the making of

I filmed “Prayer of Peace” over three months inside Karen State in 2006... but it really began in 2003 when the Free Burma Rangers approached me to help them put together a short film about the situation inside Burma and their part in it. From that time I have helped make a half dozen other films with the Free Burma Rangers. However, in this film I wanted to focus on characters within the situation and felt that if I was going to do this, I would need to shoot it myself. At first I was reluctant because of the dangers of being in the war zones, especially the idea of stepping on land mines. But after a few years I came to care more and more and became better friends with the Free Burma Rangers, especially Monkey, who became the focus of the film. In the end I decided I was going to have to take the risk and effort needed to capture what’s happening in the jungle hidden away from the world. So we have a film about relief workers caring for their people amid a human rights crisis in Karen State, Eastern Burma.

I spent two six-week trips with the Free Burma Rangers as they conducted relief missions in Karen State. I shot without trying to control any of the situations I was in. I never asked anyone to do anything for the camera, except interviews. I tried to keep my camera out of mind of everyone I filmed. I did this by being present, I interacted with subjects as much as possible and considered my work second. I came first to stand with them as a friend, not observer. I believe in their cause and while I didn’t exaggerate any aspect of the oppression of the Burma Army atrocities, you can certainly say I am sympathetic to the Karen. I was not objective in the process, but I believe I was truthful. I did research and painstaking translation to make sure I understood what people really meant and that I presented an honest story to the best of my ability.

After three months inside and over thirty hours of footage I started to edit without knowing exactly where the film would end up. The film is entirely chronological except for the three interviews, meaning that what happens in the film follows exactly how it happened on the trips I went on. Except that I cut in Day Htoo’s, Monkey’s and Saw Maung Hla Htoo’s interviews in different places for deeper understanding. I cut the film chronologically because I felt it would be more truthful. I wanted the film to be more than entertainment or propaganda. And while compressed and crafted, I tried to approach it as honest as I could, and I felt that chronology was key in this. I cut the film first to about one hour and then started working on the script. After I had a rough draft of the script, I had it translated into Karen language. For people to experience Karen State, I felt it should be in Karen, sight and sound. I wanted authenticity. Nothing I wrote in the script came only from me, it is what I learned from the Karen, their faces, heart, land, and also from the Free Burma Rangers. After translation by Pi Boo and others, I asked Monkey to rework the script into his own words, as he would say and feel it himself. This process took more time and discussion than one can imagine, but in the end I was pleased and felt like I didn’t write it at all. The three main interviews of Day Htoo, Monkey and Saw Maung Hla Htoo, each came from one-hour interviews done inside Karen State, all three locations had been attacked or were to be attacked within weeks.

The filming took place over three months and covered hundreds of miles on foot in Karen State, the editing took six months, but really it took several years to make the film. And it’s only 28 minutes long! I feel deeply grateful to the Karen for their hospitality and willingness to allow me to tell their story. It was a great honor to be in their homeland and I truly hope and pray for their freedom. I also am greatly indebted to the Free Burma Rangers for allowing me to work so closely with them. I wish to thank everyone who helped in making this film.

Sincerely,
Front Films

looking after each other

Another still I took inside Karen State. This was in an Internally Displaced Village somewhere in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. These children were looking after each other. I'm not sure where the parents were, probably looking for food. It was a desperate place, and I could leave. If the Burma Army came near they would run to another hiding area... and on and on it goes for them. I'm not sure what other people see but it reminds me these people exist in flesh and blood. They have hopes and want to live in peace... and the Burma Army is making life hell for a lot of people.

knowing only war

Last year I spent three months inside Karen State, Eastern Burma. Since leaving I suffer from what one might call survivors guilt, I'm haunted by memory. There are real people suffering under a dictatorship that would rather they be dead. They are a hunted people and like this boy I took a picture of, growing up knowing only war. I cannot do much about it, but together we can try. I urge you to do something on behalf of the people suffering in Burma. I propose three things: 1. Pray for Burma. 2. Support an organization of your choice that is doing something. Do research, find out who's doing something you can get on board with and help them do it. 3. You are a human with talent, use it some way to help. We're in this together. May God bless and keep you well.

