Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Merrison, Lindsey / All Films

Friends in High Places

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Friends in High Places
Buy Now: $320.00

“Buddhism and nat worship are like mangoes and bananas”

Whether contending with a deceitful daughter-in-law, forecasting financial prospects for a tea shop, or freeing a husband from government detainment, Friends in High Places reveals the central role of nats and spirit mediums in alleviating the day to day burdens of modern Burmese life. “Leprosy isn’t as contagious as people’s problems,” notes one medium, “my clients bring their worries into my home. I don’t need to go out on the street to learn how cruel life can be.”

Yet despite their skills in channeling good luck for others, the life stories of the mediums prove to be as poignant as the stories of those who seek their assistance. Just as nats lie somewhere on the spectrum between mortals and the divine, the gay men who serve as primary conduits for the nat spirits are considered to be neither male nor female. Regarded by society with a curious mix of disdain and reverence, the male mediums profiled in this film – ranging from the gentle, melancholy “Lady Silver Wings” to the hard drinking, ego-driven “Mr. Famous” – illustrate the special niche granted to gay men in Burmese society.

Exquisite footage accentuates Lindsey Merrison’s keen eye for nuance as she takes the viewer on a journey examining the extremes that define Burmese spirit mediums and their way of life. Deceit and artistry, tragedy and comedy, faith and cynicism – in a country known both as a 2,500 year bastion of Buddhism and more recently for its legacy of political corruption and instability, the world of the nat becomes an analogy for the many unusual juxtapositions within Burma itself.

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Our Burmese Days

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

Our Burmese Days
Buy Now: $320.00

An examination of biculturalism wrapped in an extraordinary personal odyssey, Our Burmese Days is also a fascinating defacto glimpse of life in a country that's rarely covered in the media today. Now known as Myanmar, the film's title is a reference to the novel "Burmese Days" by George Orwell, who worked for a time in the country's colonial police force.

This record of a daughter's attempts to understand her mother's denial of her roots "because it is too complicated a story to tell" reveals a family history that is both as tragic and as comic as any and yet unique when seen in the context of their colonial past. U.K.- born director Lindsey Merrison spent the first half of her life not even knowing that her mother, Sally, was Anglo-Burmese. Speaking in impeccable English, and claiming she came from Hemel Hempstead (a byword for white, middle-class respectability), the latter never referred to the country she left in the early 1950s.

Merrison's film follows her mom and her uncle Bill on a trip back to Burma for the first time in over 40 years, revisiting sites from their youth - some relatively unchanged. The trip is illuminating for Bill, but often painful for Sally. For Merrison too, the journey is eye-opening, with the tables gently turned on her role of inquisitor as she penetrates further and further into her mother's heart of darkness. As Bill says to her at the end, there's no big truth about life, just a series of discoveries.

Black and white footage of the war in Burma is well integrated with modern views and memories. The camera gives a a feel for contemporary life, both urban and rural without being "touristy." The filmmaker had long negotiations with the country's military for a permit to shoot this film. While the political situation is only vaguely mentioned, the film remains both eloquent about the violence of world and family history and eloquent about the anguish and spiritual expense of hating one's own origins.

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Yangon Film School

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 12:26:00 GMT

Yangon Film School
Buy Now: $340.00

Films made by participants of Yangon Film School workshops in Myanmar 2007.Since its inception in 2005, the non-profit organisation Yangon Film School has brought together experienced filmmaking tutors from around the world and young Burmese men and women with some prior experience in the media for residential training in all aspects of filmmaking - from screenwriting to editing - with a particular focus on documentary.

DISC 1 — Contains the work of 12 new participants from The Art of Documentary Filmmaking Beginners Workshop 2007, who were given the opportunity to grapple with the technical, artistic and ethical aspects of the genre by producing their own short documentaries on the topic of children in Myanmar. This DVD contains their first film exercises: Stories from the Princess Hotel; their final films: Children in Myanmar; and a short film About the Beginners' Workshop.

DISC 2 — Stories of Change are projects by students of several YFS courses completed during The Art of Documentary Filmmaking Stage Two in 2007. Made for two NGOs, Metta Development Foundation and International Development Enterprise, these documentaries portray people from Kachin State, southern Shan State and the Ayeyarwaddy Delta who describe, in their own emotive and surprisingly humorous words, how development organisations are making a real difference to their lives.

