After graduating from Seoul National University in 1990, Sooyong Park worked as a nature documentary Producer and Director for EBS(Educational Broadcasting System) in South Korea from 1991 to 2010. His programs have always focused on the wild Siberian tiger ‘Panthera tigris altaica’.
As a researcher and documentary film-maker, he has studied Siberian tigers for the past twenty years. His filming projects have covered areas such as the Maritime Province of Russia, Manchuria in China, the North Korean border with China, and Taebaek Mountains range in South Korea.
Sooyong Park has spent many months tracking Siberian tigers but also many months incarcerated in a hide, hoping to catch a glimpse of a tiger. Totally alone in the forests of far-eastern Russia, he has endured temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius and the most basic conditions, in an effort to capture this most elusive tiger on film.
Sooyong Park has recorded every moment of his search on film and shot over 1000 hours of material.
He has recently written a book ‘The Great Soul of Siberia’ about the Siberian tiger and has established his own small non-profit organisation, The Siberian Tiger Protection Society, whose main goal is to protect and conserve the remaining populations of Siberian tiger in far-eastern Russia, Manchuria and the Korean peninsula.
Sooyong Park hopes that his continuing research into tracking and studying these wild populations will give him the evidence he needs to gain greater support and protection for the small population of wild Siberian tigers that still exist.
Film credits:
“The Endangered Emperors of Siberia”
“The Elusive Siberian Tiger”
“The Wild Ussury Tiger”
“The Vanishing Amur Leopard”
“In the Tracks of the Korean Tiger”
“Tigers and Humans in China”
“Udeghe and the tiger, The Silence Trackers”
“Blood Exchange Project of the Isolated Wild Tiger”
Awards:
Du Public, Jules Verns Film Festival, 2006, France
Excellence Prize, The 9th Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival
The 11th ‘Best Producer of This Year’ in Korea
The Grand Prix, 26th Korean Broadcasting Awards
The Grand Prix, 32th Paek Sang Arts Awards
The Grand Prix, 1st Samsung Media Awards
