Revisiting the Burma Spring

For her first post-coup documentary, Padauk: Myanmar Spring, Jeanne Hallacy’s team employed a technique called “in-depth personal storytelling,” and the results were simply stunning.  It allows the viewer a much more intimate look into how the movement—and the ensuing crackdown—developed. Padauk is one of many films featured in the Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival, a virtual streaming event with all proceeds going to humanitarian projects across Myanmar.Jeanne describes her work as rooted in the ethos of non-violence, but she also admits she is in no position to judge the move to armed resistance, noting the past 70 years of internal conflict and civil war in the country, along with the more recent outright theft of the government on the part of the military.She also heaps much praise on local journalists who are risking everything to continue to share the truth of the military’s aggressions to the world, especially those operating in ethnic regions. She describes one such local media outfit which had its offices raided by soldiers, who had to run away to avoid arrest and are now continuing their reporting from deep underground.Jeanne sees a cause for optimism in spite of everything, noting a unity she had not witnessed in all her years visiting the country. In one of the film’s more powerful scenes, an ethnic Bamar woman expresses her guilt and regret at not doing more to understand the suffering of the country’s ethnic minority communities before the coup. Her confession is symbolic of a much broader reckoning taking place within the Bamar majority.One of Jeanne’s quotes sums up the silver lining inside the country’s present, very dark cloud. “For the first time ever, I see a much-heightened awareness among the urban sectors of young people, And not just young people, but middle-aged people, civil servants… They are now willing to take the hands of their ethnic sisters and brothers, Rohingya sisters and brothers, and say, ‘We are one. We are united we are together, and we will end this military rule together.’ That's what's different.”