Please join us in the Langston Room fora screening of the documentary film, Sittwe, about youth affected by the violence and segregation in Burma, followed by a talk with visiting human rights advocate from Burma, Myo Win, Director of the Burmese NGO Smile Education and Development Foundation. Smile works on Inter-faith harmony and conflict resolution among Muslim and Buddhist communities in Burma. Myo Win is traveling to the US to present the film in NY with the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights to Burma and in the US Congress.
Sittwe gives voice to two teenagers separated by conflict and segregation in Burma’s Rakhine state, Phyu Phyu Than, a Rohingya girl and Aung San Myint, a Buddhist boy. Filmed over two years, the youth share their ideas about mutual fear between their communities and the hope of reconciliation. Sittwe was produced with the Burmese NGO, Smile Education and Development Foundation as a tool for facilitated discussions about peace building in Burma. Sittwe premiered at the Freedom Film Festival in Malaysia where it was awarded the Best Southeast Asia Short Documentary.
About the Presenters
Director Jeanne Hallacy has lived in Southeast for decades producing stories about human rights and social justice issues. Her award-winning documentary films are used as agents for change. Her film titles This Kind of Love, Into the Current: Burma’s Political Prisoners, Mercy (meddah) and Burma Diary are distributed by Kanopy and Documentary Educational Resources. Hallacy directs the InSIGHT OUT! Photo Storytelling project training youth living in conflict and post-disaster areas in photography and digital media.
Producer U Myo Win is the Director of Smile Education and Development Foundation in Rangoon founded in 2007 in response to rising intolerance and discrimination in Burma. Smile promotes interfaith harmony, religious freedom, peace building and conflict resolution and advocated for legal reform including the Inter-Faith Harmony Bill focused on religious freedom, and combating hate speech and hate crime. U Myo Win is trained in psychological first aid, and has worked extensively on trauma healing and mental health post-disaster. U Myo Win received a degree in Islamic theology and in 2004 completed a graduate degree in psychology from the University of East Yangon.
