Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Hallacy, Jeanne / All Films

Thabyay

Mon, 6 Apr 2026 10:20:24 GMT

Set against one of the world's deadliest yet least-covered conflicts, Thabyay: Creative Resistance in Myanmar examines how creativity becomes both a tool and a lifeline under a brutal military junta: how songs, poems, paintings, and grassroots cultural events can be as potent as any weapon. The film also traces the moral and emotional journey of non-violent leaders forced to decide whether to endorse armed struggle, while still holding onto a vision of a peaceful, inclusive Myanmar.

The film profiles four figures working at the intersection of art, activism, and armed struggle: Susanna Hla Hla Soe, painter and government-in-exile minister, whose canvases document the impact of war on women and children; Maung Saungkha, poet and free-speech advocate turned commander of the first Bamar ethnic army; Phoe San, musician and composer who uses sound to sustain revolutionary spirit and support trauma recovery; and Thet Swe Win, human rights activist whose "artivist" gatherings mobilize the collective power of creative expression against repression.

Through intimate portraits and on-the-ground footage, Thabyay captures a movement that refuses to surrender its humanity, asking what is lost, and what might be gained, when non-violent leaders are pushed toward armed struggle in a war the world has largely chosen to ignore.

This is the latest work by Jeanne Hallacy, a documentary filmmaker with over two decades of engagement with social and human rights issues in Southeast Asia, particularly Burma and Thailand. Her filmography charts a sustained commitment to the region's most urgent stories, from Burma Diary (1997) and Mercy (Meddah) (2002) through This Kind of Love (2015), Sittwe (2017), Mother, Daughter, Sister (2018), and Padauk: Myanmar Spring (2021).

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

HUMAN Int'l Documentary Festival, Norway, 2026

City College of San Francisco, USA, 2026

University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2026

FRAME, Thailand, 2025

Reconference: CREA's Global Conference, Nepal, 2025

University of Bielefeld, Germany, 2025

Asia Pacific Social Forum, Thailand, 2025

National Chengchi University, Taiwan, 2025

George Washington University, Washington, DC, 2025

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Padauk: Myanmar Spring

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 17:50:59 GMT

Padauk: Myanmar Spring
Buy Now: $320.00

Padauk: Myanmar Spring takes the viewer to the streets of Myanmar during the heady days following the February 2021 military coup. Through Nant, a young, first-time protester, we meet three human rights activists whose lives have been turned upside down by the coup.

As the protests continue, Nant comes to understand the truth of a brutal regime that has continued to wage war against its own people for decades. Against a foreboding backdrop, Nant’s political awakening regarding the plight of others in her ethnically diverse country gives hope for the future.

Beautifully augmented by poetry and art, Padauk: Myanmar Spring shows the resilience and determination of the people of Myanmar, and the sacrifices they've made.

"This film fits well within the discussion of global protest during 2020-2021 against discrimination and threats to democracy and is highly recommended." – Tashia Miller, Educational Media Reviews Online

Selected Screenings & Awards

Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival, USA, 2021

Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, South Korea, 2021

Busan Peace Film Festival, Busan, South Korea, 2021

Dharamshala International Film Festival, India, 2021

Myanmar Film Festival of Los Angeles, 2021

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Sittwe

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 10:53:34 GMT

Sittwe
Buy Now: $295.00

Sittwe is about two teenagers separated by conflict and segregation in Burma's Rakhine state, Phyu Phyu Than, a Rohingya girl and Aung San Myint, a Buddhist boy. Both youth saw their homes burned down during communal violence in 2012.

Phyu Phyu Than is confined in an apartheid-style camp and has no chance to go to school or travel to her home just a few miles away. Aung San Myint's family struggles to survive and support his high school studies to fulfill his dream to go to medical school.

Interviews filmed over two years with the teenagers reveal their ideas about each other's communities and the hope of reconciliation.

Sittwe was produced as a tool for facilitated discussions about peacebuilding in Burma. The film was due to premiere in Yangon at the Human Rights, Human Dignity Film Festival but was banned by the government censors.

Selected Screenings

Best Southeast Asia Short Documentary, Freedom Film Festival, Malaysia, 2017

Hong Kong Human Rights Festival, 2018

Association for Asian Studies, 2018

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Mother, Daughter, Sister

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 16:18:00 GMT

Mother, Daughter, Sister
Buy Now: $295.00

Mother, Daughter, Sister exposes the Burmese military’s practice of using rape as a weapon of war. The film brings light to Kachin and Rohingya women activists' efforts to enact justice for Burma's crimes.

The film revolves around the stories of four women: Shamima, a volunteer counselor working with survivors of military rape in the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, Dil Kayas, a teenage survivor, and San Lung and Lu Ra, sister and mother of two Kachin school teachers brutally raped and killed in 2015, allegedly by the Burmese military.

Powerful testimonies from survivors, witnesses, and activists explore the far-reaching impact of sexual violence and trauma upon these communities, and together, the women call for justice and an end to the army's impunity.

