The World-Changing Power of True Stories
The 17th annual Doc Edge Film Festival is taking place virtually and throughout Aotearoa from the 1st of June to the 10th of July. With 113 films across 40 days, Doc Edge’s kaupapa (purpose) is to celebrate, support and showcase world-changing documentary storytelling, as envisioned by its Co-Founders, Fellows Alex Lee and Dan Shanan (Cohort 3). This year, Doc Edge has benefitted from the contributions of several Fellows and featured a number of Fellows’ projects, including Corinne van Egeraat and Petr Lom (Cohort 7) who produced the film, Myanmar Diaries, that has recently won the Doc Edge Ripple Effect Award.
“Prior to Doc Edge, documentary film was not well supported in New Zealand,” Alex says. “Our mahi (work) has facilitated funding, support and a platform for documentaries. In a world where we have less independent news and more misinformation, it is essential to deliver these critical stories to inspire the wider community.” Myanmar Diaries is a great example of this, Alex says, with its sometimes harrowing first-hand stories of the resistance of a collective of young Burmese creatives in the wake of last year’s military coup.
“Petr first went to Myanmar in 2012 during its fragile transition to democracy,” Corinne says. “Petr’s background is as a Czech refugee whose parents fled the invasion by the Soviet Union in 1968. This experience formed his whole background and interest in stories about injustice. When Myanmar really started to open up its borders and held its first human rights film festival, Petr passionately wanted to go. He taught a masterclass while he was there and returned home to the Netherlands all excited about these fantastic film students and their eagerness to learn. We stayed in touch with the organisers and went back the following year to teach and to produce short human rights films with young Burmese people. That’s how our relationship with the country started. We ended up staying there, off and on, for about 4 years.”
What Corinne and Petr witnessed during that time was a new Myanmar that was thriving. “If you were young and talented and spoke English, you had a career. There were amazing opportunities; some young people's salaries were quadrupling every year.” But in February 2021, after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party secured a landslide victory in their general election, the military seized control. “We honestly didn't see it coming. The people in Myanmar were cautious, but the country had been so successful and the economy growing so quickly that no one really believed the generals would do something that stupid. But they did, and it was both shocking and really violent.
“That same week, some of our former students reached out and said they wanted our help to produce an omnibus film about everything that was happening. Of course we said yes. We were eager to do something with our own frustration and worry, even though we knew it was not without risk. And we wanted to support their act of bravery. They wanted to do it anonymously, which created some limitations, but the 10 filmmakers involved were all really creative; some with a more fictionalised style, some with a documentary journalism approach. Even though they were operating across media, we quickly realised it was very much one story. From there, it grew from an omnibus into one hybrid feature film with a beginning, middle and end.” The group behind the film became known as The Myanmar Collective, and the result of our collective efforts is a range of intimate and often heartbreaking stories about what it’s like to exist in a world where you’re at constant risk of being arrested or tortured; how you navigate normal life when you’ve lost your freedom.
All the filmmakers remain safe for now, though some have had to flee, Corinne says. “The Myanmar Collective is currently setting up a platform to support Burmese creatives. We remain on the board, but the Collective is led by Burmese people so they can have true creative independence. What we want, more than anything, is to keep them busy and working and enable them to keep telling their stories, which are no longer being given much media attention.” In what is becoming an increasingly common pattern, Myanmar’s headlines are now being buried in a news cycle which, each day, updates with newer, equally shocking stories of violence and tragedy, Corinne says.
Myanmar Diaries is predicted to screen at around 100 film festivals worldwide and has so far won 8 international awards, including the coveted Berlinale Documentary Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Corinne says they are always impressed by the film’s impact on audiences. “This film really takes people to a place and lets them experience what it’s like. It’s the hardest film we’ve ever made. If we had initiated it, the responsibility of it would have been unbearable; possibly even unethical. It’s very intense and sometimes awful to watch, but there’s also hope because of the extreme bravery of these people. Anyone who has seen this film in a live cinema will never forget it.”
