In Burma ”Joshua”, a young video journalist of 27, works undercover to counter the military regimes propaganda and keep the world informed about the state of affairs inside the closed country. Armed with small handycams Joshua and a handful of other reporters, venture out into the streets to make news reportages at great personal risk. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite.

WG film is co-producing a film by the eminent director Anders Østergaard on the Burma VJ:s. This is a co production with Magic Hour Films in Copenhagen. The Swedish support comes from SVT and Swedish Film Institue.

When, in September 2007, peaceful Buddhist monks led a massive uprising against Burma’s military regime, Burma - after decades of oblivion - suddenly returned to the world stage. Foreign TV crews were banned from entering the country, so it was left to Joshua and his crew to document the events. It was their footage that kept the revolution alive on TV screens all over the world. Joshua is thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters. Amidst marching monks, brutal police officers, and shooting military they embark on their dangerous mission and work around the clock to keep the world informed. The regime quickly understands the power of the camera and the reporters are constantly chased by government intelligence agents who look at the ”media saboteurs” as the biggest prey they can get. During the turbulent days of September, Joshua finds himself on an emotional rollercoaster between hope and despair, as he frantically tries to keep track of his reporters in the streets while the great uprising unfolds and comes to its tragic end.

Movies That Matter Award, IDFA 2008

" Burma VJ's ­- Reporting from a closed country by Anders Østergaard, with 'Joshua' and his fellow cameramen, is not just a thrilling inside report on last year's uprising in one of the most isolated countries in the world, but also an intelligent analysis of the democratic potential of modern technology. At a time when foreign journalists were not allowed into the country, reporters from within the community picked up their small camera's, risked their life and sent their images across the world. Burma had been off the world's radar for two decades. But these cameramen brought it back from Jupiter to Planet Earth. They offer us the initial tension, the unimaginable image of a procession of monks chanting through the streets of Rangoon, the utter excitement of the crowds on the rooftops, the lonely pixels of Aung San Suu Kyi's face at her gateway, the courage of people gathering yet again on the morning after the army moved in, and then the heartbreak. After
making the people of Burma visible to the world, the cameramen themselves disappeared. In the end, Burma VJ left us breathless, sad, angry and yet somehow hopeful. It is with this hope that we offer Anders Ostergaard and his Birmese colleagues the Movies That Matter Award."

Director Anders Østergaard is internationally known for the award winning: Tintin and I, 2003. In the 2006 his film "Gasoline" made 220 000 danes visit the cinema.

Production details

Production: Magic Hour Films ApS
Genre: Documentary
Production year: 2008
Title: BURMA VJ – Reporting from a closed country
Org. Title: BURMA VJ - Reporter i et lukket land

Date of premiere: 2008-11-12
Format: HD-Cam SR
Length: 84 min
Director: Anders Høgsbro Østergaard
Producer: Lise Lense-Møller
DOP: Simon Plum
Editor: Janus Billeskov Jansen, Thomas Papapetros
Composer: Conny Malmqvist
Sound design: Martin Hennel
Sound assistant: Mikael Körner
Sound mix: Niels Arild
Screenplay: Anders Høgsbro Østergaard, Jan Krogsgaard

Finance: (DK) Magic Hour Films ApS; (DK) The Danish Filministitute; (DK) DR Dokumentar; (SWE) Swedish Film Institute, Tove Torbiörnsson; (SWE) SVT Kultur; (DK) Danida; (GB) Channel Four Television Corporation
Distrubution: First Hand Films World Sales / Fritz Heeb Weg 5 / 8050 Zürich / Switzerland