Synopsis
Every year on a full moon night in November, thirty women gather at Shwe Phone Pwint Pagoda in the Pazundaung district of Myanmar's former capital Yangon to take part in a competition known as Matho Thingan. Their task is to weave the finest robes for the temple's Buddha images. All robes must be finished by dawn otherwise they are considered 'stale'.
Cheered on by large crowds and an orchestra of pulsating drums and high-pitched oboes, the teams of dedicated female competitors work the handlooms frenziedly back and forth in a feat that celebrates Buddha's own foster mother, Gautami, who is said to have woven her son a robe in a single day.
Director's Biography
Thu Thu Shein is a filmmaker and producer from Third Floor Film production, based in Yangon. She began her career as a video editor before discovering her passion for documentary during the first Yangon Film School filmmaking workshop in 2005, where she was cinematographer on A Day with Aye Nan Lin (dir: Eh Mwee). Her own directorial debut, which she also edited, was A Million Threads, about the women contestants in a weaving competition, which won the top award in the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Documentary Film Competition in 2007. The film’s feminist-anthropological approach, contrapuntal editing and the poetry of its images have endured, ensuring that it continues to be programmed at film festivals, universities and museums around the world. After attending YFS, Thu Thu Shein took a Master’s degree in cinematography at the FAMU in Prague. In 2011, she and fellow YFS alumnus Thaiddhi co-founded Myanmar’s first film festival, Wathann, which soon became a key event and resource for independent filmmaking in Myanmar.
Screenings
Director's Filmography
Cinematographer
5‘0‘‘
Cinematographer
12‘39‘‘
Director/Cinematographer/Editor
15‘20‘‘
Cinematographer
13‘5‘‘
Sound Recordist
13‘49‘‘
Sound Recordist
18‘18‘‘
Cinematographer
22‘22‘‘
Editor
15‘45‘‘
Cinematographer
13‘13‘‘
Cinematographer
15‘21‘‘
Director
28‘0‘‘
Director/Cinematographer
5‘3‘‘
Director/Cinematographer
5‘0‘‘
Director/Cinematographer
3‘13‘‘
Director/Cinematographer/Editor
4‘14‘‘
Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Editor
30‘0‘‘
Producer
26‘0‘‘
Producer
27‘0‘‘
Producer/Editor
18‘0‘‘