Hundreds of thousands of people in the streets; tens of thousands of Buddhist monks leading the way; loudspeakers, chants, tear gas; approaching riot police; a lone cameraman in a pale blue button-down shirt and khaki shorts, filming the events. Someone approaches him, fires a shot, and he pitches forward to the ground. He was a Japanese reporter filming the 2007 protests in Burma (aka, Union of Myanmar), shot and killed at point-blank range by Burmese police.
This is one of many scenes captured in secret by the video journalists of Democratic Voice Burma (DVB), who became famous during the September 2007 protests. In Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2008), director Anders Ostergaard fills out the narrative of DVB and its members, who risked life and limb to share the truth about life in their oppressive police state.
Much of DVB’s 2007 footage looks familiar: During those protests, international networks like CNN and the BBC picked up bits and pieces—and the images spread around the world like wildfire. But Ostergaard’s film is the first to back up and look more closely at the history—and uncertain future—of DVB.
Narrated by DVB reporter "Joshua" (many names have been changed to protect reporters’ safety), Burma VJ lays urgent cell phone conversations over unbelievable footage. Joshua fills in the back story of the 2007 protests: How the last large-scale protests in Burma took place in 1988, when the military killed over 3,000 people in the streets; how, for the past several years, DVB has been covering small-scale protests and editing footage in their secret headquarters, smuggling footage to Oslo to be re-broadcast into Burma; and how when the country’s 400,000 monks decided to lend their voice to political dissenters, DVB reporters joined them on the march, seeing firsthand how far the military would go to retain control over information.
In the politics of information, video is a powerful weapon, and it can be a fatal liability. Burma VJ is an incredible story of courage and determination in the face of enforced silence.
Catch Burma VJ this week at Northwest Film Forum . Plays today through Thursday at 7 & 9pm