“The events and experiences that are depicted in this film are deeply traumatic and violate the personhood of the survivors; the strength and resilience of each woman portrayed in the film is clear." - Rachel Dreyer, Head of Research Services for Special Collections, Pennsylvania State University

SELECTED SCREENING & AWARDS

Vanya Exerjian Empowering Women & Girls Award, Socially Relevant Film Festival, NYC, 2020

Documentary Short Honorable Mention, Oneota Film Festival, 2020

Best Short Documentary, UN Women Global Voices Film Festival, 2019

Best Short Documentary, Freedom Film Festival, Malaysia, 2019

Best Short Documentary, North Dakota Human Rights and Arts Festival, 2019

Best Short Documentary, Woodpecker Int'l Film Festival, India, 2019

Outgaze Film Festival, 2020

9th Annual Social Justice Film Festival, 2020
Our Time: Celebrating Women Festival, St. Augustine, FL, 2020

Asian Film Festival of Dallas, 2019

Indigo Moon Film Festival, 2019
Tryon International Film Festival, 2019

St. Louis International Film Festival, 2019

International Short and Independent Film Festival, Dhaka, 2019

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Mercy

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Mercy
Buy Now: $320.00

Filmed over two years at a community hospice in Klong Toey, Thailand, the story unfolds as a thirteen-year-old girl, Luk Nam, recalls the loss of her family to AIDS. Mercy is an unsettling document of another side to the growing AIDS crisis – the future of the children whose parents are HIV-positive or have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

Surrounded by orphaned children who have inherited the disease, the filmmakers witness both Luk Nam’s sister and her best friend gradually fade away. Despite the horror of their circumstances, young Luk Nam and the hospice patients and workers show incredible compassion, strength, and hope. Luk Nam’s brave composure is as admirable as it is distressing, as when she assures the viewer: “Right now, I’m alive.”

“Mercy is a powerful and uplifting documentary revealing the everyday life challenges faced by an increasing number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Thailand today. Coping with family loss and the accompanying stigma often places children affected by HIV/AIDS in extremely vulnerable situations. This unprecedented crisis will require scaled-up national, regional and community responses in the decades to come.”
— Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director

“Mercy is a realistic and powerful portrayal of the world wide effects of HIV/AIDS on children. It gives us a chance to observe this ongoing crisis first hand. I highly recommend this film for college populations and everyone who wishes to make a difference in the fight against AIDS.”
— Scott Butler, MS, CPPE, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Mercy is a very moving, beautiful, poignant portrayal of a few years in the life of a very stoic, heroic child under horrendous circumstances. As a physician caring for children with HIV and AIDS for the past 20 years, I felt it showed so graphically the pain and suffering of those affected by but not infected with HIV, those who are living in the shadow of AIDS. Your film was an eye-opening experience for so many in our institution, who tend to forget what family members experience, while the focus is so much on the sick child.”
— Ann Petru, M.D., Associate Physician, Dept of Infectious Diseases; Director, Pediatric AIDS/HIV Program, Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland

“As one who has been involved with research in and about Thailand for over 40 years and as one who regularly teaches courses on culture and society of Southeast Asia, I found the film Mercy to be very powerful and compelling. It is clear from the film itself that the filmmaker was not only an observer, but was very much involved in the metta which the film depicts so well.”
— Professor Charles Keyes, Anthropology & International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle

“This film will be as useful for classroom teaching as it will for special events related to AIDS and hospice care. It's a rare film that can do so much in such a meaningful way.”
— Sara Van Fleet, Assistant Director of the SE Asia Center, University of Washington

“Together with a group of very dedicated and exceptionally unselfish people at the Mercy Centre in Bangkok, Hallacy shows us that the human spirit is marvelous and that when we support each other it is possible to generate hope even in the darkest of times.”
— Ole Schack Hansen, Director, Asia Pacific Development Communication Centre (ADCC), Dhurakijpundit University, Bangkok, Thailand

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

New Zealand International Human Rights Film Festival, 2005

East Asia Institute of Visual Anthropology Film Festival, Yunnan University, 2004

Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2004

Fukuoka Asian Film Festival, Japan, 2004

Pride International Film Festival, Manila, 2004

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This Kind of Love

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

This Kind of Love
Buy Now: $295.00

This Kind of Love follows Burmese human rights and LGBT activist, Aung Myo Min, as he returns home after 24 years in exile. Set against Myanmar's historical transition from half a century of brutal military rule, Myo shares his vision for equality for all - from children to transgender people, to ethnic nationalities with his countrymen, to be part of his homeland's emergence from the darkness of dictatorship.

Myo's story celebrates his belief that community and inclusion are fundamental to creating meaningful political and social change in Burma/Myanmar.

“A cinematic portrait that depicts a life of struggles and shows the whole picture of human rights and LGBT rights in Burma through his eyes. A masterpiece of lyricism. Far away from playing the victim, Myo Min, with his proud and brave attitude is a hero and this film his epic poem. There couldn't be a more beautiful way to open this year's & PROUD Film Festival.”
— Dodi Fog, Director, & PROUD Yangon LGBT Film Festival

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

PROUD Yangon LGBT Film Festival, Myanmar, 2016

Award of Merit, LGBT Category, Accolade Global Film Competition, 2015

Human Dignity International Film Festival, Yangon, Myanmar 2015

ASEAN Film Festival, Bangkok, Thailand, 2015

Q! Film Festival, Indonesia, 2015

Myanmar Film Festival of Los Angeles, 2015

QFF! Mezipatra Film Festival, Prague, 2015

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Burma Diary

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 09:36:00 GMT

Burma Diary
Buy Now: $295.00

This powerful and universally–acclaimed documentary explores the revolutionary movement fighting for democracy in Burma and depicts how young people, in particular, are affected by the human rights abuses of Burma's dictatorial military government. The State Law and Order Restoration Council forcibly overthrew Burma's free 1990 election, when the Burmese people voted overwhelmingly for the National League of Democracy, the party of nonviolence advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma Diary focuses on the story of Tint Aung, a young Burmese man who was actively involved in the protest movement while in college. He is forced to flee from his home and take refuge in the jungles of the Burmese-Thailand border along with his wife and his two young daughters. As the film chronicles four harsh years of Tint Aung's struggle to survive, it provides a passionate and at times heartbreaking study of the hopes of and the obstacles facing the Burmese democracy movement.

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