You know some films are important the moment you see them. There’s an inexplicable impact that hits you at the precise moment that everything comes into focus. Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country is one of those films.

The focal point of pre-release hype is the human rights angle. Charting the events of the ‘saffron revolution’, so-called because of the saffron-coloured robes of the Buddhist monks around whom the protests were centred, Burma VJ puts together important first-hand footage gathered by covert video journalists (or ‘VJ’s'). This has grabbed a lot of the media spotlight partially because of the importance of these events, and indeed the dire political situation in the Burmese dictatorship, but also because the film is part-distributed by The Co-operative Group: an ethical group of companies with historic ties to Burma.

But rather than paint a picture of behind-the-scenes-politicking and the scent of spin, it seems necessary to explain why this film has to be watched regardless of any other considerations.

Firstly, the way in which it is created is utterly unique. VJ’s working for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a loose association of guys with cameras who are desperate to get the truth of the situation out into a world whose usual correspondents are banned from entering the country. Part political activist, part intrepid reporter, these men throw themselves into the most adverse of situations in a bid to record the scenes that unfolded in front of them in 2007.

Secondly, the way in which this footage is collated and assembled is genius, sheer genius. The change from a group of unlabeled tapes dropped off in a safe-house in Thailand into a gripping film that is both a politically documentary and a gripping thriller is almost unbelievable. Using time, dedication, creative editing, and careful reconstructions of essential phone conversations (to preserve the anonymity of DVB activists), director Anders stergaard interweaves the tale of the exceptional VJs and their unwavering dedication to their cause with the growing wave of dissent that is welling up in Burma as the monks back popular discontent in a rare challenge to the dictators in power.

There are awe-inspiring moments where people previously cowed into submission by constant fear gather on the rooftops to cheer the monks’ protests, and there are moments of unbearable intensity; for example where one VJ has to flee the scene of a shooting, pursued by armed forces, and hides behind a log occasionally poking his camera over the top to work out where his hunters are lurking.

Following the narrative as it unfolds, we in the audience are present with characters with whom we fully engage. But rather than that simply being a tool to hook us in for a ride through a series of special effects or dramatic twists, it cannot help but force you into serious questions about the states some people are forced to live in, about the importance of political engagement in your own country, and about how we can all-too-easily discard peoples and their plights the moment they are shunted from the newsreels.

Burma VJ is a compelling film that is an exciting development in documentary filmmaking as well as a gripping thriller. It’s support by the Co-Operative Group gives an added layer of interest, which further enhances its existence somewhere between visual entertainment and political activism.

•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  

Get Shareaholic

By: Mike Edwards