12/10/2011

Danish director Anders Høgsbro Østergaard’s documentary Burma VJ - Reporting from a Closed Country [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was yesterday (October 11) awarded the €25,000 Special Jury Commendation Puma Creative Impact Award, which Østergaard and producer Lise Lense-Møller, of Magic Hour Films, received in London.

UK director Rupert Murray’s The End of the Line took the €50,000 first prize in the competition launched in January to honour ”the documentary film that has the greatest impact on the world that particular year”. The committee included US Oscar-nominated director Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me).

In Burma VJ Østergaard, whose documentaries include the award-winning Tintin et moi (2003) and Gasolin (2006), about one of Denmark’s most popular rock groups, depicts the life of undercover video journalists in Burma who keep up the flow of news in spite of risking torture and life in jail.

When Buddhist monks lead a massive uprising in September 2007, foreign media were banned from the country, so it is up to 27-year-old 'Joshua' - the tactical leader of a group of reporters – to keep the revolution alive on TV screens all over the world.

Their video material is smuggled out of Burma and broadcast – also to Burma – via satellite, and as government intelligence understands the power of the camera, the VJs (video journalists) become their prime target.

Burma VJ, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, has been seen by more than 30 million people around the world. It has been presented at 200 film festivals and collected 50 international prizes, and it has been theatrically released in a dozen countries.

The film was praised for ”its unique approach to documenting and broadcasting the Burma monks’ uprising against the military regime...the bravery of the filmmakers has inspired a new generation of video journalists and independent journalists within Burma”.