The Quiet Diplomat (2024, in post-production)

Documentary (70 mins), produced by Bright Leaf Pictures and Cinema for Peace in association with Star Entertainment GmbH

Director: Charles Lyons

Producers: Susan Lee MacDonald, Charles Lyons

Executive Producer: Chaim Litewski

Editor: Tamiris Lourenco, edt.

Written by: Tamiris Lourenco, edt. and Charles Lyons

Music: Marion Lemonnier, Woody Pak

Logline: The Quiet Diplomat centers on former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The UN saved his life during the Korea War, inspiring him to become a man of peace. During two terms as the 8th Secretary General, Ban discovers the challenges of international diplomacy in an increasingly splintered world.

Why now? Globally, war and authoritarianism are on the rise. In this film, we see how Ban’s ‘quiet diplomacy’ is a reassertion of the importance of multilateralism, represented by the UN, at a time when collaboration between countries is key for our survival as a species.

Status: After filming Ban Ki-moon in his hometown, Seoul, Korea; Bogota, Colombia; New Haven, CT (Yale); and at New York's UN Headquarters, we are now in post-production, negotiating rights and clearances for stock footage. The film will premiere in February 2024 in Berlin, as part of Cinema for Peace’s World Forum.

Synopsis: During the Korean war (1950 – 53), South Korean-born Ban Ki-moon and his family were displaced and forced to scrape by in the rural countryside outside Seoul. The UN, along with allied forces, repelled Chinese and North Korean troops, and the conflict ended in a stalemate. The war and his family’s hardship made an indelible impact on Ban. Inspired by what the UN stands for (peace, security), young Ban was determined to do good. After meeting U.S. President John F. Kennedy during a special red cross club visit to the White House in 1962, Ban joined his country's foreign service. Following posts in India and elsewhere, he become the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, the highest appointment for a diplomat –– notoriously one of the world’s most difficult jobs.

Drawing on Ban’s memoir, Resolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World (to which we hold film rights), The Quiet Diplomat tells the story of Ban’s upbringing while also focusing on key flashpoints during his tenure at the UN and afterward –– including crises in Haiti (earthquake, cholera, conflict), Syria (war, use of chemical weapons), West Africa (Ebola) –– with reference to the current crises in Ukraine and, by extension, Israel/ Palestine. The film also tracks Ban’s commitment to climate change legislation (Paris Climate Accord); women’s empowerment; and LGBTQ rights.

Approach: This documentary is intimate, evocative, empathetic, and emotional–– about a man who not only achieved change in the world, but also followed his passions, charting a bold, original path in the face of criticism. But we see this film as much broader than the transformational arc of a single man’s life: Ban was born one year earlier than the UN; his life is a time capsule of a period in history marked by a brutal clash between multinational and unilateralist approaches to governing. The film also probes the value of an institution that grew out of the ashes of World War II, when there was one world order, to what it is today, when that world order has changed.

The film benefits from hours of UN footage, much of it never publicly seen, as well as footage shot by news organizations during a tumultuous decade while Ban led the UN. Chief among our goals is to use this trove, and fresh interviews, to reveal a man many people don’t know at all, or think they know.

While our approach is not combative, we do not shy from controversy, asking tough questions about what the UN can and should do to handle increasingly difficult global crises, including new wars, while giving Ban the opportunity to assess his accomplishments and failures during his ten years at the UN.

Interviewees:

Ban Ki-Moon, 8th Secretary General of the UN Yoo Soon-Taek, his wife

Juan Manual Santos, former President of Colombia

Mark Malloch Brown, President, Open Society Foundations

Beatrice Lindstrom, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Law School

Richard Hass, former President, Council on Foreign Relations

Rajon Menon, Chair, Political Science, CUNY

Jean Krasno, Dept. of Political Science, CCNY

Lina Khatib, Director, SOAS Middle East Institute

Hyung Du Choi, Member of National Assembly

Richard Gowan, UN Director, International Crisis Group