They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain

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12/01/2013 Extraordinary movie, the best we have seen in a long long time!!!! See more 11/22/2013 We are given a gentle, touching narrative of the Myanmar people, largely a Buddhist nation which had an authoritarian government and lacks severely in education and human rights. Many children who were asked said they only had 1 or 2 years of school. No one can afford it. Child labor and the trafficking of young girls is heavy. And as in other countries in the area, there are hundreds of cultures and many different languages. It is hard to bring a country together that has so many different ethnicities, cultures, and potentially values. We get an informative glimpse at the past 80 years of Myanmar's history, environmental challenges, living conditions, and citizen's perspectives. My main complaint with this documentary may be an unjust one, but it felt a bit limited in the same way that a person's vacation footage only narrowly covers the country they explored. But since cameras were forbidden during the time of this production, the limitation is understandable, and Director Lieberman does provide a nice interview with an admirable and hopeful voice of democracy - only this politician, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, had been under house arrest for 15 years at the time of the film's production. Since then, some promising governmental moves have taken place and she has been released and elected into parliament. Her party, National League for Democracy, won 43 of the 45 seats available during the 2012 by-elections, after being unbanned just the year before. See more 02/17/2013 fascinating, heartbreaking See more 01/30/2013 Excellent overview of a wonderful people and beautiful country. Some of the things in the film are already dated, because much has changed over the past couple of years. However, the core issues raised about education, healthcare, and poverty are still highly relevant. The historical background on Burma and the overview of Burmese Buddhism is also great. I only wish the author could have spent more time investigating and reporting on the even more desperate plight of the ethnic minorities - the Chin, Kachin, etc. See more 12/01/2012 A well-balanced documentary of a beautiful country, with beautiful people. Not overly political or sensationalized, and covers the geography, culture, religion, politics and realities of a country that we really know little about. It's now on my list of places to travel to. See more 04/09/2012 A comprehensive tour of Burma shot by someone in the country to consult on making TV commercials. Lieberman risks imprisonment by shooting video and doing interviews throughout the military ruled country. While never dwelling on any topic, except poverty, this piece gives an overview of the conditions within this isolated country. It explores their religious beliefs, their education system, their cultural treasures and the misguided nature of their military regime. The interviews are surprising (and conceal the identities of those who speak) in that these topics are just never spoken of in their country. But there is little here that calls for action and no solutions are suggested. It is a time capsule, not a politically motivated piece, which saps a lot of the fire behind the idea of clandestine filming. See more Read all reviews

They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain

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