Burma VJ : reporting from a closed country
(DVD)

Originally produced as a motion picture in 2008.

Title from sell sheet.

Director of photography, Simon Plum ; editors, Janus Billeskov Jansen, Thomas Papapetros ; music, Conny C.A. Malmqvist.

Acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. Armed with small handycams the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching.

DVD, widescreen.

Burmese or English dialogue.