Burma VJ - Reporting from A Closed Country (12A)

Compelling, essential guerilla filmmaking of amazing courage

Director: Anders Østergaard
Denmark, 2008, 1 hour 24 minutes, subtitles

Wed 3 March 11.00am, Sun 7 2.00pm The Courtyard Hereford

In 2007 100,000 people took to the streets to protest against the cruel dictatorship that has run Burma for more than 40 years. Foreign news crews were banned, the internet shut down, and Burma closed to the outside world. But a tenacious band of Burmese reporters armed with home video cameras risked death by covertly filming the crack-down. Their footage, rough and unprofessional, but also raw, immediate and, at times, overwhelmingly powerful, was smuggled to Norway, then broadcast back to Burma and across the world via satellite. A flawlessly constructed testament to individual bravery, as relentlessly gripping as educational, it's an uplifting example of the importance of collective protest. Compelling and essential viewing, it's hard to think of a braver, bolder example of citizen journalism in action.