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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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A Thousand Fires

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 16:07:12 GMT

A Thousand Fires
Buy Now: $320.00

In the Magway region of Myanmar, a country home to one of the oldest petroleum industries in the world, live husband and wife Thein Shwe and Htwe Tin. Running an unregulated oil field, they produce a barrel every few days. They wish above all else to see their youngest son succeed, to break the cycle of poverty. A kettle boils. Mud slicked hands work sputtering machines. The ambient sound of a football match hums from a nearby television. “These days passed quickly”, Htwe says.   

From Palestinian-British filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky, A Thousand Fires is a portrait of a family in flux, and a story of intergenerational conflict and compromise. It is a film of transient moments; of hopes and aspirations; of faith in the forces of karma and luck; of a place, a community, and the rhythms of a day to day; of lingering memories and a turbulent past; and of life persisting, regardless.

“a cinematic masterpiece, quiet and powerful at once” – MIME - Moving Image Middle East

“Immerse yourself in the cinematic presence of A Thousand Fires, an ethnographic documentary about people collecting petroleum oil that captivates the senses with an exquisite blend of visual and auditory sensations. The screen pulsates with a dynamic interplay of smoke, steam, oil, and water, creating textures and hues that ignite an appreciation for oil collection in rural Myanmar…(recommended) for those interested in Myanmar, rural life, poverty, religious studies, the oil industry including resource politics, and phenomenologically-rich content in ethnographic film.” – The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

“Farouky captures a beautifully intimate story of family, religion, and community, showcasing the family’s hope, faith, and resilience as they grapple with everyday struggles and cyclical change.” – Universal Cinema

“absorbing” – Film Comment

“a low-key, quiet film but one of beguilingly vivid sensory impact” – Screen Daily

“A Thousand Fires, dedicated to the filmmaker’s parents, has unending belief in human perseverance against the odds. And facing the future with optimistic realism is sometimes all humans can do.”– One Room With A View

“social commentary or activism have to take a back seat as we experience this deeply human story”– Cineuropa

Selected Screenings & Awards

Riga Pasaules Film Festival, Latvia 2023

RAI Film Festival, United Kingdom, 2023

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2023

Pame Int'l Film Festival, Nepal 2022

FIDBA - Int'l Documentary Film Festival, Argentina, 2022

Duhok Int'l Film Festival, Iraq, 2022

Poreč Dox Int'l Film Festival, Croatia, 2022

MOVE IT! Festival for Human Rights, Germany, 2022

Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2022

DokuBaku - Int'l Documentary Film Festival, Azerbaijan, 2022

Dokufest - Int'l Documentary and Short Film Festival, Kosovo, 2022

Melgaço Int'l Documentary Film Festival (MDOC), Portugal, 2022

Cinemambiente – Environmental Film Festival, Italy, 2022

Ecofalante Environmental Film Festival, Brazil, 2022

Aegean Film Festival, Greece, 2022

Documentarist 15th İstanbul Documentary Days, Turkey, 2022

Rencontres du film documentaire de Mellionnec, France, 2022

Internationales Film Festival Innsbruck, Austria, 2022

DocsBarcelona Film Festival, Spain, 2022

ethnocineca – Int'l Documentary Film Festival, 2022

Beldocs – Int'l Documentary Film Festival, Serbia, 2022

Taiwan Int'l Documentary Festival, Taiwan, 2022

Doxa Documentary Film Festival, Canada, 2022

DOK.fest München, Germany, 2022

Movies that Matter Festival, Netherlands, 2022

Zagrebdox Int'l Documentary Film Festival, Croatia, 2022

Docudays UA Int'l Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Ukraine, 2022

DocYard, USA, 2022

First Look - Museum of the Moving Image, USA, 2022

FIPADOC - Int'l Documentary Festival, France, 2022

Int'l Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2021

Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland, 2021

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Two Poets and a River

Thu, 9 Mar 2023 13:37:42 GMT

Two Poets and a River
Buy Now: $320.00

Using the Oxus river as a topos, this film explores themes of love and loss through the lives and musical poetry of the two most prominent and innovative Wakhi musicians in Central and South Asia, Qurbonsho in Tajikistan and Daulatsho in Afghanistan. In the 19th century their Wakhan homeland became a buffer zone between Czarist Russia and the British Empire and the river Oxus became a border. The condition of being separated by a river grounds the poets’ discussions of love and loss in their own lives as well as in their musical arts. Richard Wolf shot the film over 2.5 years (2012-2020).

The Deluxe Edition 2-disc set includes a Blu-ray featuring the 75-min festival cut and 124-min director’s cut, a CD soundtrack of music in Wakhi, Tajik, Persian, and Dari languages, and an accompanying booklet with songtexts and translations.

Selected Screenings & Awards

Martello Award, Cinque Ports International Film Festival, France and England, 2023

Middle Eastern Studies Association Film Festival, Montreal, 2023

Association for Asian Studies Film Expo, USA, 2023

RAI Film Festival, Bristol, UK, 2023

ICTM Prize for Best Documentary Film or Video, Int'l Council for Traditional Music, Portugal, 2022

Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival, USA, 2022

Manchester Lift-Off Film Festival, UK, 2022

Madrid International Film Festival, Spain, 2022

International Multicultural Film Festival, Australia, 2022

Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum, University of London, UK, 2022

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, USA, 2022

Department of Film and Television, National College of Arts, Pakistan, 2022

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Threads

Tue, 8 Mar 2022 15:35:22 GMT

Threads
Buy Now: $320.00

Threads explores the relationship between traditional weavers and fashion designers in India.

