Burma VJ Director Anders Ostergaard is in Bodhgaya
Anders Ostergaard, the director of the 2008 Danish documentary film Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country has been spotted in Bodhgaya these days. Burma VJ won a lot of awards and was even nominated for an Oscar. [from Wikipedia: It follows the September 2007 protests against the military regime in Burma. The “VJ” in the title stands for “video journalists.” Some of it was filmed on hand-held cameras. The footage was smuggled out of the country, physically or over the Internet. The DVD includes a message from Buddhist actor Richard Gere comparing the situation in Burma to that in Tibet.] While watching Burma VJ, I was also struck by the similarities between the oppression of Burma and the situation in Tibet today. I think it’s important that stories like this are told. Since this film was made, things have gotten a little bit better in Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi has been permitted to travel and media restrictions have relaxed a little bit, but in truth, an extremely dark cloud of oppression still looms.
The film may be viewed in its entirety on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=24zPJe3Fgwc
tormafilm.com 