Daniel Dae Kim and 3AD Board North Korean Defector Documentary ‘School for Defectors’ (EXCLUSIVE)

“Lost” and “Hawaii Five-0” star Daniel Dae Kim and his production company 3AD have joined filmmaker Jeremy Workman’s documentary “School for Defectors” as executive producers. The film follows a small South Korean school where every student escaped from North Korea. The film is set at Jangdaehyun School, in an industrial part of Busan. The school has just 20 students, and each of them is a defector from the North. Workman was let into a community that had never been filmed before. His film looks at the young people there in terms of both what they have lived through and the lives ahead of them. 3AD joins a producing team that also includes Bearing North, WildBrush Media, SonaFilms and Hooligan Films. “3AD and I are really excited to join ‘School for Defectors’ as executive producers. We believe deeply in the power of documentary filmmaking, and in telling the story of this special high school, Jeremy has poignantly revealed a story full of heart, humor and humanity,” Kim said. “School for Defectors” premiered at the True/False Film Festival in March. Since then it has screened at a dozen more festivals, including Florida, RiverRun, DC/DOX, Calgary, Hamptons, Woodstock, Heartland and Vancouver. It has won six awards so far and is set to screen at Doc NYC. “What we think makes ‘School for Defectors’ so special is that it’s not simply a story about North Korea. It’s a story about youth, hope, and the universal desire to belong,” Workman said. “Daniel Dae Kim has built a remarkable career championing stories and communities that deserve greater visibility, and we’re incredibly honored to have him and 3AD help bring this film to an even wider audience.” Workman, who is repped by UTA, makes portraits of unusual and often obsessive people. His credits include “Secret Mall Apartment” (Netflix), “Lily Topples the World” (Max), “Deciding Vote” (The New Yorker), “The World Before Your Feet” (Prime Video) and “Magical Universe” (AMC+). Across close to 200 reviews, his documentaries hold a combined 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Kim earned a Tony nomination for his role in “Yellow Face.” He hosts and executive produces “K-Everything,” a four-part CNN travel series about South Korea’s cultural reach around the world, which premiered May 9. In June, he appeared in Season 2 of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Off screen, his testimony before Congress helped get the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act passed. He has worked with a number of AAPI community groups and served as advisory council co-chair of TAAF. He is repped by CAA, Linden, Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman, and Narrative. Kim set up 3AD in 2014 to make work in every medium and genre built around people who have historically been underrepresented on screen. The company’s credits include ABC hit “The Good Doctor,” Amazon Prime thriller “Butterfly” and IFC documentary “Bad Axe,” which made the Oscar shortlist in 2022. Producer John Cheng runs development at 3AD, which is under a first-look TV pact with 20th Century Studios. For 3AD, “School for Defectors” adds to a nonfiction track record that already includes “Bad Axe.”