Videographer Maya Moltzer travels through Burma (Myanmar) capturing on tape fleeting and evocative glimpses of this paradoxical nation. Burma is a brutal dictatorship, and yet its people are shown to be gracious and kind, earning great merit (and good luck) through giving and receiving. Novice Buddhist monks live like princes, while the military elite accumulate the lion's share of the monetary wealth. In spite of an economy which stumbles along on a corrupt, black market system, no one has the gall to steal the riches from Burma's magnificent pagodas, even though there is more gold on the facades of the temples than in all the vaults of the Bank of England. The current government has given Rangoon a superficial facelift to boost the tourist industry. The faux-Singaporean veneer is nowhere better demonstrated than during a sequence in which a Burmese female monk is faced with the sheer terror of boarding an escalator for the first time in a newly built shopping mall. I, too, have made a film about Burma, and I can appreciate the difficulties and restrictions Ms. Moltzer faced. But what I admire most about her video is, oddly, the lack of polish in her presentation. She articulates her impressions in a calm, soothing voice and illustrates her perceptions on videotape. Granted, this program escapes being a homemade travel video by a hair of Buddha, but the authentic, intelligent and sincere style of Ms. Moltzer makes it golden. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Ray)
By a Hair of Buddha: Myanmar (Burma)
(1997) 57 min. $170. Carousel Film & Video. PPR. Color cover. ISBN: 1-56058-139-5. Vol. 14, Issue 2
By a Hair of Buddha: Myanmar (Burma)
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