Yesterday evening, for the opening of the One World festival at Bozar, I had the chance to watch Burma VJ, a documentary film by Anders Østergaard.
Burma (or Myanmar) is a country that we don’t hear much about. And the main reason is because it is ruled by a military junta that has total control over what comes in and out of it.
This documentary thus tells us the story of a small group of semi-amateur or semi-pro journalists (VJ = Video Journal or Video Journalists), who try to document, with small DV cameras, the life and struggle of the Burmese people in this ultra violent totalitarian state. Cameras hidden in plastic bags, images are taken on the fly, edited, and then sent to Europe through the DVB network. It’s then aired again over Burma thanks to the satellite network so the Burmese people can watch it.
This film gets to your guts. It speaks about resistance and ways to achieve it, even in the worst conditions. The raw look and feel of the movie appeals to take actions. A must see, now.