Yangon Weather Forecast, Burma

Family of studio founder to mark 90 years of movies

THE Wathann and Art of Freedom film festivals, held in Yangon in recent months, have helped provoke a hunger among filmmakers and discriminating moviegoers for thoughtful, locally produced documentary films.

With local cinemas limiting themselves to domestic feature films, Hollywood blockbusters and the occasional international film festival, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Wathann and Art of Freedom events marked the first time that documentaries had ever been shown on the big screen in Myanmar.

But documentaries have played a vital role in the development of the film industry in Myanmar.

In fact, it was a short documentary directed by U Ohn Maung about the funeral of U Htun Shein, a politician who had travelled to London in the 1910s to lobby for Burmese independence, that helped kick-start the entire industry in 1920.

“The [U Htun Shein] documentary was shown at a local theatre in 1920 along with an American movie, and it was very popular with audiences,” said director U Thein Htut, a great-grandson of U Ba Nyunt, who founded Myanmar Aswe Company in 1908.

Myanmar Aswe was founded as a shirt-vending enterprise, later expanding into the vinyl record market. In 1920 it started publishing Dagon magazine, and three years later made its first foray into filmmaking.

Indeed, Myanmar Aswe Company’s shift into movies was closely tied to the fortunes of U Ohn Maung.

Following the success of the U Htun Shein documentary, a group of amateur filmmakers formed the Burma Film Company and produced the U Ohn Maung-directed Love and Liquor (1920), which is recognised as the first feature film made in Myanmar.

The company followed this the next year with Kyae Taw Thu Ma Nu (An Uptown Girl, Ma Nu), which was also popular with audiences. In all, the Burma Film Company made seven films before U Ohn Maung handed the company over to Myanmar Aswe in 1923, giving birth to Myanmar Aswe Film Studio.

The new studio’s first film was Taw Myaing Son Ka Lwan Aung Phan (The Edge of the Wood Beckons My Nostaligia) in 1923.

In 1933 the studio changed its name to A1 Film Company.

“The actor who starred in Love and Liquor and Kyae Taw Thu Ma Nu was U Nyi Pu, the son of Myanmar Aswe founder U Ba Nyunt,” U Thein Htut said.

“Myanmar Aswe gained fame very quickly as a film company with Su Htoo Pan (Wishing a Grand Thing) in 1928, directed by U Nyi Pu,” said actor U Ko Myint, another great-grandson of U Ba Nyunt.

“In 1931 it was sent to England and screened with English-language explanatory notes so the audience could understand the story.”

By the 1930s A1 Film Company had established a 30-acre studio in Mayangone township, complete with a lake, forestland, a barn and rows of houses where members of film crews could live while they made movies.

“The A1 Film Studio became a home for stars of both the silent and sound eras, as well as for film crews,” said U Myint Soe, the nephew of U Nyi Pu. “It was called ‘Burma Hollywood’ because it represented the excitement and glamour of the film industry.”

A1 Film Company also carried on U Ohn Maung’s interest in documentaries by producing films showcasing Aung San’s public speeches from 1944 to 1947.

“U Nyi Pu’s nephew U Myint Soe started by making a documentary about attacks by the Burma Defence Army against the Japanese invaders in upper Myanmar in 1945, during World War II,” U Ko Myint said.

“Most of the documentaries produced by A1 featured General Aung San delivering speeches throughout the country, whom U Myint Soe followed and filmed during many historical protests demanding independence from the British,” he said.

U Myint Soe also made a documentary about the funeral of General Aung San and the eight other politicians who were assassinated alongside him on July 19, 1947.

The one-hour documentary covering the historical event struck such a chord with the public that it was shown at four cinemas in Yangon, each of which screened the film five times a day.

“It was a melancholic day,” U Myint Soe said.

“An endless procession of people watched the ceremony in which the nine martyrs’ remains were carried from Jubilee Hall [now the Defence Services Museum], where they were kept for a time so that the public could pay their respects, to Martyr’s Mausoleum,” he said.

“As a citizen, I felt bound to record such a historic occasion. It was hard work for me but I wanted to leave it as a lasting memorial to the people of my country. It became a real milestone in my life,” he said.

Unfortunately, many of the documentaries featuring General Aung San’s speeches were destroyed in a fire at the studio in 1950.

“More than 100 films made from World War II to 1950 were destroyed in that fire,” U Ko Myint said.

The studio’s fortunes continued to decline in the 1960s when it was forced to sell much of its equipment to deal with punitive taxation. By the 1980s film production had nearly ground to a halt, and the studio finally closed its doors in 1983.

The land where the studio once stood has since been subdivided and sold in smaller lots, on which modern, privately owned buildings have sprouted.

U Ko Myint said the descendants of Myanmar Aswe Company founder U Ba Nyunt were interested in celebrating the history A1 Film Company by marking the centenary of the founding of Myanmar Aswe.

“The actual centenary of A1 Film Company is still far off, but were are very close to the centenary of Myanmar Aswe Company,” he said.

In fact, the anniversary passed in 2008, but the family plans to make up for missing it by organising a belated celebration for next year.

“We are now collecting rare records of films produced by A1, including photos of scenes and celebrities, as well as old filmmaking equipment. Some of it is being kept at the Myanmar Motion Picture Museum, and some is still owned by the A1 family members,” U Ko Myint said.