Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing has worked as a freelance filmmaker in Myanmar since 2006, acting as director, producer, editor, and sound recordist. Her short “Burmese Butterfly” played festivals in over 20 countries, and “Period@Period” won the Best Short Award at the Wathan Film Festival. “Midwives” is her feature documentary debut.
“Midwives” is screening at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, which is running online from January 20-30. More information can be found on the fest’s website.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
SH: Two midwives, one Buddhist and one Muslim, defy strict ethnic divisions to work side by side in a makeshift clinic in western Myanmar, providing medical services to the Rohingya of Rakhine State. Over five years, we witness their struggles, hopes and dreams amidst an environment of ever-increasing chaos and violence.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
SH: I was born in Rakhine State, in the western part of Myanmar. When I was a kid, it seemed to me that Buddhist and Muslims were able to live peacefully side by side.
As an adult, I was living and working as a filmmaker in Yangon in 2012 when the news of the Rohingya conflict started to come out. I refused to believe that the hate speech I was hearing in the media at that time was reflective of reality, so I went back to my hometown to better understand myself, my people, where all this anger and hatred was coming from. On that visit, I met two extraordinary women, a Buddhist midwife and her young Muslim apprentice.
I made “Midwives” in order to represent myself and my country’s story – a story that I really want to tell using the film language.
W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?
SH: Personal relationships are the most important kind of relationships. I want people to remember to be kind and to look out for one another. The film is also a reminder that women have a lot of layers — they are multi-talented and outspoken, and they have humor. My film is about courage and community. There are brave and strong women living in the war zone looking to better their day-to-day lives.
This film is also meant to provide a platform for Rohingya and other minorities as they seek to integrate in larger societies, so that they do not become further marginalized, isolated in this world. My original idea was to amplify women’s voices from the conflict region of western Myanmar.
And then another message and layer was added, that the voices of the people of Myanmar needed to be heard against the inhumane attacks and injustice, and to hold the military accountable and to restore democracy in Myanmar. Rohingya, as well as many people in Myanmar, are in need of emergency assistance due to the violence of the military council.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
SH: While filming, my cameraman and I didn’t feel safe the whole time. If we were to get caught with all the data and gear, we would be arrested. It was a big challenge for us. We had to travel to Nyo Nyo and Hla’s village from Mrauk U everyday, the larger town where we were staying.
On the way, there are military checkpoints and heavy fighting between the Rakhine Army and the Myanmar Military. We traveled the road between the two camps. Most people didn’t use that road at that time. There could easily have been an accidental bomb or mortar shell that hit us. Our back and body didn’t feel safe when we used the road to travel for the filming.
Also when we filmed with a drone, we didn’t bring the drone with us. The day before we would shoot with the drone, we would order the drone to be sent with the bus. The next morning we would pick up the drone and shoot the whole day and in the evening, then send it back on the bus.
These were some of the very particular safety measures we had to take. Everyday on the way to Nyo Nyo and Hla’s village, we had to pass a military checkpoint and inform them of the name of the village we were traveling to, and the reason we were going there.
Luckily, we had an amazingly helpful Toke Toke driver who would hide our equipment inside his vehicle. The driver would have to stop in front of the military gate and only the driver would be allowed to walk to the military gate to inform them which village we’re going to for what reason. He gave different village names to the police station that we are visiting around the villages. The Toke Toke driver didn’t mention that we went to the same village everyday.
We couldn’t only focus on the story and we were working with fear in the location.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
SH: As a filmmaker from Myanmar, we don’t have any funding support in my country. At the beginning, I used my own personal funds.
For a Southeast Asian filmmaker, Docs By The Sea is the only international forum that focuses on creating a supportive ecosystem for documentary films in Southeast Asia. In 2017, I pitched at Docs By The Sea forum for the very first time. It was the first time I presented “Midwives” to commissioning editors, festival programs, and professional filmmakers from around the world. The story was so complex and due to the fact that it was my first time making a feature length doc, I initially didn’t receive any funding support.
I introduced Ulla Lehmann, a German producer, to the project and we began applying for international funds, such as IDFA and others. The first two years we didn’t receive any funding. When Mila Aung-Thwin came to teach at Yangon Film School for a semester, he was interested in becoming a producer with EyeSteelFilm’s support. He also agreed to co-edit the film with me.