Alliance Française

Last night we screened "Prayer of Peace" at the Alliance Française in Chiang Mai. There was a great turn out and I appreciated everyones interest and questions. I hope we did our best to answer what we could. Thank you to everyone who came and shared the experience. I was grateful to help give voice to the villagers suffering in Burma. Thanks again for coming.

Day Htoo's sister

This is Day Htoo's older sister and her child, Day Htoo is the nurse in the film. They really look alike. I met her on our second trip through Muthraw District, she and her family were fleeing to the border. Day Htoo was in another area at the time and I was half glad, because for me it was very sad to see. If you look on the surface there are very evident losses and it can get you down. However the longer you spend inside and the more you care about them, you start to get some of their laughter and well being rubbed off on you. They have resolve and resilience. Maybe it's a human trait of grace under pressure, but it must be especially true for the Karen.

good men from Mone Township

This young man came and met us a days walk from where the 600 villagers were hiding in Mone Township. He was internally displaced himself, and the other man in the picture, both living in the jungle with the other 600. He volunteered to come and help carry medicines and aid back to the other villagers. He is the one in front of me near the beginning of the film when we are walking through the dense jungle. That area was full of leaches and he tapped me on the leg once to tell me there was a leach on my leg, I got to it before it could get fixed and draw blood. When you get one before they make you bleed it's a victory. So big thanks to him, and for his willingness to help his fellow villagers. It takes people like this for the Karen to stick it out. The good news is most the Karen I met are like this.

Prayer of Peace [excerpt]

Here's a three minute excerpt from the 28 minute film "Prayer of Peace: Relief & Resistance in Burma's War Zones". This section of the film was the end of the first trip, crossing the Burma Army controlled car road and witnessing hundreds of villagers fleeing to Thailand in Mutraw District on the return trip. Both times I was in that area we met villagers fleeing, at the beginning of the film and here on our return. The man who speaks (Maung Hla Htoo) really deserves a film unto himself. But suffice to say he is a hero. UPDATE: Watch the whole film at http://vimeo.com/channels/prayerofpeace

Karen Sorrow

This is a short video two Karen FBR team members made. It is in Karen language and was shot in Northern Karen State in 2006. For more information go to freeburmarangers.org

Palm Springs Premiere

"Prayer of Peace" will premiere at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films on August 27th as part of their Tribal Planet program.

"Prayer of Peace: Relief & Resistance in Burma's War Zones"

This 28 minute documentary film follows ethnic Karen relief workers as they document and bring aid to internally displaced people suffering under the Burma Army. A first hand account of the oppression and human rights abuses the military dictatorship inflicts with impunity on an ethnic people. The film reveals a people that have maintained their dignity and hope for peace despite the odds. Watch on Vimeo. The film was originally titled "Refugees Within" but changed after the film took shape in editing.

goodbye allies

This man guided us to a village that had been burned to the ground by the SPDC (Burma's ruling military dictatorship) the week before. He is wearing a British WWII helmet, it was given to him by a British soldier during the Brits time in Karen State. The Karen fought along side the allies and helped to take Burma back from the Japanese. The Karen believed, partly because the British told them so, they would be rewarded a sovereign Karen State when the war was over. The Brits instead gave the whole of Burma to the Burmans, who sided with the Japanese against the Brits during the war, and the Karen have been left to fight the Burmans since. The SPDC continues to use torture and blistering oppression learned from the Japanese against the Karen and other ethnic populations of Burma.

Nazi Burma

This is an armband the Burma Army forces Karen civilians to wear in relocation sites. It translates to "against the KNU". The villager this armband was issued to fled the camp and brought this out. Apparently the idea is to force the Karen people to give up their allegiance to the Karen National Union. This depicts clearly the mentality and technique the Burma Army uses alongside attacks on villages, forced labor, torture, rape, murder...

share.

These are people we met in passing. IDPs on the side of the trail, basically hanging out at what was once a store. In this picture Gideon is sharing a picture he took of them on his digital camera. I often felt that we could bring little to the situation, to these people who have lost most everything except dignity. In the end I decide for myself that it's worth it enough for moments like this. You share what you have at the moment. You care enough to take a picture. You work towards goals that are likely to be unfulfilled in our lifetime. And on the way you make friends.

Dear Grandmother

This picture was taken in Nalico (forgive the spelling) in Mon Township. I would say one of the most desperate places I have ever been. Besides children it's the elderly who bear the brunt of war. But despite the situation she was extremely kind and less distressed than this picture seems.

the boat keeps taking more water...

