Filmmakers Corinne van Egeraat and Petr Lom of Dutch-based outfit Zindoc are currently in New Zealand, shooting their new feature doc We Are The River. This is about the fight for the Whanganui River to be recognised as a living entity and thereby given legal protection.
As they work on the project, the momentum behind Myanmar Diaries, the documentary Zindoc co-produced on behalf of the Myanmar Film Collective (MFC) is continuing to grow. Now, the film is being positioned for an Oscar run.
It deals with life in Myanmar following the brutal military coup which took place in February 2021. The project, which combines short documentary and part-fictionalised hybrid short films, has been directed anonymously by Burmese filmmakers and citizen journalists. Van Egeraat and Lom produced and edited the documentary from the footage smuggled out to them by the collective.
Since the film’s premiere at the Berlinale last February (where it won the Documentary Award and the Amnesty International Film Prize), it has screened at festivals all over the world, picking up many further prizes. Sales agent Autlook has closed several deals on the doc.
“There’s a lot of demand. We are just thrilled by how it is doing – the reception of the film,” says Lom. “We’ve been very busy with that. We’ve been very busy also with all of the filmmakers because, of course, we have a responsibility to all of them first of all to make sure they’re safe – and we can also try to encourage them to make future work.”
Out of solidarity with each other and in order to protect themselves, none of the filmmakers have taken credits. Some are now living in the west but have family and friends back home. Most of the others are still in Myanmar.
“What is very special is that there have been a number of screenings where filmmakers have been able to attend,” van Egeraat says. “When they go on stage, they have disguises. They use pseudonyms.”
“There are quite substantial risks to all of them,” Lom adds. “We make big efforts to make sure that everybody still is anonymous – which means we can only speak in levels of generality with you. We can tell you that all of the filmmakers are safe and that most are still in Myanmar. We can’t really tell you more than that but, above all, everybody has been well – and so that is a big relief to all of us.”
Van Egeraat and Lom have longstanding links with Burma. They produced the short Sad Film, made anonymously by a protester against the coup. Lom directed (and Egeraat produced) the short Letter to San Zaw Htway, paying tribute to an inspirational Burmese artist and activist. They lived in Myanmar between 2013 and 2017, teaching film and photography, and made their feature documentary Burma Storybook during this period.
When Myanmar Diaries played at Movies That Matter in the Hague, where it won yet another award after what proved to be a highly emotional screening, three of the anonymous directors were in attendance. Around this period, a “rudimentary” website was launched on behalf of the Collective. The aim was (as Lom puts it) “to use the momentum of the film to help the Burmese filmmakers keep making films in Myanmar.” Two of the filmmakers took over the idea and have set up their own foundation with this goal in mind.
“We wanted to allow them to be able to do that on their own and so we are kind of in an advisory function with some other people in the background on that.”
Van Egeraat emphasises, though, that she and Lom remain completely “open” to working with the filmmakers, “maybe if there would be a next Collective effort which, at the moment, is not really clear.” Even if this doesn’t happen, they will continue to “support and help” the filmmakers on an individual basis. “They know that they can reach out to us if they wish,” she says.
In Myanmar itself, the situation remains grim. “If you follow the news, the country is traumatised and continues to be so brutalised by the military. There is so much suffering that it is often really overwhelming for the filmmakers,” says Lom. “It’s emotionally very challenging.”
Nonetheless, the Collective has stuck together. “That is the most special thing for us…it really is ego-less filmmaking. It is really is a collective that decided to make something in the service of a greater good.”
For obvious reasons, the western media has been distracted in recent months. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, there has been less coverage of the Myanmar crisis. It has been “extremely challenging” to grab the attention of the press. “But what really heartens us is that when the film is shown to audiences, how always audiences react to the film in such an emotional way. There is really a universal empathy with this kind of suffering in a faraway country,” says Lom.
“But I still feel the film can do a whole, whole lot more. I guess that is why we are doing this Oscar campaign. We are a super underdog effort but it still feels that if this film could get a proper spotlight, we could move mountains when it comes to policy. There is so much that could be done on Myanmar,” Lom further suggests.
One ambition is to show the documentary to top level policy makers in the EU and US.
As for Myanmar itself, the military regime doesn’t appear to be paying much attention to the international success of the film. They’re much more concerned with what happens within their home borders – and with stifling any dissent there.
ARTE has picked up the documentary. There are hopes it will be broadcast in February, the second anniversary of the coup, or in the summer when the military will be “staging” elections.
The filmmakers have been working in the UK with Together Films. In the Netherlands, they’ve been collaborating with producer Natasja Möhrs who has been dealing with many of the logistical issues behind the release.
“I still can’t forget that it started with a phone call,” Lom says of the process which led to the award-winning documentary. “It started with a phone call from a filmmaker right after the coup saying can you help us…it really is a miracle that something has grown out of it!”
“This last year, it has really proven that a film like Myanmar Diaries is important on many levels,” adds producer van Egeraat.
