Midtown Yangon (2020)
Midtown Yangon
A film by:
Aung Htet Myet
May Myat Noe Aye
Moe Kyaw Thu
Seint Yamone Htoo
Shin Thandar
Editor: Mi Mi Lwin
True Fiction, Family Life, Society, Women, Ethnic Diversity
A multi-storey housing block is filled with stories, from a street hawker struggling to fix his TV to a lonely girl who longs for a playmate; from one young man hiding his sexuality to another who simply wants to visit his girlfriend. As frustration builds in a young woman's overcrowded household, her heartfelt cry adds to the cacophony of lives lived in this little piece of the city.
As one of YFS's youngest students (born in 1996), Aung Htet Myet's first film as a director was a portrait of two feisty protest singers, Angry Folks; he also recorded the sound on Chit Moe Pio's 2018 debut, Going Home.
May Myat Noe Aye was born in Yangon in 1995. After studying German and business management she began working as a researcher for Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation where she participated in several social impact assessments. Since enrolling at YFS in 2018, she has completed a number of courses including Docu-Animation, where she helped create the short film Beyond the Hatred, which is based on an oral history from a book called 'Of Peaceful Days'. Produced during the YFS flagship course The Art of Documentary Filmmaking, Burmese Rapper is her first film as a director.
Moe Kyaw Thu (born in 1991) is making a name for himself as a camera person and editor on a number of YFS projects.
Seint Yamone Htoo (born in 1991) is from Yangon. After graduating from Yangon's Yadanabon University with a maths major she then took a diploma in music (violin) from the National University of Arts and Culture (NUAC) in the same city. She subsequently worked as a reporter for CNB News (Mandalay) and a video journalist for Up To Date online channel for almost 5 years before her burning desire to make documentaries prompted her to join YFS in 2018. During her studies at YFS she has worked on a number of collaborative projects, including an animated documentary Riding Through the Waves. Made entirely from textiles, the film describes the protagonist's memories of peaceful co-existence between people of different religions and ethnicities his home town in the Ayeyarwaddy delta. Seint Yamone Htoo has also co-directed a short fictional film Midtown Yangon which features a non-professional cast. Kachin Reporter for which she received a Goethe-Institut Myanmar documentary award, is her first documentary as a director.
Shin Thandar (born in 1991) is from Sittwe in Rakhine State in northwest Myanmar. Having studied English at Yangon's University of Foreign Languages and gaining a diploma in Information Technology, she spent several years as a journalist for broadcaster MNTV among others before joining YFS in 2018. She has completed a number of YFS courses and is one of the creators of a YFS docu-animation Our Town. Now in her second year at the School, she is currently working as a freelance editor on a series of World Bank-funded short films promoting access to health, education and jobs. Lost Boy is her first documentary as a director.
Florence Film Awards
Nomination Best Film
End Violence Against Women / DocuAnimation #3
Going Home, 2019
Unreported Story, 2011
more from this directors
Kachin Reporter, 2020