Click here for a link to the article about the event.

Click on Photo to see Album of the event

ABMA monks during morning prayers at their Utica monastery. Photo by REUTERS / Mike Segar

Several news organizations (Reuters, ABC, Yahoo) just posted an article by Reuters reporter Christine Kearney about the ABMA monks.

Click here to see a link to the article and a video.

And click here to see the slideshow about the monks.

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When I spoke to him, U Pyinya Zawta was on his way to the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, where he was a guest of those attending with Best Documentary Feature nominee Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country. (The Oscar ultimately went to The Cove.) Directed by Anders Østergaard and distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories, which is headed up by Beastie Boy and Tibet activist Adam Yauch, the film features the work of citizen journalists inside the Saffron Revolution. Through stylized reenactments of key moments, it also tells the story of the video journalists’ struggles to get their footage of the brutally quashed uprising to the offices of the Democratic Voice of Burma in Oslo, Norway.

Burma VJ will have its U.S. television debut on Tuesday, April 20th (9:30-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. The network was kind to enough to offer us interviews with both the Oscar-nominated Mr. Østergaard (in Denmark) and the Democratic Voice of Burma’s executive director Aye Chan Naing (in Norway). I spoke to them separately by phone.

Read full interview here.

U Pyinya Zawta, photo by Lindsay Borden, Seattle Metropolitan

Click here to see the Seattle Metropolitan article by Eric Scigliano.

“Even Gandhi admitted nonviolence couldn’t stop Hitler. Can it overthrow Burma’s junta?”

“Yes, Pyinya Zawta said smiling, and it will—when the soldiers, who are just as much the regime’s victims, join the students and monks in resisting it.”

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The Shambhala Sun – March 8, 2010

On the Buddhism Beat: U Pyinya Zawta and “Burma VJ” at the Oscars!

Click on title above for link to The Shambhala SunSpace

Anders Østergaard, Director, and Lise Lense-Møller, Magic Hour Films Producer, Academy Award nominees for Best Documentary Feature for their film Burma VJ arrive with U Pyinya Zawta, a leader of Burma’s 2007 revolution, Aye Chan Naing, of the Democratic Voice of Burma, and guests. Photo by Richard Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.

“A founding member and the executive director of the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, U Pyinya Zawta, who spent ten years of his life behind bars for his pro-democracy activities, was one of the leaders of 2007’s “Saffron Revolution”—the nonviolent demonstration by thousands of Buddhist monastics calling for economic and political justice in the military-ruled country.

He’s also an integral part of “Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country,” which was honored with a nomination for this year’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar. (In the end, the award went to “The Cove.”) Directed by Anders Østergaard, produced by Magic Hour Films, and distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories, which is headed up by Beastie Boy and Tibet activist Adam Yauch, the film features the work of citizen journalists inside the Saffron Revolution as well as stylized reenactments of key moments.

U Pyinya Zawta and I spoke before the Oscars through translator Aung Moe Win, a graphic designer for the exile magazine, The Irrawaddy, who also made our interview possible. (Aung Moe shared his own remarkable story with PBS’s Frontline for their episode “Burma: State of Fear”.)

DANNY FISHER: Venerable, for those who don’t know you, would you please introduce yourself?

U PYINYA ZAWTA: I am U Pyinya Zawta, one of the monks who led the Saffron Revolution.  I now live in the United States and do what I can to raise awareness here about the situation in Burma.  I often visit colleges and universities, giving speeches and offering screenings of Burma VJ.

DANNY FISHER: There have been some interesting editorials in the last week or so—specifically at the New York Times’s Carpetbagger blog and Foreign Policy—about the “importance” of the Oscar nomination for Burma VJ.  Would you say something about why you think the Academy’s notice is so important?

U PYINYA ZAWTA: Burma VJ is very important because it can help raise awareness and educate viewers about what’s happening on the ground in Burma.  The film shows the horrible things that are taking place there, and also demonstrates how people are forced to gather information.  The more people who see the film, the more people can see what’s happening.

DANNY FISHER: What’s next in terms of projects aimed at raising public consciousness about the struggle for democracy in Burma?  What do you think the movement for democracy needs?

