aiff_program10_interior.xp 3/4/10 11:48 PM Page 19
Born Sweet Burma VJ
documentar
28 minutes ■ 2010 ■ USA/Cambodia ■ In Competition 84 minutes ■ 2008 ■ Denmark
Thursday 3:00p
■
Friday 9:00p
■
Monday 12:00p Thursday 12:20p
■
Friday 9:50a
■
Sunday 9:20p
Plays in: Short Docs (p16)
Director: Anders Østergaard ■ Producer: Lise Lense-Møller ■ Screenwriters: Jan Krogsgaard,
Anders Østergaard ■ Cinematographers: Burmese VJs, Simon Plum ■ Editors: Janus Billeskov
Jansen, Thomas Papapetros ■ Music/Composer: Conny Malmqvist ■ burmavjmovie.com
Director/Producer: Cynthia Wade ■ Cinematographer/Editor: David Teague ■
Music/Composer: Max Avery Lichtenstein ■ Principal Cast: Vinh Voeurn ■ cynthiawade.com
Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens
ies
Fifteen-year-old Vinh dreams of being a karaoke star but has ac-
of Burma live the essence of journalism. Armed with small
cepted his fate. He is ill with incurable arsenic poisoning and
handycams, the VJs stop at nothing to make their reports from
spends his days in his remote Cambodian village tending the
the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the
cows and escaping into song with his family’s car battery-pow-
country and broadcast back via satellite and offered as free usage
ered karaoke machine. A chance to be in a karaoke video about
for international media. The whole world has witnessed single
the dangers of arsenic allows Vinh to wonder if he truly knows
event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time their in-
his destiny. [subtitles]
dividual images have been compiled and collectively tell a larger
story.
Cynthia Wade
Amidst brutal police agents and military, they work around the
Director’s Statement
clock to chronicle events inside the closed country. Their com- 19
pulsive instinct to shoot what they witness, rather than any de-
I decided to turn the typical documentary
liberate heroism, turns their lives into that of freedom fighters.
on its head by taking a standard social issue
This unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in
storyline and reworking it into a coming of
a police state also documents the dramatic days of September
age story. The film took this course quite
2007, when Buddhist monks started marching in the streets of
naturally after meeting Vinh in Prek Russei,
Burma. Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary: Feature Length.
Cambodia. Despite his being very sick with arsenic poisoning,
[subtitles, violence]
Vinh’s story was the story of any fifteen-year-old boy trying to
navigate the difficult transition to early adulthood. His situation
Anders Østergaard
may have been exceptional, but his tale was universal.
Director’s Statement
Filmography: Almost Home, Dream Lovers, Freeheld (2008 AIFF), Grist for the Mill,
To begin with, I was mainly interested in my
Kismet, Living the Legacy, Shelter Dogs
central character as a young documentarian.
He and his friends were filming with their
cameras concealed in bags, which obviously
is a major restriction on what they are able
to document. My interest, then, was more about why they were
even doing what they were doing. And why do they expose
themselves to such risk? What are their thoughts about it and
how are they affected by what they do?
I was fascinated by their almost instinctive need to document
the world, which apparently came before any considerations
about what political goals they might serve. My film was a small,
intimate, psychological affair. Then came the rebellion and the
dramatic turn of events in Burma was giving the film a whole
other potential as an epic tale of high-political drama. At the
same time, the material presented an obligation.
Filmography: Gasolin, The Magus, Tintin et moi
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