ABOVE AND BELOW THE GROUND

ABOVE AND BELOW THE GROUND tells the story of Indigenous punk rock pastors in Myanmar who team up with women activists to protect a sacred river from a Chinese-built megadam. From Aung San Suu Kyi's broken election promises to a military coup threatening their homeland, activists and musicians fight back the best way they know how–through protest, prayer, and Karaoke music videos. Unlike past documentaries like THE COVE, which primarily feature white male protagonists and Asians as villains or victims, the team behind this film engage with the question of what it means to work on a collaborative, transnational film team as part of a broader movement to decolonize documentary. In doing so, the film draws on the unique power of ethnographic film to build spaces of intercultural exchange, collaboration, and as much as possible, accountability.