Stephen Filmmaking Fund

We are seeking donations to help Stephen, a filmmaker from Myanmar who had to flee his country, leaving all his equipment behind. After the 1st February 2021 military coup d’Etat in Myanmar, many artists joined the protests and have since been arrested or killed. Stephen was resettled with his family in the USA a few months ago as he feared for his life.

The Visual Rebellion Myanmar collective wishes to support him so that he can buy a new film camera and continue his career.

Stephen started making films as a teenager in Yangon after he received a handheld camera from his father. His first project was a simple movie recording the local wildlife, particularly birds. Then, his ambitions as a filmmaker evolved. He started using his camera to tell intricate narratives about the political landscape and the historical moments he witnessed. Stephen recognized the importance of the most recent coup d'Etat in Myanmar and hoped to use his visual storytelling experience to pass a message to the next generation.

Hiding from the military in a cave after the coup d'Etat

However, covering such events comes with a lot of dangers and threats. In early 2021, an authoritarian and nationalist military completed a coup against a democratically elected government. In the years prior to the army's seizure of power, some ethnic minority groups, such as the Rohingya, already experienced widespread abuse. Stephen was one of many artists and activists that helped spread the message about the fate of this community by capturing footage of the daily life of the Rohingya before they were forced to flee Myanmar en masse. After the most recent coup, many artists like Stephen became part of pro-democracy movements and had to flee their country out of fear of persecution.

Picture taken by Stephen of Rohingya people in their daily lives in 2015.

Resilience and Solidarity Program

Human Rights in the Picture director Nadja Houben and Stephen met at the Movies that Matter Filmfestival in 2019 in The Hague. When the Coup d’Etat happened on 1 February 2021, Stephen reached out a few days later, saying he was filming on the streets of Yangon and asked if Human Rights in the Picture would help him make a documentary about what was happening in his country. This was the start of what later became Visual Rebellion Myanmar, a grassroots collective that believes that journalism, photography, film and art have the power to create change for the better.

For a decade, our organization has been active in visual storytelling with a call to action for social change. We meet so many inspiring, powerful survivors of human rights abuses and threatened artists working in the field of human rights that we decided to support some of them. With our program, we aim to contribute to improving their lives so they can focus on producing important content.

You can follow Stephen work on his personal website, browse through his portfolio and learn about his motivations.

You can watch his most recent documentary about a child of an immigrant Karen family who lives in Minnesota, USA and dreams of being a professional Martial Art Fighter here.