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Director’s Note:
This video essay is a personal family story about filmmakers in Myanmar indirectly reflecting old Myanmar cinema, filmmakers, and those working in the film industry. It is not a political film, but it is about Myanmar cinema during a difficult time in the past. I was brought up in a film family in a film studio compound. Grandpa, dad, and my uncles spent most of their time making films, acting, and writing screenplays and novels. They had to create films and literature in a tough time when everything was controlled and ruled by the government. Censorship was dramatically strict, and I would say unfair at that time. The country has been made isolated and blocked and consequently every industry, including the film industry, has had to struggle a lot for survival. Nevertheless, many educated artists, authors, and filmmakers emerged in those years. There were quite a number of effects on our family due to political instability. This video essay is purely my reminiscences of my family, grandparents, and uncles. It also spotlights what the film industry was like in the 1980s and how patriotic artists were treated poorly. Every scene in this essay makes me feel nostalgic for my beloved family and the films they made. On the other hand, the images make me remember the artists’ hardships during those days. (Dir.: Maung Okkar, Myanmar/Singapore, 2020, 15 min., Burmese with English subtitles) Images courtesy of the Asian Film Archive |
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