Burma VJ
As video technology becomes increasingly cheaper while retaining high quality, activists around the world are now able to report on civil rights abuses suffered throughout the world with greater speed aided by increased access to the World Wide Web. Whereas in the past, major news organizations were the only ones able to disseminate information to mass audiences, which made them vulnerable to blockage by governments wishing to maintain secrecy, these new advances allow anyone to become a citizen reporter in order to tell the world how those around them suffer.
In 2007, a network of entrenched video journalists in Burma captured on tape the amazing mass uprising against that country’s oppressive military regime and the ensuing crackdown. Essentially the only news force able to report on events in-country due to all other news organizations denied access, these brave individuals risked their lives filming these events. Danish filmmaker Anders Østergaard, through his connections with the network, assembled the Academy Award-nominated documentary Burma VJ. I had a chance to speak with both Østergaard and producer Lise-Lense Møller about this project, more specifically their thoughts on the uprising itself and how the film has fared since release.
When asked about the importance of the Buddhist monks who became the visual symbol of the mass protests, Østergaard summed it up succinctly by saying “…basically they created the whole thing; it was very much an initiative coming out of the monastery. The reason is they are about the only real force left in the country to challenge the regime. I mean there is an opposition movement but it has been persecuted and virtually made powerless if you like. As you know the leader, Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest, so somehow the only real political forces potentially left in the country were the monasteries and monks and they understood this so they created this situation and everyone else jumped aboard.” Since the crackdown though, the entire monk class has been held in check by the government by “…sending in thousands of informers and agents to infiltrate the monks which are the biggest threat they face; they can’t really trust anybody.”
However, according to Anders, the monks themselves are still optimistic in the face of these odds due to the fact that they were able to assemble so many thousands of regular citizens to take to the streets. Additionally, the government has curtailed Internet access by not only imposing bandwidth restrictions but also by monitoring the plethora of cyber cafes that VJs used to upload their footage and pictures to outside news sources. The film itself though is narrated by one of these journalists, named “Joshua”, who while never appearing on-screen due to security issues nonetheless becomes the voice of resistance as well as the providing the viewer with a unique point of view. Joshua’s very facelessness allows one to superimpose him or herself into the situation, which brings a greater immediacy to the imagery on screen.
Despite the tragic end of the uprising itself, Burma VJ has brought about renewed interest in the subject partially with the power of the footage itself as well as the eerie parallels with the recent social unrest in Iran and how much of that coverage was disseminated through ordinary individuals uploading footage to sites like YouTube and Twitter. Østergaard himself commented that within Burma, the film “…has become quite a cult phenomenon within the country, it’s being passed around hand-to-hand and you can get it on the black market. Everybody knows about Burma VJ and they’re keenly following this Oscar thing from what I’ve been told from within the country. The Oscar nomination has provided the film a boost and I suspect a longer lifespan, it’s an award that everyone knows but what moves me the most is how it also is helping boost morale in the country as well which I think is amazing. “
*To learn more about the film as well as upcoming theatrical screenings, go to www.burmavjmovie.com