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The School Uniform (2017)

The School Uniform

Synopsis

Sabai is delighted to be able to send her young daughter to school. But disaster strikes when she cannot afford to buy a school uniform. What will it cost this loving mother to get her little girl what she needs? This short drama was shot in and around Hlegu, a small agricultural township around 45km north-east of Yangon.

Director's Biography

Born of a Burmese publisher father and a Shan mother in 1991, English graduate Shunn Lei Swe Yee has been active in a number of youth and development networks. A passionate feminist, she claims that one of the reasons she joined Yangon Film School was to learn how to make films that will give a stronger voice to women in Myanmar. Her first film as a director was the evocative My Grandfather’s House in which a woman recalls her childhood in the traditional teak house where she grew up; her second-year project was an essayistic piece about her own childhood memories, My Mandalay. Having trained in participatory video at YFS in 2014, she has regularly joined YFS Travelling Cinema crews facilitating workshops in communities in Kachin and Chin. The School Uniform marked her debut as a director of fiction.

Awards & Nominations

November, 2017
Southeast Asia Video Festival for Children
Nomination for Southeast Asia Prix Jeunesse
Manila, Phillippines

Screenings

October, 2019
Catholic Film Festival
Seoul, South Korea
August, 2019
Mekong Country Day
Berlin, Germany
September, 2018
Ulsan New Media Festival
Ulsan, South Korea
July, 2018
One Country – One Film International Film Festival
Apchat, Issoire, France
June, 2017
Human Rights Human Dignity Film Festival
Yangon, Myanmar

Director's Filmography

2017
The School Uniform

Director

17‘17‘‘

2016

Director

8‘46‘‘

2013

13‘45‘‘

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Screenwriter Cham Htet Han also works as a radio writer, actor and announcer. His other writing credits include working on the The Team Myanmar TV series. In 2015 he won the YFS-Goethe Institut Feature Film Pitching Competition for his feature film project The Man in the Room which he is currently developing with support from YFS.

Producer Soe Arkar Htun was just 19 when he was accepted to YFS in 2014. His first documentary A Political Life won the 2016 Watersprite Filmmaker of the Future Award. He edited fellow-student Wynn Htut’s documentary Floating Life in 2015. The School Uniform is his first film as a producer.

Pictures