CPH: DOX international premiere of Petr Lom’s BURMA STORYBOOK

BURMA STORYBOOK taps into a country emerging from years of dictatorship through the stories and poems of Burmese poets. Myanmar, on the cusp of change, is still an open wound. Poetry, the most popular art form in Myanmar, is used to express both memories of pain and how to adapt to a fast-changing culture. The lyrical words of the Burmese poets parallel the strong visual images filmmakers Petr Lom and Corinne van Egeraat bring to the screen.

Maung Aung Pwint, the country’s most famous dissident poet alive today, waits for his long-lost son to return home after himself spending years in prison for for his writings and activism. Having inspired fellow prisoners and younger generations to take up the pen he preserves the legacy of Burmese poetry. Young poet Mae Yway reflects a new generation of poets who use their words not only as an art form but as a call for activism.

Petr Lom was born in Prague in 1968 and grew up in Canada. He is now based in The Netherlands with his wife Corinne van Egeraat. He received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard and was Associate Professor at George Soros’ Central European University in human rights and philosophy.  In 2003, he became an independent documentary director and producer specializing in human rights film. His award-winning films have been broadcast in over thirty countries and screened at more than two hundred and fifty film festivals around the world including Sundance and the Berlinale.  His filmography: BRIDE KIDNAPPING IN KYRGYZSTAN (2004); ON A TIGHTROPE (2007), LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT (2009); BACK TO THE SQUARE (2012), ANA ANA (“I am me” in Arabic – 2013), and BURMA STORYBOOK (2017), for which he is also writing the accompanying book.

Producer Corinne van Egeraat is from The Netherlands. She is an independent filmmaker and creative producer with a background in theatre, she specializes in projects on creative freedom of expression. In 2011-12 she produced the Self-Portrait Video Project, a year-long workshop on autobiographical storytelling with young Egyptian artists, which culminated in the collaborative feature documentary ANA ANA (“I am me” in Arabic) that was nominated for best film at IDFA 2014 and released in the cinemas in the Netherlands. She is currently producing Framing the Transition, a human rights photography essay project with twelve young Burmese photographers. Selected as Netherlands filmmaker of the year in 2004, her filmography, all of which has been broadcast in the Netherlands, is: LORD OF THE JUNGLE (2000), COWBOYS IN KOSOVO (2004), SPEEDING ON THE VIRTUAL HIGHWAY ( 2007), BRIDGING THE GAP (2008), DISLOCATED (2009), and ANA ANA (“I am me” in Arabic – 2013).

BURMA STORYBOOK photo exhibition 

Website: www.burmastorybook.com