Watch Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Military regime in Burma is one of the worst abusers of human rights in the whole world. Army, police and never-ending number of spies and informers make lives of the Burmese people a horrible ordeal. This award winning documentary film tells a compelling story about a group of unbelievably courageous journalists and reporters, who risking their lives, try to film and secretly smuggle the footage out of the country.We follow, through the eyes of one of them, the tragic and unsuccessful uprising in 2007. It is heartbreaking to watch these brave and honorable people march and protest and ultimately fail. Their dark fate continues, but their bravery stands out as one of shining examples of invincibility of human spirit.

Burma VJ is a moving account of people struggling against a brutal dictatorship against all odds. Focusing on the footage taken by underground journalists within Burma / Myanmar during the 2007 protests by Buddhist monks and students. Starting from the protests' mundane origins in a gasoline price hike, it traces the uprising to its tragic conclusion in a crackdown by the military junta.The film itself is a testament to the importance of the Internet as a tool to combat oppression. Using cell phone cameras, the resistance journalists transmitted events as they happened to the world, creating a spectacle that other countries could not ignore.Moreover, Burma VJ gives an inside look at what it is like to live in a dictatorial society, where nothing we would recognize as freedom exists. This is a society where police agents regularly commingle with the populace without uniforms, and where being dragged into an unmarked car are genuine possibilities for the average person. In essence, the film gives viewers a peek into the court of the crimson king.Some reviewers have carped that a few scenes, mainly involving a liaison in Thailand, are reenactments, and that the film is not objective. However, in the face of military brutality by the junta, calls for objectivity seem weak and pusillanimous. Sometimes, direct statements are the best.

I saw this movie at SXSW last year, and it really interested me because my mom and her side of the family is from Burma. I knew that there were problems going on in Burma, but I wasn't really familiar with any more details regarding the problems. Watching the footage made me feel as though I was watching something that I wasn't allowed to watch, and I wanted everybody to watch and learn what was going on in Burma. Everybody should be able to record and document what is going on in life, and I really appreciate Anders Østergaard going out and making a film about the problems in Burma. After watching the movie, I felt so much more educated about the subject. I wanted to learn more about it, and I wanted my mom and the rest of my huge family to watch it. I told everyone about it, and it was definitely my favorite documentary at SXSW 2009...and probably of the whole year. I'm so glad that it received an Oscar nomination, and I really think it should have won.

I had a great chance to watch this documentary about the Journalism under an oppression in Burma at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2008(IDFA). It's not only that the awfulness of the situation in Burma (in example:the political oppression, violence and lack of freedom) that leaves you breathless but also the effort of the reporter, whose face is never seen during the documentary, in order to be seen and heard. After watching it, you will for sure find yourself thinking over the brave journalists who risk their lives to tell their stories, to tell the world the truth which is standing there stuck between the walls that covers the country.An impressive documentary, and also a must seen one!