ThoughtGallery.org > Homecoming Myanmar: A Midi Z Retrospective (Film Series)

Homecoming Myanmar: A Midi Z Retrospective (Film Series)

A rising talent in international cinema, Myanmar-born and Taiwan-based Midi Z has developed a signature style for his intimate and authentic portraits of people struggling with displacement and poverty on the margins of Myanmar society. Hailing from an ethnic Chinese family in Lashio, a small town in the eastern Shan state, Z draws inspiration from the people he is familiar with in this remote region with a porous border next door to China, Laos and Thailand. Driven by social and economic hardship, they make ends meet drifting between worlds where smuggling and human and drug trafficking are rampant. Compassion and a documentary impulse guide Z’s camera as it quietly observes his characters’ actions and choices in a nonjudgmental manner. Mostly shot guerrilla-style in Myanmar, without official permission, the films also demonstrate formal rigor through meticulously crafted narrative structure and camerawork. This first U.S. survey of Z’s work includes all of the director’s fiction features plus a short.

Poor Folk
Midi Z. 2012. Taiwan/Myanmar. 105 min. DCP. English subtitled.
Cast: Wu Ke-Xi, Wang Shin-Hong

A-hong and San-mei, both from Myanmar, live a parallel existence crisscrossing the metropolis of Bangkok and the remote border town Dagudi. To earn enough money to free his younger sister who has been sold to human traffickers, A-hong tries his hand at the drug trade. To earn the ID required to settle in Taiwan, San-mei works for a gang boss who promises to open doors. Inspired by a true story the filmmaker heard while traveling through the Myanmar/Thai border several years ago, Poor Folk vividly portrays a harrowing world filled with displaced migrants, human traffickers, drug dealers, and prostitutes all struggling to survive.











When: Fri., Mar. 13, 2015 at 6:30 pm
Where: Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Ave.
212-288-6400
Price: $8 members, $10 students/seniors, $12 non-members
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A rising talent in international cinema, Myanmar-born and Taiwan-based Midi Z has developed a signature style for his intimate and authentic portraits of people struggling with displacement and poverty on the margins of Myanmar society. Hailing from an ethnic Chinese family in Lashio, a small town in the eastern Shan state, Z draws inspiration from the people he is familiar with in this remote region with a porous border next door to China, Laos and Thailand. Driven by social and economic hardship, they make ends meet drifting between worlds where smuggling and human and drug trafficking are rampant. Compassion and a documentary impulse guide Z’s camera as it quietly observes his characters’ actions and choices in a nonjudgmental manner. Mostly shot guerrilla-style in Myanmar, without official permission, the films also demonstrate formal rigor through meticulously crafted narrative structure and camerawork. This first U.S. survey of Z’s work includes all of the director’s fiction features plus a short.

Poor Folk
Midi Z. 2012. Taiwan/Myanmar. 105 min. DCP. English subtitled.
Cast: Wu Ke-Xi, Wang Shin-Hong

A-hong and San-mei, both from Myanmar, live a parallel existence crisscrossing the metropolis of Bangkok and the remote border town Dagudi. To earn enough money to free his younger sister who has been sold to human traffickers, A-hong tries his hand at the drug trade. To earn the ID required to settle in Taiwan, San-mei works for a gang boss who promises to open doors. Inspired by a true story the filmmaker heard while traveling through the Myanmar/Thai border several years ago, Poor Folk vividly portrays a harrowing world filled with displaced migrants, human traffickers, drug dealers, and prostitutes all struggling to survive.

Buy tickets/get more info now