After decades of decline in a demand for legacy fabrics, collaborative relationships between designers and artisans (communicated and negotiated between social economic classes from different social positions) have led to fashion designers now recognizing the autonomy of artisan designers and the need to work with them. A highly regarded Indian designer reflects by saying, “artists [weavers] will not stop for my work, the craft is their lifestyle, if I change their lifestyle, it reflects in their work. Now I work according to them instead of according to me.”

In contemporary India, fashion houses strive for engagement with their weavers which is mutually beneficial for more than financial reasons, “we are going to create together, it’s what India wants.”

"Threads is a beautifully composed and thoughtful meditation on the stakes of collaboration among those from different social and professional backgrounds. The film suggests that designers can work sustainably and contribute to development by engaging with artisans' technical knowledge and social and aesthetic preferences." – Matthew Raj Webb, New York University, Anthropology of Work Review

"Through the visually stunning threads of India, Katherine Sender and Shuchi Kothari shed the light on the need of both past and present to create a solid textile industry for the future. By showing us how India is redefining its crafts and how crafts have revolutionized design, they provide possible solutions for makers losing their jobs, and for designers looking for inspiration.

If anything, Threads tells us that traditional textile makers must welcome the future, and contemporary designers must embrace the past, for both to preserve their livelihoods and lifestyles. In the process, thousands of families survive and we get to keep our roots in the face of faceless screens and social alienation." – Yasmine Dabbous, Kinship Stories/Espace Fann

Selected Screenings & Awards
Melbourne International Film Festival, Australia, 2022

Jaipur International Film Festival, India, 2022

New Delhi International Film Festival, India, 2022

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Tajen

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 13:30:00 GMT

Tajen
Buy Now: $295.00

Shot in the arid landscape of West Bali, Indonesia, Tajen, Balinese for cockfight, follows multiple narrative threads of this ancient spectacle--that of the blade, the rooster, the cockfighter. It is the moment when these elements come together during the bloody match that the real drama begins.

With a richly sensory approach that embeds the viewer within the action of the arena, Tajen is a poetic visual evocation of the intimacy, brutality, and festivity of the fight. While neither approving nor decrying this tradition, the film immerses the viewer into the visual and auditory domains of steel, feathers, blood and the money that defines Tajen.

The film, and its companion website Tajen: Interactive were conceptualized as a visual ethnography to complement Clifford Geertz's seminal piece, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight" and bring the study of the fight into the 21st century.

SELECTED SCREENINGS

Society for Visual Anthropology, 2016

International Ethnographic Film Festival (Belgrade), 2016

Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2019

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Tashi's Turbine

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 14:59:00 GMT

Tashi's Turbine
Buy Now: $320.00

Set in the grassroots of the Himalayan mountains, Tashi's Turbine is an uplifting tale of a small village's attempt to harness renewable, sustainable energy with the power of the wind. The story begins with the strong friendship between Tashi Bista and Jeevan, who journey from Kathmandu to Namdok with hopes of building a stronger Nepal, one wind turbine at a time.

Their first site, Namdok, is a humble remote village in Upper Mustang, which previously relied on sparse candlelight to power through the windy nights. As Tashi and Jeevan work with the villagers, the elements and gusty landscape bring their own set of unforeseen challenges for installing a strong wind turbine.

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Twenty-One Dollars or Twenty-One Days

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:58:00 GMT

Twenty-One Dollars or Twenty-One Days
Buy Now: $340.00

A man arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest tells his story in night court.

This film is included on the Pittsburgh Police Short Films DVD collection.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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Two Brothers

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:58:00 GMT

Two Brothers
Buy Now: $340.00

This short film shows a family's attempt to resolve a dispute among themselves over a brother's damaged car, after the police have been called to intervene.

This film is included on the Pittsburgh Police Short Films DVD collection.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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Two Towns of Jasper

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:58:00 GMT

Two Towns of Jasper
Buy Now: $320.00

On June 7, 1998, three white men from Jasper, Texas, chained African-American James Byrd to a pick-up truck and dragged him until his body disintegrated. This powerful documentary takes you to the white and black communities as it records their separate reactions to the most vicious racially motivated murder in the last 50 years.

This film provides an unprecedented opportunity to see the divisions that separate one person from another. The public performance version includes an extensive guide for leading classroom and community discussion on issues related to diversity and racism.

LIMITED SUPPLY

To purchase the DVD for community-based screenings and events, please contact Working Films.

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Two Video Reports from China

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:58:00 GMT

Two Video Reports from China
Buy Now: $320.00

In response to an invitation from the Chinese government, twenty-three American family planning workers from the fields of medicine, public health, media and administration spent seventeen days during August and September of 1977 in the People's Republic of China studying its birth control, maternity and child care methods and facilities.

This DVD contains two video reports made during this trip: In China Family Planning is No Private Matter (32 min), and Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (22 min).

On this trip, they inquired about the government's methods of surveillance that were instrumental in conducting the declared policy of "one child per family" and observed its consequences in factories and communes. In their effort to comprehend the breadth of the government's health care policies, they recorded the extensive use of herbal therapy and acupuncture. Here is presented their recording of a birth by caesarian section using acupuncture as the sole anesthetic. Shortly afterward they talked with the mother as she celebrated the birth of a healthy son.

The People-to-People China Trip was led by Phyllis Vineyard and Margaret Whitman and was facilitated by Planned Parenthood USA as part of its exploration of the methods and consequences of family planning worldwide.

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