Why go to Burma to shoot your first documentary? Not such a straightforward place?

On my first trip to the country in 1997, four years before coming back to shoot Burmese Dreaming, I was quite overwhelmed by the beauty of the country and its people. Large parts of Burma like Kachin and Shan States had only been open to people from the west for a few months after decades of near complete isolation. But nonetheless people were the most polite, friendly and humble that I have met whilst traveling and they readily chatted to me about the politics and economics of their country as well as their own personal stories of life under the military regime. From a personal perspective it could be compelling, exciting, and almost surreal. And then there was the quite stunning natural beauty. I really wanted a reason in my mind to come back and that reason was to film the people and the beauty of Burma.

And the military understood your motivations?

No. Western people with oversized cameras are not welcomed by the Burmese military unless the Johnny Walker is nearly empty and the paunchy uniforms believe that mileage can be made with the girls at the next table by making banter in broken English with the foreigner sitting by himself. One minute you are boarding a bus full of soldiers in Mandalay and the next you’re six hours of tape lighter and the British consulate is trying to avoid a diplomatic incident by bundling you onto a plane out of the country as quickly as possible. Foggy.

In a film context, what is Burmese Dreaming? A documentary or a movie?

An audience member at a preview screening described it as documentary poetry. I really liked that description and would be pleased if it were considered apt. I try to film well from a photographic perspective and have a quite successful background as a photographer. Also, I’ve always liked the combination of music and image and believe that there are rhythms that can be created in the editing and storytelling process. Finally, I feel that film or documentary doesn’t have to be narrative driven, it doesn’t have to bombard people with information, so narrative can be quite simple. I think this approach can be a compelling and emotionally engaging one.

How did you come up with the concept for Burmese Dreaming?

After filming was curtailed I didn’t really know where the film was at but at the same time I had 16 hours of footage from inside and I was confident that some of it was quite good / interesting / picturesque. But really it was like a big jigsaw puzzle that needed to be put together. For a while I was thinking that the whole film would be a combination of music and image alone. Films like ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ made a big impression on me. Then I had the idea that vignettes of life from Burma could be brought together through the dreams, daydreams and nightmares of a refugee on the Thailand-Burma border. That was when I started working with refugees in the English Immersion Program in Umphiem Mai Refugee Camp.

How was it working with refugees on the script / narrative?

Excellent. The ‘kids’ were all twenty somethings and are amongst the brightest young people from the refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma border. I was invited to do a three day workshop with them on writing and it was during this that we decided to do a follow up workshop . Following on from this first workshop, a second workshop took place in which exercises specifically related to aspects of life depicted in the footage from Burma. This writing, combined with the life story of one student, Say Say La, was then edited into the narrative for Burmese Dreaming.

And this was not a funded project?

Self funded which means poor, patient, disciplined and lucky. Best embodiments of good fortune? Working in association with the students of EIP and having David Lazaro and Graham Pointer do the sound and music. Like I said earlier, Burmese Dreaming combines image, narrative, and music so it really required people capable of producing something special in each of these areas. How to achieve this without a budget is one of the reasons Burmese Dreaming took so long. But then I met David by coincidence at an outdoor bar on the Thai-Burma border watching the European Cup (2006). His father was Burmese and had been a concert pianist in England. David himself, along with friend – Graham Pointer – had been a musician for 16 years and the two of them ran a small post production sound company. There show reel was fantastic. David liked Burmese Dreaming and said that he was happy to help in any way he could. ‘How about composing a complete musical score that combine contemporary and traditional music and which incorporates musical themes which will help bring the film together as a whole? And can you do it without a budget? And maybe the mixing and mastering?’ Yes to all of the above. Very very lucky!

In the private and preview screenings, what has been the response to Burmese Dreaming?

Generally pretty emotional! On the negative side, some people have said that the film doesn’t provide a lot of background information about Burma and requires pre-existing knowledge. I understand that perspective. But by the same token, do people really need to have everything spelt out? There’s a saying that a friend – Big Bad Bob – uses, ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’ I like that and I think that just as some people have criticized the film for being too simple and not informative enough, this has been exactly the point that many others have really appreciated. One particularly pleasing (demographic) response has been from people from Burma who have widely praised the way the film captures the spirit of life in Burma. And that really comes back to the original question about why I filmed in Burma in the first place: to try to say something about the life of the people.