I was shocked, when I realized that I had forgotten about Burma.
How could an entire country vanish from consciousness? The country’s military regime had an obvious interest in keeping the country closed and "forgotten," but how was it possible for them to succeed so well in today’s globalized society?
It was at the end of 2004, before the Saffron Revolution, before the cyclone and before an American decided to swim across a lake to visit Aung San Suu Kyi -- events that caught the attention of world media. Jan Krogsgaard, a Danish video artist living in Asia, approached me with the idea to make a film about Burma, and I immediately knew that I had to.
We started developing the film, and Anders Østergaard, an established Danish documentary director, came on board. There were many touching human interest stories in the shape of refuges and victims of abuse, but we did not want to film "the results" of oppression -- we wanted to focus on the oppression itself.
But how to capture everyday oppression on film when nothing much happens and people are afraid to talk to you? And how do you make a portrait of a regime if you are not allowed inside its country?
Some six months into development, we learned that Democratic Voice of Burma (by then a radio station in exile) had received seed funding to start producing and broadcasting TV into Burma via satellite. They were to train undercover video journalists to make reportages from inside Burma. Their tapes would then be smuggled out of the country, sent to Oslo, edited, and broadcast back into Burma via satellite.
For the first time, the Burmese people would be able to see reportages and news pieces about themselves that was not part of the regime’s propaganda machine. It was an intriguing thought. The journalists were central to fighting the military’s information lock down – and if we were able to cooperate with them, they could also be our eyes and ears inside the country.
To make a long story short: DVB agreed to cooperate with us, and we found a main character in the shape of a young journalist working with them. However, 18 months into the film’s development he had to emigrate -- not an unusual fate for people working illegally -- and we were back at square one. I did consider momentarily giving up but could not.
So we started all over again, researching for a new main character.
The VJ’s (video journalists) have to work in very small units, because if one is caught, he will be tortured and eventually spill what he knows. Because of the risks the undercover journalists run every day, we had to meet them outside the country, and we had to develop a method by which our main character could be the point of identification, yet never be seen on screen.
Meeting Joshua was a very decisive moment. He was so young, so bright, and so determined, and he wanted to work with us.
