Participants watched Padauk: Myanmar Spring, directed by Jeanne Hallacy and Rares Michael Ghilezan, and then joined panel discussion introduced by Hallacy and Ghilezan, with author and academic Kenneth Wong, and activists Nant, Wai Wai Nu, and Jan Jan Maran on what's happening in Myanmar following the February 1st military coup.
Panelists:
Kenneth Wong (moderator)
Kenneth Wong is the author of A Prayer for Burma (Santa Monica Press, 2003). His short stories and essays have appeared in Grain, AGNI, and San Francisco Chronicle magazines. He is one of the narrators for the films They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain and Padauck: Myanmar Spring. Wong is also a widely published blogger and reporter covering the computer-aided design (CAD) industry. He currently works as Digital Engineering's senior editor. Wong teaches a course on Introductory Burmese at UC Berkeley.
Nant
In Padauk: Myanmar Spring, it is through Nant, a young, first-time protester, we meet three human rights activists whose lives have been turned upside down by the coup. As the protests continue, Nant comes to understand the truth of a brutal regime that has continued to wage war against its own people for decades. Against a foreboding backdrop, Nant’s political awakening regarding the plight of others in her ethnically diverse country gives hope for the future.
Wai Wai Nu
Wai Wai Nu is a Burmese Rohingya activist, former political prisoner, and founder of the Women's Peace Network-Arakan and Justice for Women. Through Women's Peace Network, she focuses on peace-building in Myanmar, for all people of any gender, ethnicity and religion. Justice for Women is a network of female lawyers that provide legal aid for women in need. She is the recipient of several awards including the 2014 N-Peace Award and 2021 City of Athens Democracy Award. Wai Wai Nu was named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine in 2015 and one of the Next Generation Leaders by Time Magazine in 2017.
Jan Jan Maran
Jan Jan Maran is a first-generation Kachin-American student majoring in Global Affairs at George Mason University. She previously served as Co-lead of the Burma Committee for STAND: The Student-Led Movement to End Mass Atrocities, and founded and served as President of the STAND at Mason chapter at her school. She is currently serving as the social media manager for Kachin Alliance, Burma Policy Lead for Action Corps, and is Co-Founder of the Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy
Jeanne Hallacy (introductions)
Jeanne has lived and worked in Southeast Asia for 25 years, producing and directing documentary films about human rights and social justice issues. Her films are used as educational and advocacy tools by civil society and educational institutions. Jeanne's films, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Sittwe, This Kind of Love and Into the Current were each released with an international speaking tour in the United States and Europe where the films were screened with engaged audience discussions. Jeanne is also the Director of InSIGHT Out! digital media project for youth in conflict-affected areas. She is the former Director of Programs at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand.
Rares Michael Ghilezan (introductions)
Ever since working at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2006, Rares has been passionate about social justice activism and providing a voice for the voiceless. A long-time student of Burmese politics and history, Rares jumped into the fray in May 2017 when he visited Northern Rakhine state to learn more about the Rohingya. Since then, he has been to the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh twice, including as a producer on Kirana Productions' Mother, Daughter, Sister. Rares has lived in Yangon since 2018 where he lead Kirana’s film project covering the protest movement of Feb 2021. A partner at GLobal Legal Law Firm, when he's not filming he's either practicing law or surfing.
Copresented by WorldOregon, Never Again Coalition, and The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project at Portland State University on October 28, 2021, via Zoom.
