"Burma VJ: Reporting From A Closed Country" screens in Tallahassee, June 26, 2009

In the summer of 2007, when 100,000 people (including thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns) took to the streets of Rangoon, Burma (also know as Myanmar) to protest the oppressive regime that has held Burma hostage for over 40 years. Foreign news crews were banned and the internet was shut down, but the Democratic Voice of Burma, a collection of 30 anonymous and underground video journalists recorded these historic events on "handy cams" and smuggled the footage out of the country, where it was broadcast worldwide via satellite. Risking torture and life imprisonment, the VJs vividly document the brutal clashes with the military and undercover police even after they themselves become targets of the authorities.

Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, acclaimed director Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. The Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon.

Screening Time: TBA.