UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies presents: "Burma VJ"

Times

Fri Nov 20 at 7:00 PM

Venue

The James Bridges Theater (Melnitz 1409)

UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies presents: “Burma VJ”

Armed with video cameras, a tenacious band of Burmese reporters face down death to expose the repressive regime controlling theircountry.

Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, 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.

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Keywords

"burma vj" 

Published

Tue Nov 3, 2009 in Screening

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