Burma VJ Documentary

Burma, sometimes called Myanmar, is the largest country in S.E. Asia. It sits between Bangladesh and China along the South China Sea. Ruled by a very oppressive military regime, Burma is poor and was plagued with monsoons in 2008, which further killed and displaced many people.

Political refugees have come to Fort Wayne from Burma, and there is now a population of 4500 or so, if I heard correctly, here in this part of Indiana. I recently attended a screening of the academy award-nominated film Burma VJ at the Indiana Tech College, Andorfer Commons building, beautiful Cinema Center screening room.

Food from the Mahnin Asian Restaurant was served at a reception before the film; everything was delicious - I had spring rolls and a crab Rangoon, and I picked up one of their menus - they're located on South Calhoun Street in Fort Wayne, closed Tuesdays. They have Pad Thai noodles on the menu for $6.

This was a meet and greet for the community - there has been some misunderstanding and mild culture clashes with the displaced Burmese in the Fort Wayne community - so several organizations got together and put on this event. I walked up to a young man standing behind a table of books and small treasures from Burma - His English was limited but we talked, he was a student - I asked if he was Buddhist, and he said no, Muslim. - are you?

No. Raised Christian, and a student of Buddhism, I told him. Then I asked him, is the oppression in Burma all political, or is it at all religious? He seemed timid, and I don't know if the answer was hard to explain, but he mumbled something and kind of shyly melted backwards, and you see the real fear of a person how has lived a life in which saying the wrong thing to a stranger can get you hauled off to jailed or tortured. We in the U.S. don't know what it feels like not to be able to freely use our simple freedom of speech.

The film, by Norwegian Anders Ostergaard, is made from video footage smuggled out of Burma - literally and over the Internet. Grass roots video reporters risked their lives to record images of protesting that was violently oppressed by military and secret police.

The network of video reporters called themselves the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and spent years trying to get footage of how terrible things are, out of the country to show the world. This proved to be a very difficult task, with many of the reporters arrested or killed.

The film covers a student street protest in 1988 which led to 3000 people being massacred in the streets. The video reporters coordinated efforts and sent their images to a station in Oslo, Norway, where these were uploaded to CNN, the BBC and the world. This was compiled into some of the only images and reporting making it out of the country.

A woman leader of protesters, Aung San Suu Kyi, was imprisoned and placed in house arrest in 2007 - an army of Buddhist monks in saffron red robes marched in protest and demanded to be able to see her in her house. Video photographers got some clandestine pictures of her at her gate, with barbed wire fence all around her house/jail. She has since been re-prisoned after an American journalist swam a lake to interview her at her house and got caught in 2009.

It's a serious film, with beautiful Asian music and haunting imagery - as many as 400,000 monks protested along with civilians, and you see dozens of monks beaten and herded into trucks, never to be heard from again. It's overwhelming to see parallels of oppression as in other parts of the world, like Iran and Iraq, and it's humbling to realize how many of us take our precious freedom, political and religious, for granted here in the U.S.

I am drawn to things Asian - the aesthetic, the art, the serenity, the natural beauty - and I've enjoyed the Burmese people here in Fort Wayne. The school teachers say how grateful the kids are to be taught, how hard they work, what a special will they have. They smile and speak to their teachers in the halls. Maybe they will help to be the bridge in this predominately white community, where it can be hard to assimilate.

The Burmese Advocacy Center and Indiana-Purdue University officials helped to set up this event, which showcased the film and helped to get people talking. Movie-goers asked questions after the film to some of the Burmese present, including a man who had been at the 1988 protests and had parts of a leg, arm and fingers missing. Slowly, community awareness will surely grow and area residents can find more ways to help and connect.

The DVB Network was broken in 2007 when at least three of the main reporters were arrested - they are expected to serve life sentences for what they did. The Norwegian filmmaker pieced together the bits of the Burmese footage and made this film. As a graduate of a college of journalism, I find this whole thing very sobering. The difficult stories of the lovely Burmese, from cities with romantic names such as Rangoon and Mandalay, are worth telling.

As the woman with cinnamon-hued skin and shining black hair stood up and said, she was grateful to be in Fort Wayne, and was grateful for the kindness of the Indiana people. But, she said, "We didn't choose this life. It was chosen for us."

"We can't negotiate with these leaders," she said plaintively. "We are still suffering here, and there are millions suffering there."

And just as Catherine of the Cinema Center said, "The Burmese people are misunderstood here - they're honest, they like to learn, they like to fix things that are broken, and meet new people. They deserve to be somewhere like here - they deserve a chance."