This DVD also includes short films About the Stage Two Workshop and About the Screenwriting Workshop, another 2007 YFS course in which nine Burmese writers learned how to turn their story ideas into screenplays.

The body of work on these two DVDs bears witness to a growing nucleus of talented young Burmese filmmakers who are striving to create challenging work in an environment notorious for discouraging independent media. Their films provide a hitherto unseen window on the lives of ordinary people in Myanmar.

DISC 1 : Films from the 2007 Yangon Film School Beginners WorkshopStories from the Princess Hotel - Seven short film exercises.

Children in Myanmar - Four short films:

A Piece of Eden - Dir. and Editor: Aung Nwai Htway (16 min). A touching yet unsentimental film about how a 12-year-old boy suffering from muscular dystrophy finds support and friendship at a remarkable centre for the disabled run by an NGO in Yangon's Insein township.

Far from Home - Dir: Thi Ha Thwe (11 min). Thirteen-year-old Maung Lin is working on a farm 500 miles away from his native village near Monywa. Director Thi Ha Thwe tries to coax him out of his reticence in order to find out how he copes with homesickness and isolation.

Happy Days - Dir: Wai Mar Nyunt, Camera: Thaiddhi, Sound: Dashi Htu Ra, Editor: George Cragg (13 min). A charming, uplifting portrait of the director's irrepressibly ebullient next-door neighbour, 13-year-old Shoon Lei.

Water Boy - Dir: Tay Zar Win Tun (15 min). This short documentary describes 13-year-old Aung Myat Thu's strenuous job at a water purification factory. During his breaks, we hear about his family in Twante and learn what gives him the strength to persevere in the face of hardship and separation from his loved ones.

DISC 2: Films from the 2007 Yangon Film School Stage Two Workshop

Beyond the Tsunami - Dir: Shin Daewe (21 min). Ko Myint Oo and Ma Pu live with their four sons in Aung Myay Thar in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta of southern Myanmar. Like many others in their village, they lost everything in the Tsunami. They tell the story of that fateful day and describe how an NGO's programmes are helping them to rebuild and improve their lives.

Stepping Up - Dir: Pe Maung Same (21 min). Ko Tin Tun is a farmer eking out a living in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta. His survival rests on one basic need: water. His fortunes are transformed by the arrival of a simple but life-changing piece of technology in the shape of a treadle pump from IDE.

A Farmer's Tale - Dir. and Editor: Lay Thida (19 min). This short documentary offers an insight into the life of a former poppy grower in the Pa-O region of Myanmar's southern Shan State and shows how Metta Development Foundation's Farmer Field School programme is helping him and others like him grow alternatives to opium and earn a living from a harsh, unyielding land.

The Merry Widows of Nam Mun Village - Dir. and Editor: Kyi Phyu Shin (23 min). This film captures the dynamic widows of Nam Mun village in Kachin State as Metta Development Foundation's Participatory Action Research (PAR) programme enables them to spearhead projects - from pig rearing to rice banks and savings and loans - that are transforming lives from abject poverty into economic viability.

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The Art of Documentary Editing

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:31:00 GMT

The Art of Documentary Editing
Buy Now: $320.00

After the success of the pioneering Art of Documentary Filmmaking workshop held in Yangon, Myanmar in 2005, Anglo-Burmese filmmaker Lindsey Merrison and four experienced documentary editors from Europe and Australia returned in 2006 to mount The Art of Documentary Editing. Some of the young Burmese men and women on this residential course had previous experience of editing but several had never touched an edit suite in their lives.

For one month, course participants and tutors worked side by side to shape eight short documentaries from material filmed by the participants prior to the workshop - often under difficult circumstances. Learning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their rushes, participants battled to create storylines and find the right rhythm for their films. Nerve-wracking screenings of works-in-progress before the whole group provided crucial feedback and helped these budding filmmakers to think about the form and content of all the films.

