Burma VJ. 

I stumpled upon the Documentary Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country after seeing the film The Lady which deals the story of Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi became the core of Burma’s democracy movement. I praise the production company Europacorp and It’s French director Luc Besson to make the film and get the story out to the main public. I have to agree with Peter Bradshaw that Luc Besson’s film, with its “TV movie of the week” aesthetic, never does full justice to the heartwrenching agony of this final decision, and the international politics of the matter are passed over pretty lightly. I recommend instead Oscar nominated and IDFA winning Anders Østergaard’s documentary Burma VJ. Burma VJ is a rich, thought-provoking film not only because of the story it tells, which is by turns inspiring and devastatingly sad, but also because of the perspective it offers on the role that new communications technologies can play in political change. The viral videos of the Democratic Voice of Burma are like the hidden printing presses of earlier underground revolutionary movements, except that the portability of the cameras and the ease of Web and satellite-based distribution make them harder to suppress. Watch full doc. here (1/10)