“The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk and its founding institutions, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and European Film Academy, protest vehemently against the arrest and lifetime sentence of Myanmar’s pioneering documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe and call on the Myanmar authorities to release her immediately and unconditionally,” the organisation underlined in a statement published January 24.
Shin Daewe, one of Myanmar’s pioneering female documentary filmmakers, was sentenced to life following her prosecution for violating counter-terrorism law by possessing a drone.
“She was arrested at a bus station in Yangon on 15 October 2023 when soldiers found a filming drone in her luggage,” writes ICFR. “It then took the Myanmar authorities almost three months to bring the case to trial on 10 January 2024. She was allowed no legal representation during the closed trial of a military tribunal and was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment.”
A family source states: “Our family simply wishes to see her resume her work as usual. We eagerly await the day when our sister will return home.”
“The conviction of Shin Daewe with its concomitant harsh sentencing is the latest example of the Myanmar junta’s relentless persecution of any dissent,” says European Film Academy chair and ICFR founding board member Mike Downey.
“This is the latest in a series of unfair trials and cruel and repressive sentences which are part of a broader effort to instil fear in the junta’s critics, suppress independent coverage, and deny the reality of the military’s serious and ongoing rights violations. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression and freedom of media are noticeably absent in Myanmar right now, and ICFR will do what it can to help in the goal to free Shin Daewe from this disproportionate sentence.”
As a student, Shin Daewe was involved in protests in the 8888 Uprising. She was jailed for one month in 1990 and for one year in 1991 for her involvement in demonstrations.
Having worked as a video journalist with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) between 2005 and 2010, Shin Daewe reported on the 2007 Saffron Revolution and contributed to the documentary Burma VJ, which was nominated for the European Film Awards 2009.
“As an internationally established filmmaker, Shin Daewe has repeatedly shed a light on social and political issues in her country,” ICFR continues.
One of Shin Daewe’s most renowned works is her 2008 documentary An Untitled Life, which follows the story of painter Rahula from Mingun, a village on Ayeyarwaddy River near Mandalay. Her film Take Me Home, which is a story about ethnic Kachin villagers who were displaced by conflict in northern Myanmar, was awarded at Myanmar’s Wathann Film Festival.
In 2013, Shin Daewe directed a 15-minute documentary titled Now I Am 13, which depicts the struggles of a teenage girl from central Myanmar who was deprived of educational opportunities due to poverty. This documentary earned her the Silver Award at the Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival and the Award for Best Documentary at the Wathann Film Festival in 2014.
“Deeply worried about her health and well-being, the ICFR stands with Shin Daewe and all those in Myanmar who stand up for their basic human rights and the freedom of expression and call on the Myanmar authorities to immediately and unconditionally release [her],” the organisation writes. “We encourage all film and culture institutions around the world to do the same, and invite them to share the link to her film Now I Am 13 wherever possible.”
