2006

Synopsis

Hein Nyi Nyi is a Myanmar traditional boxer. As he travels 350 km north of his Yangon club to a match near the Sittaung river in Bago division, we learn what motivates this eighteen-year-old to risk life and limb in the ring.

Credits

Director: Aung Ko Ko
Camera: Tin Win Naing
Sound: Myo Min Khin
Editor: Jessica Ehlebracht

Biography

Born in Yangon in 1976 Aung Ko Ko gave up his psychology degree to concentrate on photography. A computer design graduate from the University of Culture, he joined the Yangon Film School in 2005. From the outset, Aung Ko Ko’s camerawork on Yangon Film School productions such as Peace of Mind has displayed a strong cinematic eye. His first work as a director in his own right was this sensitive portrait of a young Myanmar kickboxer Into the Ring which won him a Heinrich Boell Foundation Documentary Award in 2007. He has since worked as director or cinematographer on a number of productions, including an emotional film about a UN Cares programme of workshops on HIV in Myanmar entitled Stigmatize This! which he also edited.

Filmography (selection)

2005    Peace of Mind (10’11”, cinematographer)
2007    Into the Ring (10’59”, director)
2006    Beyond the Light (12’21”, cinematographer)
2009    Flash (Cinematographer)
2008    Like A Bubble in Water (17’23”, cinematographer)
2009    Stigmatize This! (26’05”, director)
2010    The Game (26’40”, cinematographer)
2010    Rice – Towards a better Future (32’17”, cinematographer)