This DVD features all eight films produced during the Art of Documentary Editing workshop. It also contains a short film about the workshop itself, including comments from participants and tutors. Not only do these works reflect an intriguing range of subjects and approaches - from observational to experimental - they also reveal their creators' gradual appreciation of the subtleties of the documentary genre, as well as their growing confidence as filmmakers.

...are not as 9 min (dir. and sound: The Maw Naing, camera: Ko Yoe, Tin Win Naing, jeu, editor: Regina B)
The filmmaker uses documentary footage of his own performance as the starting point for a reflection on the relationship between poetry, the individual and society.

A Sketch of Wathone 15 min (dir. and editor: Kyi Phyu Shin, camera: Ko Yoe, sound: Lay Thida)
From the relative seclusion of his charmingly idiosyncratic home, Wathone - one of Myanmar's best-known painters - shares his thoughts about his life, his art and his family.

Into the Ring 11 min (dir: Aung Ko Ko, camera: Tin Win Naing, sound: Myo Min Khin, editor: Jessica Ehlebracht)
Hein Nyi Nyi is a Myanmar traditional boxer. As he travels 350 km north of his Yangon club to a match near the Sittaung river in Bago division, we learn what motivates this 18-year-old to risk life and limb in the ring.

A Million Threads 16 min (dir. and editor: Thu Thu Shein, camera: Pe Maung Same, Thu Thu Shein, sound: Lay Thida) The colourful record of a frenzied 24-hour all-female weaving competition at Yangon's Shwe Phone Pwint pagoda.

The Uninvited Guest 14 min (dir: Shin Daewe, camera: Ko Yoe, Pe Maung Same, sound: Lay Thida, Thu Thu Shein, editor: Pe Maung Same, Kim Moodie) A low-income family of seven tells the story of how tuberculosis would have decimated their family - had it not been for free treatment at a local clinic run by the NGO Population Services International Myanmar.

Like Father, Like Son 15 min (dir. and editor: Pe Maung Same, camera: Tin Win Naing, Pe Maung Same, sound: Aung Myint) Zaw Oo is standing at a crossroads. In order to prevent his centuries-old Rama troupe from dying out he must train the next generation of players. But how can he recommend the life of a poor Rama performer to his own son?

Just a Boy 13 min (dir. and editor: Lay Thida, camera: Thu Thu Shein, sound: Myo Min Khin)
Teenager Okka Moe spends his days collecting rubbish in downtown Yangon in order to help pay off his family's debt. A sensitive portrait of a caring boy who is stoical in spite of his lot in life.

Beyond the Light 13 min (dir. and sound: Myo Min Khin, camera: Aung Ko Ko, editor: Regina BSrtschi)
Guitarist and music teacher Kyaw Kyaw has been blind since birth. In this short film, he talks surprisingly candidly about his life and his perceptions of the world around him.

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The Art of Documentary Filmmaking

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:31:00 GMT

The Art of Documentary Filmmaking
Buy Now: $320.00

At the end of 2005, Anglo-Burmese filmmaker Lindsey Merrison brought together eight tutors well-versed in documentary from Europe and Australia with twelve young Burmese men and women for a three-week workshop entitled "The Art of Documentary Filmmaking." The venue was a quiet hotel in Myanmar's capital, Yangon. The Burmese participants had little or no prior knowledge of filming stories from real life. A task that would have been daunting in any country posed a particular challenge in autocratic Myanmar, where documenting reality is a risky undertaking for those on both sides of the camera.

All the more remarkable then, that, 21 days later, the participants on this residential course had learned how to handle the equipment, grappled with the artistic and ethical aspects of the genre, and researched, wrote, and filmed four short documentary portraits inspired by the subject of "Women in Myanmar." The greatest achievement of the event could well have been the impetus and direction it gave to these budding filmmakers, all of whom are already developing new projects.

The DVD features the four final films made by the participants. It also includes the participants' first film exercise and a video diary chronicling the workshop itself. Together, these works provide a vibrant record of a surprisingly rewarding encounter.

Inlcuded on the DVD:

Again and Again - 12 min

Day with Aya Nan Lin - 13 min

Girls Like Us - 15 min

Peace of Mind - 10 min

Workshop Diary - 45 min

First Film Exercise - 20 min

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