Anders Østergaard originally set out to make a small half-hour portrait of a young Burmese underground video reporter, but reality would have it differently.
"To begin with, I was mainly interested in my central character as a documentarian. He and his friends have to film with their cameras concealed in bags, which obviously is a major restriction on what they are able to document. Then came the rebellion," Østergaard comments in FILM#64.
In September 2007, the uprising of the Buddhist monks against Burma's military junta marked a dramatic turn of events. As the only filmmakers in the world, Østergaard and his team suddenly had an opportunity to tell the story of the rebelling monks first-hand.
"BURMA VJ Reporting from a Closed Country" is available at the DFI Film & Bookshop.