Synopsis
Twenty-one-year-old hairdresser Phyo Lay looks back on a turbulent childhood and adolescence and describes how difficult it is to come out in Myanmar. A rare glimpse into the emergent gay community in this hitherto isolated country.
Director's Biography
Born in Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State in 1985, Hnin Ei Hlaing began her film career working as an editor for MRTV4. Joining the second YFS cohort in 2006, she soon became something of an all-rounder, working as a regular sound recordist and/or editor on many YFS productions including An Untitled Life, The Change Maker and A Bright Future. Her own directorial debut Burmese Butterfly, about a young transgender person in Myanmar, screened at over 20 film festivals around the world. This was followed by The Potter’s Song about a community of potters in Twante near Yangon, and a ground-breaking exploration of menstrual mood swings, Period@Period. Filmed over six years in conflicted Rakhine State, her first feature-length documentary Midwives chronicles the unusual friendship between two birth attendants – one Buddhist-Rakhine, the other Muslim-Rohingya. The film has screened at major festivals and picked up awards at Sundance and in the Czech Republic, among others.
Awards & Nominations
May, 2012
Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival
Nomination for Best Student Documentary
Göttingen, Germany
June, 2012
Sheffield Doc/Fest International Documentary Film Festival
Nomination for Best Student Film
Sheffield, United Kingdom
October, 2012
Official Selection for the Médecins Sans Frontières
Online Film Competition
December, 2012
ChopShots International Film Festival
Selected for SEA BEST SHORTS
Jakarta, Indonesia
Screenings
October, 2011
Festival International Signes de Nuit
Paris, France
February, 2012
Lifescapes South East Asian Film Festival
Chiang Mai, Thailand
June, 2012
Frameline 36 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival,
San Fransicso , USA
November, 2012
Mezipatra, Brno and Prague
Prague, Czech Republic
November, 2012
San Francisco Transgender Film Festival
San Francisco, USA
November, 2012
Interfilm – 28th International Short Film Festival
Berlin, Germany
November, 2012
The Anchorage International Film Festival
Alaska, USA
December, 2012
Thammasat University
Bangkok, Thailand
January, 2013
Doc Point Helsinki International Documentary Film Festival
Helsinki, Finland
February, 2013
Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
March, 2013
Doc Festival Goethe-Institut Hanoi
Vietnam
April, 2013
Ethnographic Film Festival
Koblenz, Germany
April, 2013
Salaya International Documentary Film Festival
Phuttamonthon District, Thailand
May, 2013
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
USA
May, 2013
TranScreen Film Festival
Amsterdam, Netherlands
May, 2013
International Women’s Film Festival
Seoul, Korea
May, 2013
Divergenti International Transgender Film Festival
Bologna, Italy
May, 2023
unthaitled x KAUM Film+++festival
Berlin, Germany
Director's Filmography
2008
An Untitled Life
Sound Recordist
2008
The Change Maker
Sound Recordist
2010
Respectful Encounters
Sound Recordist
2010
Rice – Towards a Better Future
Sound Recordist
2011
Burmese Butterfly
Director/Cinematographer/Sound Recordist/Editor
2011
On Holiday
Sound Recordist
2011
Falling Blossoms
Editor/Sound Recordist
2018
The Good Woman of South Dagon
Editor