The first funding we received was from Tribeca Film Institute. Then I pitched the project in Docs Port Incheon forum in Korea with Bob Moore from EyeSteelFilm, and we won Best Asian Pitch Prize. We pitched again at the Hot Docs Forum in Toronto, and there we won the first-look Pitch Prize.
“Midwives” also received support from Chicken & Egg, Sundance Film Institute, the German MFG fund, some wonderful executive production partners, and others.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
SH: I’m from a country that only has careers like teacher, engineer, doctor, or office staff for government work. When I was little my mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. My mom was a teacher, and I didn’t want to tell her the truth that I didn’t want to be a teacher like her. I didn’t want to do any of the boring jobs. I didn’t want to be an engineer, being a doctor seemed too abstract since I didn’t like school. I felt stuck and didn’t know how to answer. Most of my classmates had dream careers. I’m the one who didn’t.
In my classroom there was a giant window. I would see blue sky and birds were filling the big tree branch next to the window. I loved to gaze at this view – perhaps a bit too much. My class teacher informed my mom that I was not interested in lessons and schooling. Well, she was right!
The only time I was happy was when the TV was on. Back in ’90s Myanmar, TV was only on from 4 pm until 10 pm. One day I saw on TV a show with people working at a TV station — shots of big cameras, sound rooms, studio lights, and an editing room. That moment, I called my mom and said, “I want to work like those people!” My mom said, “People who work on TV are from families who work in TV. We are not an artistic family. You can’t work there!” But I stubbornly thought, why can’t I?
I kept that dream with me. When I was 18, I got my very first job working as an editor at a TV station. I realized I can make things happen. I can create my own story for my life.
When I was 21, I started to study documentary filmmaking at Yangon Film School. That opened my eyes! Watching documentaries and listening to inspiring filmmakers who came to my country to teach. Cinema drew me in, the may that the visual experience creates emotional engagement.
I was also inspired by Iranian filmmakers Hana and Samira Makhmalbaf. Hana made “Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame” and Samira made “Blackboards.”
“We are what we think. Cinema can change thoughts,” Samira said. They use a filmmaking style, somewhere between politics and poetry. Their films are pointedly real-world political, exposing issues of poverty, exploitation, and abuse – and supporting the struggle for female empowerment.
Since 2006, when the country was still under the military regime, I have worked on many documentaries as a director, producer, editor and sound recordist. These films focused on a number of politically and socially sensitive topics, which include acute poverty, human trafficking, monastic education, HIV/AIDS treatment and care, LGBT rights, and the empowerment of women. Some of these films and documentaries helped to bring about change in Myanmar, a country at the crossroads of a remarkable democratic transition.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
SH: Best advice: “You have to follow your own instincts when you are choosing characters or a subject. Never miss an opportunity to make a good film. A good film only makes our life longer as a filmmaker. Very long!”
I never got bad advice! I am so grateful to have met many great film mentors in my life.
W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?
SH: Be true to your story and your story will be true to you. Making creative documentary films can sometimes be lonely. We have to believe in what we are doing. If we deeply believe in our story and know what we really want, we all will get it. That means a lot of hard work. We are working in the process of creation and trusting the process is an important part for our film journey. Every woman’s story you make and every success you have is a footprint for other women to follow in.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
SH: My editing film mentor, Tuula Mehtonen Prajnadipa from Finland, came to Myanmar to teach at Yangon Film school for film editing and film analysis courses. In 2007, she showed us the film “Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame” by Iranian woman director Hana Makhmalbaf.
The filmmaking is somewhere between documentary and narrative fiction, between truth and opinion, between politics and poetry. The film comes from urgent dispatches from a region that is still little understood in the West and Asia. Her powerful film resonated with me and my country.
W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?
SH: The COVID-19 pandemic allowed me to watch all my footage and I began to edit the film during that time. It was a great time to edit. I was able to continue working on the creative process and attending online sessions as part of the Chicken & (Egg)celerator Lab and Sheffield Film Festival.
W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make it more inclusive?
SH: We all have to make more films about people of color. Before we start making a film, we need to think about creative space for dialogue between and within groups, and to be mindful of representation, to think about the role of identity and belonging. Hopefully the film industry can support people of color to make our own stories by ourselves, not as a token part of a white team. If we push back against negative stereotypes, we can truly achieve a more inclusive future.