U PYINYA ZAWTA: People are getting to know more and more about Burma, but they also need to learn about approaches toward this illegitimate regime.   The coming election will not be legitimate.  Anything that can help the world community understand this and raise their voices for Burma is important.

DANNY FISHER: What are some simple things that concerned readers can do to help?

U PYINYA ZAWTA: What they can do is write or phone their elected officials to educate them as necessary and put pressure on them to not recognize this election.  Another way to be helpful, especially to the monks now imprisoned in Burma’s notorious prisons, is to support the All Burma Monks’ Alliance.  They are doing so much to help. Visit the website at http://www.allburmamonksalliance.org.

DANNY FISHER: If Burma VJ wins the Oscar, what will you say to the millions of people watching?  Or what do you hope others will say?

U PYINYA ZAWTA: The most important thing to say is that the world community must stand up for Aung San Suu Kyi and the monks imprisoned in Burma, and work for their freedom.”

“BURMA VJ,” featuring the leading monks of the 2007 Saffron Revolution and the brave video journalists of the Democratic Voice of Burma, is now playing in US theaters.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Documentary Feature Film” for 2009.

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MOVIES   | May 20, 2009
Movie Review | ‘Burma VJ’:  Bravery Fills Secret Burmese Dispatches

By A. O. SCOTT

“Burma VJ” is a rich, thought-provoking film not only because of the story it tells, but also because of the perspective it offers.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/movies/20burm.html?ref=movies&emc=eta1

TRAILER:   http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/456574/Burma-VJ/trailers
NY INFO:    http://www.filmforum.org/films/burma.html
REVIEW: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Burma-VJ-Reporting-from-a-Closed
REVIEW:    http://blog.spout.com/2009/01/19/burma-vj-review-sundance-2009/
REVIEW:    http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/05/launching_burma.php

*Limited* US Theatrical Release -

> ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE: BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE In Theaters 03/01/10 – Salt Lake City, UT – SLC Film Center 03/05/10 – Lake Park, FL – Mos’ Art Theatre 03/05/10 – Lake Worth, FL – Lake Worth Playhouse 03/06/10 – Los Angeles, CA – DocuDays 03/06/10 – New York, NY – DocuDays 03/13/10 – Los Angeles, CA – City of Angels Film Festival 03/14/10 – New York, NY – Symphony Space 03/16/10 – New Orleans, LA – New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival 03/19/10 – Miami Beach, FL – Miami Beach Cinematheque 03/21/10 – Montpelier, VT – Savoy Theater 03/26/10 – Frederick, MD – Frederick Film Festival 04/06/10 – Glens Falls, NY – Crandall Public Library 04/08/10 – Ashland, OR – Ashland Independent Film Festival 04/09/10 – St. Johnsbury, VT – Catamount Center for the Arts 04/15/10 – Santa Barbara, CA – UC-SB Arts and Lectures 04/16/10 – Eau Claire, WI – UW- Eau Claire Progressive Film Festival 04/16/10 – Providence, RI – Brown University 04/19/10 – Port Jefferson, NY – Greater Port Jefferson Arts Council

WEBSITE:  http://burmavjcom.title.dk/
DISTRB:     http://www.oscilloscope.net/shop/films.php

We are presently trying to found a new temple and monastery to house the remaining Saffron monks in the United States and to support others who may arrive in the coming years to provide services to Burmese immigrants. Your contribution can help us launch a new Saffron Monks Temple and Monastery in the United States.  Please support us by donating to the All Burma Monks Alliance.  Please click on the “Give Alms” tab to see how you can help us.

Please click the image for more information:

UTICA —A Utica resident is a key figure in an Oscar-nominated documentary about civilian protest in one of the world’s most repressive nations. In September 2007, U Gawsita led fellow monks and tens of thousands of Burmese residents through Rangoon in Myanmar (formerly Burma), in opposition to the country’s longstanding military regime.

“We young monks who follow Buddha’s teachings must now join the protest,” U Gawsita shouted into a bullhorn, demanding reconciliation, dialogue and the release of political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

It would all be captured by undercover video journalists whose footage would be spread throughout the country and the world.

Read more …

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By CASSAUNDRA BABER (The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, NY)