Today I went to the hospital and didn't find Lah Poh Say or his father. The hospital didn't inform me because I am not family. But I found out the results for the biopsy were positive for cancer. The agency that he was being cared for by said his prognosis for recovery was 50-60%. And that with such a prognosis there were too many other children with better prognoses ahead of him, so he was sent away. The only other option they gave him was to stay in a refugee camp and hope to go to a third country. The father told the agency he will return to his home, wife and other children, and Lah Poh Say will go with him. I can understand this because his family is so far away and for him to go back to get them and then return to the camp, and not wanting to be in a refugee camp to begin with... I told the doctors that I would like to get in touch with Saw Tah Dee, the father of Lah Poh Say, before he returns and tell him that we were willing to help with the costs, although I don't know how. They said he would need one year treatment of chemo-therapy in a stable environment, maybe five thousand dollars. So if Lah Poh Say's father will agree we would like to bring him back to Chiang Mai for the treatment at McKean Hospital, the 100 year old leprosy hospital that now treats other marginalized patients similar to Lah Poh Say. Please pray we can make this happen and this boy will survive.

the enemy

This is a Burma Army soldier in a lookout carrying a Burmese K-4 rifle. He is in a new camp with about forty other soldiers near the area where the Burma Army shot the nine year old girl earlier this year. Could be the same soldier. We were on a ridge nearby and took this shot, glad he didn't see us.

things are gonna get worse

If you travel through areas that are not under attack and ones that are, you can better understand the need for freedom in Karen State. In the areas that are still relatively safe from attacks, (although this is becoming extinct because of Burma Army camp expansion) there is still a sense that life is good. Children play, people farm and life has normalcy. It makes you wonder why someone would want to take it away from them. And in the areas that are under attack there are few signs of peoples natural way of life. Farms are left unplanted and homes and schools are empty or burnt down. These children are now living within thirty minutes of a new Burma Army camp and their way of life is getting ready to change for the worse. How many people do you know who know their children's lives will get worse?

who loses?

It is definately the children who lose the most. This child is four or five and cannot walk or talk due to cerebral malaria. If the child had been able to get treatment it could have been avoided. The SPDC policies of attacking and displacing villagers in order to control the Karen homeland is genocide. This is what it looks like. The child was sent to Thailand for treatment.

Bright Little Moon

This is Lah Poh Say (translates to Bright Little Moon) and his father Saw Taw Dee. We met them on the frontline in Mon Township. Because we could do nothing to help him in the jungle we asked if they could come with us back to Thailand for treatment of the boys tumor. So they walked with us for over a week and then onto a camp for transfer to a hospital. I was deeply impressed by the father's care and patience with the boy. The boy was very uncomfortable and irritable and the father was more patient and caring that I have ever seen anyone for and extended amount of time. He carried the boy probably 150 miles. Yesterday I found them in a Chiang Mai hospital. We were happy to see eachother. His condition is being investigated and after tests it will be determined if operation is possible. Cancer has not yet been ruled out and is considered likely. Please pray for Lah Poh Say and his father. Thank you.

born running

This mother had to flee the Burma Army and while doing so went into labor and had this baby on the trail. When we met the baby he was two months old. A harsh start. They are from Northern Mon Township. The problem is large and overwhelming, but this is who pays the heaviest price and their struggles are painfully real.

faith, hope and charity

The writing is from Amos 12:4 "be prepared to meet your God". This scripture and the song being taught to the students are especially applicable for where they were. This is from a boarding school only 30 minutes from a new Burma Army camp. We could see the hill the camp was on from the grounds of the school soccer field. They had recently just returned from having to run from soldiers and it seemed likely to happen again. I heard a few days ago the Burma Army had sent mortars into the grounds of the school. Most have fled now. The man teaching the song is a KNU leader, he was in the area to meet with villagers under attack and he stopped in the school to talk with students and teach them some songs, this one happened to be in English. A true servant leader. He also helped coordinate several medi-vacs for patients we met along the way that were critical. When I meet people like him and the students alike I am part confused why the don't give up and also humbled by their faith and deep commitment.

