In a bid to open the gates on artistic expression, Burmese citizens regardless of age, qualifications and location were invited to submit a short film on the theme of “freedom.” More than 180 films were submitted, despite the refusal of state-owned newspapers to carry the announcement, according to Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, a poet and filmmaker and one of the organisers of the festival. The comedian Zarganar, who was released from prison in October is also another organiser of the festival, which is also sponsored by the well-known Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi. All three will be a part of the panel of judges.

Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi told Index that “it is the first time” for a festival with the theme of freedom to take place in Burma. He said that the organisers “did not ask for permission from the authority,” but they are using the festival to test “the limit of the state,” because they “want to know how much freedom will the state allow.”

Under the country’s Television and Video Act 1996, all videos, with the expection of family recordings, must go through the Video Censor Board before distribution and screening for the public. Failure to comply may result in fines, imprisonment of up to three years and confiscation of property. The law stipulates that members of the Board shall consist of two representatives from the Myanmar Motion Pictures Enterprise, a number of representatives from government’s organizations and “suitable citizens”. The Information Ministry has the sole authority to form, appoint and dismiss member(s) of the Board.

In early December, Minister of Information and Culture and former army general Kyaw Hsan reportedly said in a meeting with executives of the Myanmar Motion Picture Organization, the Board and professionals of movie industry that the censorship regime for press and motion pictures will be gradually relaxed. He alsoannounced plans to allow the Chinese film industry and other international players to invest in the country’s movie sector. The move is yet another in a series of changes by the military-backed government in 2011 to move towards democratisation, and the United States and European Union have responded with cautious optimism.

However, despite claims of relaxed censorship laws, the Board reportedly seized some submissions sent via post from overseas. Organisers also faced challenges downloading overseas entries submitted online due to slow internet service in Burma. Still, the films have been well received and one of the short films has become a viral hit on YouTube and Vimeo. The 18-minute short entitled, “Ban that Scene!” is film director Htun Zaw Win’s humorous look at the country’s video censors.

Htun Zaw Win, aka Wyne brought together veteran actors to play censors preoccupied with protecting their positions. He critiques the gluttonous and corrupt officials with scenes showing them ordering meals from high-scale restaurants before a vetting session, at the expense of filmmakers. In another scene, the censors brawl over disagreements about which scenes should be cut from the film during a screening, and eventually decide to cut all disputed scenes. The lone censor who favoured the film was intimidated and drowned out by the disagreements of his colleagues.

“I tried to portray the state of censorship as realistically as possible in the most polite manner. What actually happens is much worse,” Wyne told Index. “The present tight censorship suffocates creativity in the movie industry.”

Wyne, who has been in the industry for 22 years, said on Radio Free Asia Burmese Service on 27 December that the government should not censor the film if it is serious about democratisation. He admitted was unsure of the consequences for making the film. “If our country is really democratising as the government said, then bad practices of the censorship system should be changed too.”

According to Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi the festival started with interviews with filmmakers on 31 December, screenings of selected submissions from 1 Jan onwards, and an award ceremony on the country’s Independence Day on 4 Jan. “We don’t know how the authority will react. But we just have to do it.”

Yesterday, my good friend Zarganar was released from Myitkyina jail in northern Burma early in the morning.

He told me that even before he had got on the plane to Rangoon, he was being called by the BBC Burmese service and a journalist from the local Eleven Media. He told the journalists that, based on President Shwe Mann’s interview with a Norwegian minister last week promising that political prisoners would be released in the next few days,  he’d been expecting a big exodus.  Instead he’d had to leave behind in Myitkyina jail four monks imprisoned after the 2007 Saffron Revolution.  He said the government’s build-up was like listening to warm-up music for Lay Phyu, a famous Burmese rockstar, and then getting an old singer on stage to sing a lullaby.

In interviews later in the day, he said he had believed Aung San Suu Kyi when she’d said that we were starting the transition phase, until he’d exited Rangoon airport and started to have his doubts.  He also said he’d been reading a lot about the “fourth estate” –– sa-to-ta hman-tain in Burmese — in the journals recently and wondering what it was.  He’d come to the conclusion it must be another way of describing Minister of Information Kyaw San since that was all he ever read about. Now back in his apartment in Sanchaung, a couple of floors above the room I once stayed in, he’d found himself besieged by the fourth estate, many of whom were also his friends and drinking buddies, and he’d had to escape his apartment.

As journalists interviewed him, more jokes he had been saving up emerged:  Einstein meets four people and asks them their IQ.  The first proudly announces it’s 180, and Einstein begins a discussion on quantum physics.  The second claims 150 and they discuss recent mathematical theories.  The third says 120, and Einstein and he chat about the cinema.  The last person looks uncomfortable and admits to an IQ of 60.  Einstein looks very pleased and asks for an update of the day’s discussions in parliament.

I caught up with him on the phone at fellow actor Zin Waing’s house.  I told him how our three year old was a paid up member of the campaign to free him and had been shouting “Free Zarganar” since she was barely two.

He asked me to thank everyone throughout Europe who had been working on the Free Zarganar Campaign, and organisations like Equity, PEN, Index on Censorship, Amnesty, Freemuse, the Bremen Solidarity Prize, Prix de Droits de l’Homme, and Freedom to Create who had recognised him and other prisoners in Burma.  He told me he was looking forward to renewing acquaintance with director Rex Bloomstein who made the documentary “This Prison Where I Live” and meeting –– at least virtually —his fellow comedian Michael Mittermeier for the first time.

We were very pleased to speak again, but both of us will be much happier if the tally of political prisoner releases goes higher than the 185 or so we saw today, and hits the 2000 mark.

Read more on this story:  Index welcomes release of Burmese comic

Index on Censorship welcomes welcomes the release of Burmese comic Zarganar along with thousands of other prisoners.

Htein Lin, close friend of Zarganar and member of the Free Zarganar Campaign along with Index on Censorship and other supporters, said he was delighted at the news of the popular comedian’s release.

“It’s great news, we really appreciate it and it is a very positive sign.  Hopefully the new government will release more political prisoners very soon.  Zarganar came out with jokes making everybody laugh and very happy.”

Zarganar was imprisoned for speaking out against the military junta in its handling of the Cyclone Nargis crisis in May 2008.   The 6000 prisoners who will be released today include some journalists and monks, but there are many political activists still detained.

Zarganar is reported as saying “I am not happy because so many of my friends are still in prison.”

As part of our continued work with artists in Burmese diasapora, Index on Censorship co-hosted the first festival of Burmese Art, featuring a preview of ‘The Prison Where I Live” a film about Zarganar.

A profile of Zargana is featured in Beyond Bars, a 2010 issue of Index on Censorship magazine. Click here to subscribe