The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) has called for the release of pioneering Mynamar female documentary maker Shin Daewe who has been sentenced to life in prison for possessing a drone.
Daewe was arrested at a bus station in Yangon on October 15 2023 when soldiers found a filming drone in her luggage. The Myanmar authorities brought the case to trial on January 10, accusing her of violating the counter-terrorism laws. She was allowed no legal representation during the closed trial of a military tribunal and was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment.
A family source told IFCR: “Our family simply wishes to see her resume her work as usual. We eagerly await the day when our sister will return home“ and appealed for her prompt release.
As a student, Daewe was involved in protests in the 8888 Uprising, a series of nationwide protests, marches and riots in 1988. She was jailed for one month in 1990 and for one year in 1991 for her involvement in demonstrations.
She worked as a video journalist with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) between 2005 and 2010, reporting on the 2007 Saffron Revolution and contributed to the documentary BURMA VJ, which was nominated for the European Film Awards 2009.
Daewe has repeatedly shed a light on social and political issues in her country. Her 2008 documentary An Untitled Life follows the story of the painter Rahula from Mingun, a village on Ayeyarwaddy River near Mandalay. Her film Take Me Home, which is a story about ethnic Kachin villagers who were displaced by conflict in northern Myanmar, won Myanmar’s Wathann Film Festival. Another title, A Bright Future (2009), depicts the story of Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Education High School in Mandalay and won the Best Documentary award at the Art of Freedom Film Festival in Myanmar 2009.
In 2013, Shin Daewe directed a 15-minute documentary titled Now I Am 13, which depicts the struggles of a teenage girl from central Myanmar who was deprived of educational opportunities due to poverty. It earned her the Silver Award at the Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival and the Award for Best Documentary at the Wathann Film Festival in 2014.
The IFCR said it was deeply worried about Daewe’s health and well-being and called on the Myanmar authorities to immediately and unconditionally release her.
“The conviction of Shin Daewe with its concomitant harsh sentencing is the latest example of the Myanmar junta’s relentless persecution of any dissent,” said European Film Academy chair and ICFR founding board member, MikeDowney, “This is the latest in a series of unfair trials and cruel and repressive sentences which are part of a broader effort to instil fear in the junta’s critics, suppress independent coverage, and deny the reality of the military’s serious and ongoing rights violations. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression and freedom of media are noticeably absent in Myanmar right now, and ICFR will do what it can to help in the goal to free Shin Daewe from this disproportionate sentence.”
Founded by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, International Film Festival Rotterdam and the European Film Academy, the ICFR advocates for filmmakers at risk.
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