Biba Klomp
03-08-2010, 10:27 AM
The work of the Thomson Foundation in training on the ground is at the centre of the documentary film tipped to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in Hollywood this weekend.
The movie Burma VJ has already won more than 40 international awards and tells the story of the video journalists working undercover in Burma who brought extraordinary pictures of the uprising in September 2008 to the world.
But the extraordinary risks faced by this band of journalists began before violence broke out in their home country. For they were smuggled out of Burma to be trained in a secret operation by Thomson Foundation senior consultant Peter Hiscocks.
Peter, a highly-experienced journalist who has worked for the Thomson Foundation for thirteen years, was working in Oslo with the Democratic Voice of Burma, supporting the launch of a new weekly television programme beamed by satellite directly into Burma.
When the question of the quality of the material being smuggled out of the country arose, it was agreed that he should go to Thailand to train the secret cameramen (and women) on a one-to-one basis.
He travelled to Bangkok and would-be video journalists were smuggled into Thailand to meet him. Each new VJ was given a small but high-quality camcorder and taught the basics of camerawork, film grammar and democratic journalism before slipping back into their homeland.
Read the full story HERE (http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/2010/03/burma-vj-secret-training-mission-behind-film-blockbuster/)
The movie Burma VJ has already won more than 40 international awards and tells the story of the video journalists working undercover in Burma who brought extraordinary pictures of the uprising in September 2008 to the world.
But the extraordinary risks faced by this band of journalists began before violence broke out in their home country. For they were smuggled out of Burma to be trained in a secret operation by Thomson Foundation senior consultant Peter Hiscocks.
Peter, a highly-experienced journalist who has worked for the Thomson Foundation for thirteen years, was working in Oslo with the Democratic Voice of Burma, supporting the launch of a new weekly television programme beamed by satellite directly into Burma.
When the question of the quality of the material being smuggled out of the country arose, it was agreed that he should go to Thailand to train the secret cameramen (and women) on a one-to-one basis.
He travelled to Bangkok and would-be video journalists were smuggled into Thailand to meet him. Each new VJ was given a small but high-quality camcorder and taught the basics of camerawork, film grammar and democratic journalism before slipping back into their homeland.
Read the full story HERE (http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/2010/03/burma-vj-secret-training-mission-behind-film-blockbuster/)