With the generous assistance of Lancang-Mekong Vision’s “From Our Eyes,” ICBMS3 is very pleased to announce the addition of a short film screening + online talk with directors during the conference! FOE has provided access to three short films, the works of two documentary filmmakers in Burma and one from Thailand, all focused on different ethnic peoples of Myanmar living in vastly different situations and realities.
“But…Life Goes on” (about 20 min) by Nang Mhwe Ngin Seng
“But Life Goes on…” shows life under covid in Myanmar’s biggest city. In order to control the influence of the second wave of covid-19, Yangon, began to restrict urban traffic and public access. Nang Mhwe Ngin Seng, a filmmaker from Shan state, focuses on life with her roommates (three girls from Shan state) during the covid shutdown in Yangon. Their lives are affected to greater and lesser extents by the epidemic. In this self-portraiture documentary, Nang Mhwe Ngin Seng reexamines the life dilemmas faced by her and her mother as two generations of women from Shan state, and finally she finds the glimmer of love in the dark.
The Monkhood (about 15 min) by Nontawat Numbenchapol
This documentary is about a young monk from Shan state who has been living in Thailand for seven years. Being a monk makes his life easier, but he doesn’t know if he is going to be a monk his whole life. He begins to study and think harder about the life of lay people, along with his own position as migrant, ethnic minority, and member of the monkhood.
Mountain Farm (30 min) by Zaw Lar
Filmmaker Zaw Lar is from Northern Myanmar, from the Lisu ethnic group. He started his research about Lisu people’s traditional livelihoods and has turned that research into a documentary called Mountain Farm. Lisu people’s mountain farms have managed to hold on well into our globalized era. But today’s Lisu farmers face difficulties obtaining new land and making a stable income from mountain farming and struggle to make a living. Zaw Lar thinks that mountain farming will disappear as soon as in the next few years. He has made this film as a document of Lisu people’s traditional mountain farming culture.
The film program will be screened on Friday, 5 March from 16.15 to 17.20 and again on Sunday, 7 March from 9.00 to 10.30, including a zoom director’s discussion with Nang Mhwe Ngin Seng (Jupiter) and Nontawat Numbenchapol.
The film screening and talk is FREE and open to the public! Please join us!