Cinema for Peace Burma Project
At the Cinema for Peace Gala 2009, the film Burma VJ – Reporting from a Closed Country, won the International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network. The prize was given to Aung Htun, The Democratic Voice of Burma, Anders Østergaard, and Lise Lense-Møller for depicting the ongoing fight for freedom in Burma.
In 2010 Cinema for Peace secured the funding for the documentary film “This Prison Where I Live” by Rex Bloomstein and comedian Michael Mittermeier who were introduced to each other by Cinema for Peace after the original funding in the UK had collapsed. The documentary follows Rex Bloomstein visiting and interviewing Burmese comedian and dissident Thura, known by his stage name Zarganar in 2007 before his imprisonment and depicts the growing oppressive atmosphere under the Burmese military junta. Two years later, Bloomstein and Michael Mittermeier travelled secretly to Burma to make a film about this courageous man, who describes himself as the "loudspeaker“for the Burmese people, and to investigate humour under dictatorship.
Zarganar was arrested in 2008 and sentenced to 59 years in prison for criticizing the military government’s slow response to Cyclone Nargis. The deadly storm left 138,000 people dead or missing and hundreds of thousands homeless when it struck the Irrawaddy delta. Despite the emergency, authorities delayed acceptance of international help, which critics say added to the death toll.
At the 10th Cinema for Peace Gala in 2011, Anne Gyrithe Bonne’s "Lady of No Fear", a movie about Aung San Suu Kyi won the International Human Rights Film Award in 2011. On the occasion of the Gala, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi also sent us a video message asking us to help the many political prisoners in Burma get heard. Following Aung San Suu Kyi’s request, Cinema for Peace started a petition to call for the release of Zarganar. More than 12000 people have signed the petition and thus contributed to raising awareness on his case and on the injustice in Burma.
To change the situation of artists in Burma, international pressure can be extremely effective. It is crucial that the international community uses its influence to support human rights and make calls for the release of wrongfully detained human rights defenders, journalists, and activists. In her video message, Aung San Suu Kyi stresses the influence of the cinema to change the situation of artists in Burma:
“We depend on artists, actors, producers, directors, people who are connected with the cinema to reach out to all the people to whom we are not in the position to reach out by making the world not only a bigger place but at the same time a closer community. You will be able to help all those of us who have been deprived of their basic human rights.”
After that, Burma has released nearly 200 political prisoners as part of a general amnesty, including a few prominent activists. Human Rights groups have welcomed their release but are urging that all political prisoners be set free. They are also stressing the real test of the government‘s claims to reform will be in how they are treated after their release. Authorities in Burma began releasing prisoners Wednesday morning, October 12 as part of an amnesty for over 6,000 inmates. Zarganar was among those set free.
Though Zarganar was finally released, there are still many political dissidents in prison. Please support them by signing a petition.
Cinema for Peace will keep up its support and hopes that Burma is going to continue on its path to democracy, allowing freedom of expression and freedom of creative arts. We believe that films can make a difference and impact politics and reality. In an interview, the Danish film maker of the movie "Lady of No Fear," Anne Gyrithe Bonne said “When the film was screened at Berlin‘s ‘Cinema for Peace‘ Festival, Aung Sang Suu Kyi was suddenly released.”