Frontline Soldier

When you get to the frontline you meet some interesting people, this soldier was helping coordinate our entry into an area very close to a Burma Army camp.

Frontline Farmers

We met many farmers both men and women who returned to the areas closest to new Burma Army camps to harvest their crops. It was said the Burma Army would shoot machine guns and mortars from the camps into the fields as villagers harvested to prevent them from getting food. One of the Burma Army tactics to crush the Karen people is starving them out of the land. This farmer armed with a gun was returning from harvesting on the frontline.

flight

This picture was taken by a Kachin Free Burma Rangers team member working in Karen State. It's the same girl in the earlier picture, this time being carried by her father. The Kachin team member who took this had barely ever used a camera before, I really like this one and he took many other good ones as well. The Kachin team was training to work in their own area of Kachin State in Northern Burma. They cared very much for the Karen and it helped one imagine that someday all the ethnics of Burma will be united...

children & war

These children were all part of the 350 villagers we met on the first days of our trip. The child with the knife was playing in the midst of their flight from war. I find it especially hard to witness children in these kind of situations, the fact that they don't completely understand the situation makes it worse for me. In the picture with the boy smoking in the background it's easy to see this, but I should add he wasn't much older and wasn't a soldier.

the exodus

This young Karen villager is heading for a refugee camp. She has everything she could carry from her home in the basket next to her. The Burma Army forced her and over 350 other villagers from the same area to finally leave for the border following the thousands of others who did earlier this year. The Burma Army is winning and I can only imagine if it continues this way Karen State will have completely lost her freedom...

I have just returned from another six weeks inside Karen State, Burma. I will start posting still images from the trip. What follows are my own insights and experiences of what I saw and decided to shoot, I don't claim to be an authority on the situation or understand all of it, I witnessed it and this is part of my account. A film will follow in the coming months. Thanks for taking the time to look and read, I hope some of these pictures help express my hope for these people's freedom and will unite people elsewhere with the same heart.

Free Burma Rangers

You see this shirt a lot in Karen State. It's a good reminder of what's important and why to keep at this.

KNLA soldier

You don't hear that much about men like this. They are the Karen National Liberation Army soldiers (the KNU army) who make it possible for aid to move into areas where the internally displaced people are in Karen State. If it wasn't for them we certainly wouldn't have been able to do our work. And if it wasn't for them the whole of Karen State would live under the rule of the SPDC, which isn't much of a living.

Boy from Mon Township

These are stills from video taken by the Free Burma Rangers a few weeks before the little boy mentioned in earlier posts died from Malaria. He is the one in the hammock and in the foreground of the other stills. His sister and Grandmother are in the pictures as well. His sister also got Malaria but survived. I'm sorry I don't know their names, but they are real people and had to run several times recently because of attacks by the Burma Army. If his family hadn't been on the run, without food, shelter or medicine he would surely still be alive.

plea

Dear Family and Friends,

When I was walking through the Karen hills I thought about you, my wife and kids, and all the things I missed, like cars... But what I thought about the most was possible solutions to the madness of the war in Burma. I never came up with one good one. I witnessed a baby die from malaria, later I saw footage of the same child playing healthy and happy just one week before. If there had been proper medical care the child would still be doing the same. I could do nothing. I thought why can't these people have hospitals? Once we slept in a village where all those who could run had, the only person left was a half-blind old lady who was too weak to run and refused to leave. Her bamboo house was decrepit and I recall her sweeping it out for us to sleep. I thought it would surely break if we all laid on it's rotten floors, but it didn't. I looked at her face and felt a miserable pain inside me. I could do nothing to help her. At times it made me want to just ignore the problems and look forward to being home, where things are predictable and problems are easy to fix. But it never escaped me, I saw too many faces of people I felt I could love. Since being home I have made no more progress on a solution to the war in Karen State. But I continue to help in video and any practical way I can. One foot in front of the other.

The other day I heard that hundreds of refugees from Karen State are going to America. I imagined those people that I had met in the jungle living on rocks and bamboo walking downtown Portland. Strange indeed, but it's going to happen. I had hope that if those people have a chance to make things work they may be the ones who can help with real solutions for their people back home. If America has anything left in her heritage of being a land of open arms to immigrants, I pray she opens her arms to these people. If you can do anything please do. Contact Catholic Services in your area regarding volunteering to help these people get settled.