With the country officially closed to outside scrutiny, an Oscar-nominated film reveals how a brave and dedicated band of freelance filmmakers bring news out of Myanmar. Prestige and acclaim, in equal measure, are unlikely bedfellows for Third World filmmakers. So Jan Krogsgaard is in exclusive company after winning the best documentary award for his film Burma VJ at the international documentary film festival in Amsterdam last year. More recently, its portrayal of a small group of Burmese journalists who risked life and limb recording and distributing video footage to international news stations about the uprising against the military regime in Myanmar in September 2007 has collected 35 awards from festivals around the world. Now it has been shortlisted for an Oscar next March.

“The Indochina wars can only be visited through history,” Krogsgaard says. “The situation in Burma and the repression of its population from the regime is ongoing. This is a story that’s unfolding here and now.” 

He decided to make his film in 2002, having heard a lot of talk about Myanmar when he was travelling through Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. “Very little came out of the country in terms of specific stories. Wanting to discover the country myself, I went there for two months travelling from Rangoon to Putao in the north. During my stay I talked to people at all levels of society and shot everything I could.  

“People were reluctant to talk. There was an underlying sense of fear. Some criticised the regime openly, but turned 180 degrees and started praising it when I switched on my camera. This is the situation. People like to speak, but do not dare. I realised that if you want to talk to the Burmese about Burma, it had to happen outside the country.” 

He went to In Mae Sot, a Thai village bordering Myanmar, and spoke to exiles. He also went into Karen state with soldiers from its national army to film the government’s military bases. “Basically forgotten by the world, the Burmese I met were more than willing to pose in front of my camera. They needed the PR.”

Krogsgaard knew he was about to tell a story that had been told many times before. The status quo was an iniquitous status quo from a country that was closed to prying lenses and newsmen. A new story had to be told, but how? In his search for a solution he contacted Magic Hour Films and discussed the project with producer Lise Lense Møller. She was interested and they in turn approached Anders Østergaard, the Danish director, to get a third pair of eyes on the idea. “One day my assistant Eva Pedrelli phoned and said: ‘DVB [the Democratic Voice of Burma] is becoming a TV station. There is the story you are looking for’.” 

Based in Norway, DVB has been broadcasting short-wave radio into Myanmar for years. It gets its stories from undercover VJs [video journalists] working in the country secretly filming the regime’s abuses. Krogsgaard immediately suggested they make a movie about them and got the thumbs up from Østergaard and Møller. All they needed was a good storyteller.

Enter Joshua (not his real name), a well-spoken charmer. “We wanted to tell the story through the eyes of the VJs whose material is limited. They have to be cautious. At the same time, they must be careful as some of the people they interview might be government agents.” 

Meanwhile, and as if on cue, monks in Myanmar demonstrated against rising food and fuel prices, taking to the streets in Rangoon (Yangon) and chanting: “End to poverty, our cause, our cause.” “Reconciliation now, our cause, our cause.”

During the demonstrations VJs approached the demonstrators and asked to film them but the monks said “no”, fearful the “reporters” were government agents. They eventually gained their trust at about the same time as the public started to join in the demonstrations, transforming a religious movement into a political one. 

Setting up his headquarters in Mae Sot, Krogsgaard co-ordinated the VJs work inside Myanmar sending it to Joshua via the internet or satellite phones. He uploaded it to DVB, which distributed the footage to news stations all over the world. It was TV history in the making and one of the few times that citizen journalists became the main providers of breaking news for international networks such as CNN and the BBC.

“The rising hope of freedom, the arrests and beatings of monks and civilians seen through the eyes of the VJs became our story,” Krogsgaard says. “We chronicled events and felt obliged to tell the story to as  broad an audience as possible. I spent a few months with Joshua in early 2008 to review the material, identify the whereabouts of the VJs and develop the script. 

“I travelled to Rangoon with Joshua who had to empty a location full of intimidating evidence against the VJs in April 2008. I found myself in a strange vacuum meeting Joshua amid all the New Year partying, with water splashing and general mayhem. We missed one another. I had three phone numbers which shut down one after the other and so I was unable to reach him. I walked the streets of Rangoon in a daze, thinking, my God what comes next.”

Luckily, nothing happened to Joshua and they met in Thailand four days later and started the last recordings in mid-April 2008. Joshua’s telephone conversations with the VJs inside Myanmar were never recorded and so they were reconstructed from memory.

After confronting and overcoming the fear of discovery by trained killers, Krogsgaard was not quite ready for the reactions of some western journalists. 

“Andrew Marshall of Time magazine criticised us for using re-enactments, but I think the broader message of the film is more important,” he said. “Eighty per cent of the material was recorded by VJs inside Burma. The re-enactments were done with the best intentions of honouring the dangerous work of the VJs. DVB gave us full support during the editing of the film by providing us with footage that was needed, making sure we didn’t compromise VJs, and helping out with translations and contacts.”

Despite the carping of some individuals, the film’s success is assured and will perhaps bring a new awareness about life inside Myanmar. As Krogsgaard says: “In the end it’s the Burmese people’s fight for freedom that matters most.”

 

 

 

 

BURMA VJ – DISPATCHES FROM A CLOSED COUNTRY

Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, Jan Krogsgaard (right) gets close to Burma’s video journalists who insist on keeping up the flow of news from their country despite the risk of torture and a life in jail.  Armed with handycams they make their undercover reports, smuggle the material out of the country, have it broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offer it as free footage to the international media.

 

When a Buddhist protest becomes a mass uprising in September 2007, undercover VJ ”Joshua”, age 27, is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters. Foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world.