Burma VJ — Reporting from a Closed Country
NEW DOCS
How do you fight a brutal military dictatorship? Over the years, the cold-blooded rulers of Myanmar have fired on their own citizens during non-violent protests, placed opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, and closed the country to the world’s view. When Buddhist monks began to march against the regime in September 2007, the Democratic Voice of Burma’s staggeringly brave journalists used small digital camcorders to document the burgeoning demonstrations and subsequent violent repression. DVB activists smuggled the tapes out of the country for worldwide distribution. Anders Østergaard combines this startling on-the-scene footage with evocative reconstructions from the point of view of “Joshua,” one of the DVB team in exile, to produce a riveting story of an intrepid people defying their oppressors. NK
Director
Anders Østergaard
Producers
Lise Lense-Moller, Fredrik Gertten, Torstein Nyboe, Helle Ulsteen
Editors
Thomas Papapetros, Janus Billeskov Jansen
Cinematographers
Simon Plum, Burma VJs
Release Year
2008
Festival Year
2009
Country
Denmark
Run Time
85 minutes