Corrine receiving the Ripple Effect Award at Doc Edge for Myanmar Diaries
Alex and the Doc Edge team agree, having recently awarded the film with The Ripple Effect Award. “As Fellows, we all believe that we must work together to help facilitate a better world and we know that the time is now. Petr and Corinne’s film is a prime example of how storytelling can create an effect, and their work facilitated these powerful stories in the landscape of a dangerous military operation.”
Corinne and Petr are enjoying their time touring the film with Doc Edge, and are grateful to its founders Alex and Dan for introducing them to the Fellowship. “They are regular visitors of the IDFA [International Documentary Film festival Amsterdam], so we have known them for years and always found them super inspiring. We also have an existing relationship with Aotearoa through a short film we made called We are the River about the personhood status of the Whanganui River, which we’re now expanding into a feature-length film. For us, EHF was a natural fit for both our work and our values. We’ll be filming here through the summer and, in the future, we are hoping to be in New Zealand for half the year. We’re already making creative connections here and working closely with local iwi and a Māori composer on the feature film.”
Doc Edge remains in full swing through the end of this weekend, where Dan says that patrons can enjoy world-changing cinema and the fruits of some additional Fellow contributions. “Kara Technologies has provided us with sign language support, and a project featuring their digital story of sign language software is being shown at the Doc Edge XR Exhibition. Kara Co-Founder and Fellow Arash Tayebi (Cohort 4) presented about this during the recent Doc Edge Forum. We’re also featuring two projects, Atua and Rangi Tuwhera, by Katherine Lintott (Cohort 7) at the XR Exhibition which focus on immersive installation and VR interactive experience, respectively. Fellow Rob Vickery (Cohort 6) spoke on alternative funding and innovation as part of the Doc Edge Industry Forum and Alexandra Johnes (Cohort 8) from TIME Studios was an Executive Producer of Delikado. Ultimately, we are all storytellers, and it's important to tell the stories of the change that Fellows are making and inspiring in our world. We’re excited about additional opportunities to partner and magnify both awareness and outcomes.”
Doc Edge is looking to expand its offering to a year-round virtual cinema with hybrid and metaverse activities, and its founders are planning to run Good Pitch Aotearoa later this year with support from Fellow Chris Gerbhardt (Cohort 6). “We are looking for partners and funders to support Good Pitch Aotearoa, which has been run in different cities around the world, raising over $32 Million USD for the impact campaigns of the films, many of which have gone on to win international awards including Oscars and BAFTAS.”
Corinne and Petr are enjoying touring Myanmar Diaries and another short film, Letter to San Zaw Htway, at Doc Edge before heading to Cape Verde to complete Coriolis Effect, a film about ‘the place where hurricanes are born’ and then returning to Aotearoa to complete their feature-length version of We are the River. “Petr and I are really exploring what impact we can have here in New Zealand, and we’re eager to learn a lot and find ways to be of service. I used to be a lot less confident than I am now, but I’ve learned to just trust the process. The path is already there, you just have to walk on it. Yes, there will be hurdles, but don’t be your own.”
For more information about Doc Edge, watch the Festival Trailer or visit the website: https://docedge.nz/ which includes details of the films and screenings. Virtual screenings continue to 10 July and screenings in Wellington continue this week at Roxy Cinemas from 7 July – 10 July.
Alex’s Top Picks for the Rest of Doc Edge Festival
1. Myanmar Diaries (Virtually and Live at The Roxy in Wellington)
2. Unseen Skies (Virtually and Live at The Roxy in Wellington, executive produced by EHF Fellow, Diane Wyermann)
3. Tantura (Virtually and Live at The Roxy in Wellington)
4. Still Working 9-5 (Virtually and Live at The Roxy in Wellington)
5. Nelly & Nadine (Virtually)
Story by EHF Fellow Bex De Prospo (Cohort 2) and Director of Authentic Storytelling
