When a group of reporters risk their lives to get video footage of the military brutality in Burma into the public eye, we get one of the most compelling documentaries of the year.
Directed by Anders Østergaard
Danish Filmmaker Anders Østergaard has made a documentary that is devastating in the hard, cold reality that some stories do not always get a “happily ever after.” Burma VJ is a movie that shows the conflict in the military country of Burma from the point of view of a small group of reporters led by a man known only as “Joshua.”
When the film starts, Joshua tells us that he has never known happiness in his home country, save for one day in 1988 when it appeared that the people were finally going to overturn the tyrannical military government that terrorized the country. He sadly recounts that uprising ending swiftly and violently as the military arrived and murdered thousands of protestors in the streets, many of whom were students. This film takes place in the autumn of 2007 when Joshua believes something big is about to happen once again.
What begins as hope ends in another bitter disappointment, that is the life of a citizen of Burma.
Joshua is an idealist; someone who believes there has to be a happy ending somewhere. He finds hope in the failed resurgence in 1988. He once again finds hope in the rumblings of the people when fuel subsidies were removed causing gas to almost double in price, vicariously causing prices on almost everything else to rise as well. On top of that, a number of Buddhist Monks were beaten and brutalized by the Burmese military, leading them to march on the capital city demanding an apology. The final straw was the almost twenty year imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, following her party’s victory in the 1990 elections, later overturned by the military government.
Armed with the consumer digital camera given to him as a present, and a number of associates known as the Democratic Voice of Burma, Joshua set out to document the mistreatment of the citizens of his country and smuggle the footage out for the world to see. The group uses the Internet and trusted couriers to smuggle the footage and then resends it to Burma via satellite for the citizens to see. This footage is also picked up by the BBC and CNN and rebroadcast to the world. Joshua eventually has to flea Burma after a close call with the secret police and communicates with the reporters through cell phones and the Internet from Thailand.
The footage his team acquires is enough to send shivers down your spine and anger anyone with a shred of decency.
There is great hope for the people when the Buddhist Monks march into town. It is said they are the only group the government fears. But hope is crushed when the Monks are beaten, arrested and eventually murdered. To see a country’s own military open fire on their citizens in the streets is sickening. There is footage of a Japanese journalist being gunned down for taking pictures of the brutality on the Monks. It is made known by Joshua that people have to die for anyone outside of Burma to take notice. Thanks to these courageous reporters, this exact footage is released.
The documentary is not one that will inspire hope. Internet access is eventually shut down and the television networks only focus on propaganda where the government claimed the footage shown to the world was all lies. Citizens are led to believe the reporters are the reason they are being hounded and turn on The Democratic Voice of Burma. The group’s base of operations is eventually found and destroyed, the team arrested or chased into hiding. The most heartbreaking moment is when Joshua, after seeing another possible ray of hope dashed at the hands of the ruthless government, returns and walks through the mountains, back into Burma, to rebuild another team to get the news out to the world.
When the film ends, there are shots of the 2008 Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the country, proving that Joshua is still there, alive and able to get footage out of the country. The last thing we hear in the film is a citizen saying they are just trying to survive. That is the ultimate moral of this documentary. For now, it is a victory just to survive.
The 411: Burma VJ is not a movie that will raise a viewer’s spirits. This is not a tale that will show how hope and perseverance will overcome the odds. This is a film that will show you the devastating effects of a brutal government on its people and how impossible it can be to let the world know what you are going through. Joshua is a Biblical name meaning “salvation”, “to be delivered” or “to be victorious.” It is the name our faceless narrator chooses and it is clear he sees himself as someone who is doing everything in his power to help his people be free. His weapon is a camera and he is always putting himself in a dangerous situation that can lead to imprisonment and even death. Yet, here he is allowing the world to see the atrocities that tear his beloved home apart. The movie is devastating but, at the base of it all, there is hope. Hope that the people of this country can one day find peace and freedom. This documentary is a hard, cold, yet beautiful look at the spirit of people. I dare you to watch it and not find yourself hoping they may one day be free.
