Synopsis
A young Buddhist man’s memories of the joyous celebrations in his religiously mixed neighbourhood become overshadowed by mistrust in the wake of religious tension, until the townspeople decide to reject fear and hatred in favour of celebrating their communality as before.
Filmmaker's Biographies 1 | 3
Htun Tauk Moe Thu
Htun Tauk Moe Thu is from Myeik in Myanmar's southernmost Tanintharyi region. A graduate of the National University of Arts and Culture's cinema studies course, his desire to learn more about documentary led him to enrol at YFS in 2018. He has since developed a keen filmmaking eye as cinematographer on documentaries by fellow students such as Nang Mhwe Ngin Seng’s Husband & Wife and Seint Yamone Htoo’s Kachin Reporter as well as storytelling skills as the editor on Nang Mhwe Ngin Seng's Not Like My Father. Besides co-creating the papier mâché docu-animation Our Town about a mixed-faith community in the delta region, he has also collaborated on the short documentary-inspired drama, The Other Side of the Tracks. He is currently working on his first documentary as a director in his own right.
Saw Eh Doh Poe
Saw Eh Doh Poe is Karen and grew up in Yangon. Born in 1991 into a Christian pastor’s family, he attended a BARS liberal arts course at the Myanmar Insitute of Theology and then studied IT before turning his attentions to anime and graphic design. In 2014, in between stints as a graphic artist and fixer/producer at Eleven Media and BBC Media Action respectively, he enrolled at Yangon Film School where he attended the School’s flagship documentary course among others. He found his true calling in the School’s first docuanimation class in 2017 from which a trio of short films entitled End Violence Against Women! emerged. These films scored almost 1m views on social media and were also broadcast on national television and radio. His animation skills continued to grow in subsequent courses in 2018 during which he was a key creative on the award-winning sand animation Limbo (Grand Prix at WHO’s Health for All film festival in 2020), and the papier-mâché stop-motion film Our Town. He also worked on a series of animations on land rights and acceptance of difference produced by the School’s production arm Yangon Film Services.
Shin Thandar
Shin Thandar (born in 1991) is from Sittwe in Rakhine State in northwest Myanmar. Having studied English at Yangon’s University of Foreign Languages and gaining a diploma in Information Technology, she worked in the news department of national broadcaster MNTV and as a communications assistant for the World Bank for almost five years before joining YFS in 2018. During her studies at the School, she was a member of the creative team behind both the docuanimation Our Town and the ‘true fictions’ short Midtown Yangon. Made in her second year at YFS, Worlds Apart portrays a Hindu couple in restive Rakhine State and won a Goethe-Institut Ruby Documentary Award in 2019. Shin Thandar is currently working on her graduation project, also set in Rakhine. Alongside her studies, she uses her filmmaking skills as a development worker, promoting access to health, education and jobs. Lost Boy was her first documentary as a director.
