Oxford Burma Alliance and Amnesty International present 'This Prison Where I Live', a film by Rex Bloomstein.
The OBA is happy to announce its first event, in collaboration with Oxford's branch of Amnesty International, on November 22nd, 2011 at 19:30 at the Turl Street Kitchen. We will be showing the documentary 'This Prison Where I Live', followed by a discussion with the film's director, Rex Bloomstein.
'This Prison Where I Live' is a film about two comedians.
Maung Thura, better known as Zarganar, is Burma’s greatest living comic. Relentlessly victimised by the Burmese military junta, he was sentenced in 2008 to 59 years in prison (later reduced to 35 years) and released on 11 October 2011, as part of the Burmese government's general amnesty. Michael Mittermeier, in stark contrast, is free to practise his art of humour and provocation as one of Germany’s leading stand up comedians.
Two men joined by comedy and separated by repression.
Like many of Burma’s leading dissidents, Zarganar has been silenced. He has been jailed on a series of trumped up charges for his outspoken criticism of the government after leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, and for trying to alert the world’s media to the junta’s criminal failure to respond to a human catastrophe.
The genesis of this film begins in 2007, when Zarganar agreed to be interviewed by the British documentary filmmaker, Rex Bloomstein, despite being banned from all forms of artistic activity and talking to foreign media. Over two days Bloomstein and his team interviewed Zarganar in depth in his flat, showed the cinemas that are prevented from screening his films, the bookstalls not allowed to sell his plays or poetry, and the makeshift TV studio where his fellow comedians rehearse on a stage that he himself is forbidden to tread. Footage which has never been seen or broadcast before.
Equally irreverent and famous for tackling taboo subjects in his comic routines, Michael Mitttermeier has extended the range of comedy and satire in the German speaking world. Hearing of Zarganar’s fate and seeing the footage, Michael joined with Rex Bloomstein to make a film about this man who has paid such a price for speaking out against the regime. Together with a small team, they travelled secretly to Burma.
This Prison Where I Live is a feature documentary and is the story of Michael’s exploration into the personality, the motivation and the talent of the man who describes himself as the ‘loudspeaker’ for his people.
thisprisonwhereilive.co.uk
The OBA is happy to announce its first event, in collaboration with Oxford's branch of Amnesty International, on November 22nd, 2011 at 19:30 at the Turl Street Kitchen. We will be showing the documentary 'This Prison Where I Live', followed by a discussion with the film's director, Rex Bloomstein.
'This Prison Where I Live' is a film about two comedians.
Maung Thura, better known as Zarganar, is Burma’s greatest living comic. Relentlessly victimised by the Burmese military junta, he was sentenced in 2008 to 59 years in prison (later reduced to 35 years) and released on 11 October 2011, as part of the Burmese government's general amnesty. Michael Mittermeier, in stark contrast, is free to practise his art of humour and provocation as one of Germany’s leading stand up comedians.
Two men joined by comedy and separated by repression.
Like many of Burma’s leading dissidents, Zarganar has been silenced. He has been jailed on a series of trumped up charges for his outspoken criticism of the government after leading a private relief effort to deliver aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, and for trying to alert the world’s media to the junta’s criminal failure to respond to a human catastrophe.
The genesis of this film begins in 2007, when Zarganar agreed to be interviewed by the British documentary filmmaker, Rex Bloomstein, despite being banned from all forms of artistic activity and talking to foreign media. Over two days Bloomstein and his team interviewed Zarganar in depth in his flat, showed the cinemas that are prevented from screening his films, the bookstalls not allowed to sell his plays or poetry, and the makeshift TV studio where his fellow comedians rehearse on a stage that he himself is forbidden to tread. Footage which has never been seen or broadcast before.
Equally irreverent and famous for tackling taboo subjects in his comic routines, Michael Mitttermeier has extended the range of comedy and satire in the German speaking world. Hearing of Zarganar’s fate and seeing the footage, Michael joined with Rex Bloomstein to make a film about this man who has paid such a price for speaking out against the regime. Together with a small team, they travelled secretly to Burma.
This Prison Where I Live is a feature documentary and is the story of Michael’s exploration into the personality, the motivation and the talent of the man who describes himself as the ‘loudspeaker’ for his people.
thisprisonwhereilive.co.uk
