North Korea has been much in the news lately, with tension escalating between the totalitarian communist country and the rest of the world, most recently over reports that it is preparing to carry out a fourth nuclear weapons test. Everyone from John Kerry to concerned Chinese officials to Dennis Rodman have been on the case. What's missing from the equation, at least for most Americans, is a sense of what life is like for everyday North Koreans.

Danny from North Korea
Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Free for Asia Society members; $5 nonmembers
Asia Society Texas Center
1370 Southmore Blvd
713-496-9901
asiasociety.org

Danny from North Korea, a documentary about a young man who escaped by crossing over the border into China, may give viewers some sense of North Korean life - "a life of indoctrination, routine public executions, and starvation," according to the film's official description. The movie will screen Tuesday evening at the Asia Society Texas Center in the Museum District.

Danny, the subject of the documentary will be on hand after the screening for a discussion with Hannah Song, the president and CEO of Liberty in North Korea, which provides resettlement support for North Korean refugees and works to raise awareness.

Few outsiders travel to North Korea. When they do, their access and itineraries tend to be tightly controlled. Much of the film is set in South Korea. Danny visited there last year for the first time since escaping North Korea in 2005. From South Korea, he was able to look across the border into the land of his birth. The movie is full of Danny's memories and descriptions of what it was like to grow up in North Korea.