CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

tomgillespie2002 In 1962, the Burmese government was overthrown in a coup by the socialist military, who maintained control of the country until 2011. During this time, Burma deteriorated into poverty, while any protests or statements made against the ruling government were quickly crushed through intimidation, torture, outlandishly long jail sentences and executions. In 1988, a series of marches, rallies and protests now known as the 8888 Uprising were brought to a bloody end as the military killed 3,000 civilians in the streets.With the media controlled by the state and a ban on any footage leaving the country, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) has trained its journalists to work as guerrilla cameraman, working in the shadows to capture any acts of oppression or revolution. They work as a network but rarely meet, communicating using mobile phones and internet chatrooms, and frequently putting themselves at great personal risk. Being captured could mean death, with our narrator, known as 'Joshua', having his footage wiped early on by secret police and being forced into exile. Clever reconstructions of Joshua receiving updates on a new uprising now known as the Saffron Revolution, led by the Buddhist monks, forms a tense narrative.The footage captured by the DVB is astonishing, with the action taking place right before your eyes. It is also, at times, incredibly intimate. Early on, the monks distrust the DVB, suspecting they are secret police. When the cameramen are attacked by plain-clothes military, the monks protect them and trust is immediately solidified. You are instantly swept up by the protesters elation and feel their incredible sense of hope, so it's absolutely shattering to see it all torn away. Director Anders Ostergaard weaves the footage together expertly, and the film is wholly deserving of its Best Documentary nomination at the Academy Awards in 2010 (and probably deserved to win). It's as close as you could get to being on the streets of a country under a crushing regime, and the results are frustrating and terrifying.

poe426 Here in this nation of banksters and their middle men (the politicians), politics is a simple enough equation: Money = Democracy. People here willingly give up the very freedoms that people in countries like Burma are literally DYING for. Unlike this country, where religious leaders (especially televangelists, the guiltiest of the guilty) willingly spread the gospel according to The Party, in Burma, Buddhist monks urge the people to: "Abandon your fear." "People must die" for freedom, someone says at one point. And then the monks lead by example, walking at the forefront of protesting crowds marching into the gunsights of the government goons. The crowd is dispersed by rifle fire and we see the murder of a Japanese photographer. It brought to mind something I saw as a kid, on the telenews (this was back before the news channels were all co-opted and corrupted): a Buddhist monk immolating himself to protest the Vietnam war. The monks in Burma fared no better: we see video smuggled out of the country showing the bullet-riddled corpse of a monk floating face down in a river. There are others. There will be more.

sergepesic Military regime in Burma is one of the worst abusers of human rights in the whole world. Army, police and never-ending number of spies and informers make lives of the Burmese people a horrible ordeal. This award winning documentary film tells a compelling story about a group of unbelievably courageous journalists and reporters, who risking their lives, try to film and secretly smuggle the footage out of the country.We follow, through the eyes of one of them, the tragic and unsuccessful uprising in 2007. It is heartbreaking to watch these brave and honorable people march and protest and ultimately fail. Their dark fate continues, but their bravery stands out as one of shining examples of invincibility of human spirit.

Gethin Van Haanrath Burma is an oppressive military state. It's illegal to protest in public. Men with guns will come and take you away if you do it. In 2007 a massive uprising began in the country when fuel prices became too high.The images of the monks marching in the streets were the defining image of this uprising but this documentary shows a lot more footage, the really important footage which is worth seeing.The video journalists in Burma (Myanmar) record everything undercover and sneak the footage out of the country so it can be broadcast around the world.The images are pretty stark, the army shooting unarmed civilians in the street, beating up and carrying away monks, a dead monk floating in a river the day after they were arrested.This is a very good documentary about the people rising up and fighting what is pretty much an impossibly authoritarian force. The soldiers have guns, the civilians have flags and video cameras. It's not hard to see who will win when you think of it this way. And yet the students, monks and rest of the people in the streets never waiver. They march onward, even saying, "Those who don't fear death, come to the front". That's bravery. Our political fights in North America and the rest of the Western world, while important are a mere shadow compared to the people of Myanmar.Burma is of course only one story of an authoritarian government, there are many more. Canadian and American companies regularly do business with this regime and rape the land of its resources. It's pretty obvious why Canadian troops are "fighting for democracy" in Afghanistan instead of Burma. We don't don't control the resources there, we do in Burma.