Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country

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Release Date: August 7, 2009 (limited)

On DVD/VOD: June 22, 2010

1h 24m | Documentary

Anders Østergaard's award-winning documentary shows a rare inside look into the 2007 uprising in Myanmar through the cameras of the independent journalist group, Democratic Voice of Burma.

While 100,000 people (including 1,000s of Buddhist monks) took to the streets to protest the country's repressive regime that has held them hostage for over 40 years, foreign news crews were banned to enter and the Internet was shut down. The Democratic Voice of Burma, a collective of 30 anonymous and underground video journalists (VJs) recorded these historic and dramatic events on handycams and smuggled the footage out of the country, where it was broadcast worldwide via satellite.

Risking torture and life imprisonment, the VJs vividly document the brutal clashes with the military and undercover police—even after they themselves become targets of the authorities. In English & Burmese with English subtitles.