movement and the "Walking Mayor" Adam O'Neal and the fight for rural healthcare (SaveourHospital.org).

Filmography

"9500 Liberty" was directed by Annabel Park and Eric Byler. It chronicles the only eight weeks in American history where an " Arizona style" immigration crackdown was actually implemented, and why it was quickly repealed. "9500 Liberty" began as an "interactive documentary," allowing its viewers to not only comment, but suggest new directions and additional coverage of the story, which was uploaded almost immediately after it was shot. Today there are more than 100 installments on the

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel, most of them posted between September 2007 and June 2008. These videos were combined with never-before-seen footage, including a behind-the-scenes portrayal of Park and Byler's challenge with

citizen journalism Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...

and civic duty in the midst of a divisive culture war, to create the critically acclaimed feature film. "9500 Liberty" is the winner of four film festival awards. It was released theatrically in more than 30 cities, and picked up by MTV Networks for a Sept 26, 2010 cable premiere. "Story of America" is an ambitious documentary web series launched in 2012 directed by Annabel Park about searching for hope and healing in America's divide. A particular focus on voting rights called attention to voter suppression in many states and counties, particularly during the 2012 US Presidential election, when elected officials, such as

Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecess ...

, and lawyers and activists were interviewed to share what they witnessed in terms of the practices used to block minority voters from exercising their rights at the polls.

References

External links

Save Our Hospital website page

Annabel Park's Personal Website

Annabel Park Facebook page

Story of America Facebook page

Story of America website page

9500 Liberty website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Annabel Living people People from Washington, D.C. Marshall Scholars American documentary filmmakers South Korean emigrants to the United States 1968 births