Crédits

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Produced by

InformAction

Produced with the financial help of

Canadian Television Fund created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian Cable Industry

Quebec (Film and Television Tax Credit - Gestion SODEC)

Canada (The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit)

SODEC Soci?t? de d?veloppement des entreprises culturelles ? Qu?bec

and the collaboration of

Radio-Canada

RDI

Rights and Democracy (screening debates are organized in partnership)

Context

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The refusal by Burma's generals to open their borders to humanitarian aid, following the tragic Nargis hurricane in May 2008, revealed to the world this government’s barbarity and deep contempt for its people. Despite their widespread manifestation of revolt, the Burmese people were hardly surprised by the regime’s hard line stance. Ever since the 1962 coup that installed the military dictatorship in power, the population hasn’t led a normal existence. For twenty years now, human rights have vastly deteriorated in the country, to the extent that today, the Burmese people are living an unprecedented humanitarian crisis at the hands of a junta who goal is to crush any attempt at freedom.
 
In 1988, 3000 people were massacred on the streets in broad daylight, during peaceful demonstrations to protest the country's conditions of endemic poverty. Two years later, after the junta’s resounding electoral defeat, the army forcefully detained and imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, whose democratic victory had been supported by 88% of Burmese voters. Ever since, the noose has tightened around the general population, and ethnic minorities in particular, some of whom are still waging civil war against the army, and who are victims of severe extortion.
 
Most of the country is off-limits to foreigners. The military junta has much to conceal, particularly the ‘genocide’ it wages against ethnic minorities in the east.  Villages have been ransacked and burned, women systematically raped, and populations forcefully relocated in army- controlled work-camps. Still, hundreds of thousands have chosen to resist, and have fled to live hidden in the jungle rather than to submit to the army’s tyranny. These villagers are supported by militants living in exile, who have regrouped in clandestine resistance networks to fight the Burmese regime. The people of Burma, both inside and outside the country, are united in their struggle to put an end to the brutal dictatorship.


Press

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Documentaire courageux s’il en est un, Birmanie l’indomptable, la résistance d’un peuple de Pierre Mignault et Hélène Magny nous entraîne dans les zones les plus dangereuses de Birmanie, l’État karen. Une œuvre nécessaire tissée de témoignages bouleversants d’êtres brisés mais non moins résistants et fiers. Manon Dumais ? VOIR

Birmanie l’indomptable est un portrait sans équivoque de la misère et du courage d’une population que nul ne doit oublier. Dominic Bouchard ? Revue S?quences

Festivals

Festival International du Grand Reportage et du Documentaire de Soci?t? (FIGRA) Section ? Comp?tition Internationale ?, France 2010

G?meaux Awards Nomination for Best Original Music: Documentary 2011

Festival de Films sur les Droits de la Personne de Montr?al (FFDPM) 2010

Vancouver International Film Festival 2010

Human Rights DocFest 3rd Award, Toronto 2010

Minneapolis-St. Paul Asian Film Festival 2010

Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montr?al (RIDM) 2009

Amnesty International Film Festival Vancouver 2010

ReFrame Peterborough International Film Festival 2011

Marda Loop Justice Film Festival Calgary 2011

Statement of intent

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The nation of Burmais hermetically sealed off, ruled by one of the world’s worst dictatorships, along with that of North Korea. For decades, whatever occurs in this country is shrouded in secrecy and censorship, under threat of terror at the hands of informers.  Behind this imposed silence lurks a caste of barbaric generals who continue violating the rights of the Burmese people with total impunity.
 
In 1999, while on our first ‘legal’ trip to Burma, we traversed the country from North to South to witness, firsthand, the brutal repression of Burmese citizens. Ten years later, we decided to return, this time in secret, to visit forbidden regions of the country where, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, heinous crimes are being committed by the military regime.
 
It took us months in the field at the Thai border to convince a humanitarian agency to take us to meet displaced people hiding in the Burmese interior to protect themselves against the soldiers’ exactions. Since civil war still wages in this forbidden zone, we undertook our perilous clandestine journey to the heart of the Karen State with an escort of Karen rebels. In its attempt to wipe out ethnic minorities, in 2009 the Burmese army tragically tightened its hold on the local population, specifically targeting the Karen people. The forest riddled with land mines serves as refuge for peasants fleeing slavery, forced relocation, rape and murder. Their testimony, which we heard deep in the Burmese jungle, leaves no doubt as to the genocide being directed against them. But we also discovered their steely determination to fight for freedom and democracy. Their struggle is that shared by all Burmese people, both inside the country and those living in exile who form the secret resistance network. We were able to penetrate this underground movement of political and humanitarian activists, despite the anonymity required to insure the security of some of our collaborators. Our film is intended to break the silence enshrouding an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, in order to show how a desperate people manages to summon the courage to resist, in the hope of freeing themselves from the yoke of oppression.

Pierre Mignault & H?l?ne Magny

Short summary

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Pierre Mignault and Hélène Magny clandestinely enter one of Burma’s most dangerous zones, penetrating to the heart of the Karen Nation, where civil war has been waging for 60 years. In this region very few foreigners have dared to venture, they meet displaced people hiding in the jungle in order to resist forced relocation by the military regime. Breaking the Silence demonstrates the strength of the Burmese people’s resistance against one of the world’s worst dictatorships. It takes us to the interior of the country, disclosing the secret networks of militants fighting along the Thai border.

Long summary

“We secretly cross the border into Burma, possibly spied on by soldiers… who will shoot on sight… We’re going to rendezvous with persecuted people fleeing the clandestine genocide perpetrated with totally impunity by the Burmese military dictatorship against the country’s ethnic minorities.”
 
In Breaking the Silence: Burma’s Resistance, Pierre Mignault and Hélène Magny secretly enter one of Burma’s most dangerous zones, penetrating to the very heart of the Karen Nation, where civil war has been waging for 60 years.  Accompanied by an escort of Karen rebels, they penetrate the jungle in search of displaced people who have fled rape and assassination, and are hiding in the interior in order to resist forced relocation and slavery at the hands of the military regime.
 
For over 20 years, an extreme humanitarian crisis has reigned in Burma. Protected by an army of 400,000 men - huge for a nation with no external enemies - Burma’s military government has been waging war on its own people for decades. This film reveals the extent to which the Burmese people are prepared to fight to regain their freedom and institute democracy. We travel to the country’s interior to meet peasants, as well as clandestine networks of armed resistance living in exile in Thailand, where determined political and human rights activists are working to combat one of the world’s most bloody military dictatorships.