Last night, I had the opportunity to view three short documentary films about women’s rights in Myanmar: Whistle For Help, She, and Women’s Desire. The two that I found to be the most impactful were the first and second of the films.

        Whistle For Help, directed by Rhoda Linton, centered around a campaign launched in 2008 to end the sexual harassment of women on buses in Yangon. The film begins on a black screen with text fading in, reading “Everyone knows about the ugliness that is happening on the bus, damaging the image of our country.” I could quickly see that this truly was the case. Before viewing this film, I had no idea that sexual harassment on buses was such a pertinent issue in Myanmar, but every woman interviewed mentioned experiencing harassment at some point in her life, whether that point was in recent years or during her youth — some of the women interviewed even mentioned that their grandmothers had experienced the same sexual harassment on the buses. The low-budget appearance of the film only added to the gravity of the issue that it was speaking about; each woman interviewed talked about how she felt and the message was communicated more directly as a result of the lack of elaborate visual effects. I also felt that this do-it-yourself aspect of the film was appropriate for the similarly low-tech solution to sexual harassment that the group in the film championed: handing out brightly colored plastic whistles to women (and men) at bus stops. 

        I was happy to learn that the campaign worked in the end, and that even though people do not necessarily carry around the whistles on the buses anymore, the conversation about sexual harassment on public transport has become more important and less taboo to the people of Myanmar. Being interested in design, I also appreciated how such a simple object could be so effective — the whistles were mass produced and uncomplicated in form, perhaps costing less than a dollar to manufacture, yet gave both victims and bystanders an unignorable way to say “no” that previously did not even exist.

        The second film we watched was She, directed  by Kyal Yi Lin Six, which focused around the lives of three women of different religions in Myanmar: a Buddhist nun, Sayarlay Ketumarla; a Catholic nun, Chit Pon, and a Muslim doctor, Dr. Thet  Su Htwe (who we also had the pleasure of meeting in person). The film opened with shots of the three women each praying in their own way, with bells in the background, and this set the tone for the rest of the film. Each of the three subjects of the film spoke about their lives and the difficulties they faced specifically because they were religious women. Although I am aware that women face challenges everywhere, it was especially eye-opening to hear specific examples from these women who all had a drive to help others, such as by creating schools or helping children in IDP camps, yet were held back from implementing their ideas because of societal expectations. There was no soundtrack to most of the film, and there were many long shots of the women walking down paths or hallways, which I felt was effective in symbolizing the long journeys that they had to face in achieving their goals. 

        Before watching these films, I knew that I had a certain amount of privilege in being a man, but I did not truly understand what that meant. These films’ directness in communicating the obstacles of various women will help me to reflect more on that privilege in a more concrete way in the future. Despite the obstacles the women faced, I found the films to be hopeful. I found it inspiring to see them overcome — or at least begin to overcome — the challenges  they faced in their lives and in the society of Myanmar, and I am grateful to have gotten this view of women’s rights from a country other than the United States.