Kenosha Kid ~ 'Inside Voices'

Artwork by Ryan White

With plenty of heart and some wry smiles, Kenosha Kid's newest album Inside Voices is dense with smoldering intensity and musicianship at the apex of instrumental/experimental jazz (or post-rock or whatever genre peg you prefer to hammer home).  Recently self-released on 12" vinyl and digital, guitarist-composer-arranger Dan Nettles helms another inventive outing as Kenosha Kid based in Athens, GA. Joined by an international crew of horn players, tonight is the album release party at Hendershot's, sets at 8:30 & 10:00, as part of the music/electronic art/tech Slingshot Festival.

"Vanishing Point" opens the album with melancholic horns in harmony giving way to floating guitar interwoven with more spirited trumpet lines from Jacob Wick.  Nettles' guitar work is effortless and subtle, laying out warm melodies with blue tinges while drummer Marlon Patton unleashes cymbal sparkle.

Wrapping up side A is the gorgeous, slow burning "Liberty Bell", a reverent anthem rife with deeply soulful guitar work accompanied by lush tenor saxophone from Greg Sinibaldi and superbly restrained drumming.

On "Map of the Universe" Handley lays back on bass, reigning in pent up energy from repeated horn rhythms, giving the tune a sense of steady pull, like hauling in an ancient vessel, hand over hand, slowly inching toward the longshore. Patton's shuffling drums engender a blend of drive with a soft touch.  Nettles' guitar takes turns with saxophone soaring over the groove as feet become inches until contact.  This is perhaps the album's best simmering mix of careful arrangement and wild improvisation.

Inside Voices has been in the works for two years, explains Nettles: six to eight months writing and arranging, another year fleshing out the songs through live performance, and finally a week-long residency at Hendershot's Coffee Bar paired with concurrent studio time at Studio 1093, just blocks from Nettles' home.  Getting everyone together in Athens was a challenge, but ringleader Nettles says he's "thankful to have a pool of great musicians who know my songs".  Once assembled, the project coalesced between nightly on-stage experimentations and daily recording sessions, essentially the distillations of the prior evening's flashes of inspiration.  "It takes a little more spice to keep my ears on board," adds Nettles.  The album and Kenosha Kid's live shows are always exhilarating as a result.

The vinyl release is adorned with some very special photographs, graphically incorporated with style by Ryan White.  Nettles' grandmother cheerfully graces the cover. His aunt, Bea Nettles, is the source of the timeless negatives used on the album; she's well-known in fine art circles for her photography, especially her tarot card series.  Aesthetic sophistication evidently runs in the family.

The B side feels looser like the group has found a cruising trajectory.  The horns add creepy levity to the 60's throwback vibe of "Zombie Party"; Patton's landslide drum fills tumble like gore strewn across varsity sweaters. "Mushmouth" swings with funk guitar, sending the listener on something like a Chips-era highway chase; later, an all-too-brief bass solo from Handley is punctuated by joyful horn hits and more Meters'-style guitar from Nettles. Patton's bass drum is propulsive and his intro on "Everyone I Know" displays his mastery of the instrument with fully-automatic, hair-trigger sensitivity as the band rises to a fever.

Clearly Nettles, Patton and bassist Robby Handley possess the sort of self-described "telepathic" musical relationship which constitutes the essential heart of Kenosha Kid.  To see their live performance as a trio is to witness the finest in creative collaboration; they also genuinely seem to have a great time playing together.  Inside Voices is the boiled down essence of more than a decade of musical partnership.  The final package is clean but not clinical, with an emphasis on ensemble playing, approachable melodies, and spontaneity with dashes of electronic effects to enliven the senses.

Living in 'The Spectacular Now'

For an indie with a limited budget, The Spectacular Now received wider than expected exposure due to solid writing and some fine acting, especially from relative newcomer Shailene Woodley.  A glowing reception at Sundance surely helped.  Overall, it's an entertaining film with a hazy patina of teenage angst rife with nebulous ambitions. The protagonists' respective futures are further blurred by questionable coping strategies and a requisite lack of role models. Honestly, there are no definitive happy endings here but neither is it a complete downer.

Although coming-of-age stories are overplayed today (and this one has a bit too much nonchalant underage drinking), the plot here takes a novel route through familiar themes: finding identity in a confusing world, relating to one another when we can, and admitting that our parents' lives are not necessarily ours to repeat.  

I related to the Southeastern setting, Athens, GA to be exact, a midsize town like any other, somewhat depressed with kudzu-covered outskirts. Behind my pup Tallulah is the character Aimee's house from the film, just around the corner from our spot in leafy Normaltown.  For me, even better than the humble low-slung rental itself is the real life neighbors' nifty micro-clearinghouse for miscellanea.

I've picked up many a cool little item from The Awesome Table (and re-gifted as directed): flowerpots, posters, antiques bottles, all manner of useful detritus--useful to someone, at least.  The Spectacular Now has its utility, too, while taking itself just seriously enough for the viewer to follow suit.

Watch the trailer.
More on the director, James Ponsoldt, an Athens, GA native.

The Odd Trio: Birth of the Minotaur Review

The Odd Trio stirs up familiar but still exhilarating stew with their self-produced second release, The Birth of The Minotaur (2012). With a penchant for playfully thoughtful, woven expressions on saxophone, guitar, and drums, the Odd Trio concoct a decidedly well-penned, avantjazz menu. What started out as a joyful exploration on their debut Lo-Fi Hi-Jump (reviewed here) has had its flavors deepened into a cerebral yet tuneful dish in this most recent effort.

To open, the trio head far south of their native Athens, GA to the brackish Gulfside font of American music with "Raucous Bacchus". Atop a rump-swinging rhythm from percussionist Todd Mueller, reed king Marc Gilley and loop-laying guitarist Brian Smith trade syncopated riffs beside funky blues-tinged bayous. The lead-off shuffle and Nocentelli-like guitar licks issue the calls of Mardi Gras indian chiefs with a tipsy feel; including throaty baritone sax punctuation, the track is an intoxicating pleasure referencing the Greek god it aptly venerates.

While the tongue-in-cheek "Whiskey" is experimental good fun with a discorock vibe and shredded guitar (an impossible combo?), "Sunday Morning Improvisation" closely approximates some of the Odd Trio's more subdued live musings as a free-flowing, improvised route through nebulous, sandy territory.  At live shows, the resourceful Mueller, Gilley, & Smith let this kind of track pool and flow in numerous directions at once while the crowd finds a handhold for a novel journey.  On record, layered themes wash over the listener in the same manner that the best orchestral music builds in waves of melodic interplay.

"Ricio de Mare" stands out as the set's most complete cut.  A solid rocking introduction leads into shifting time signatures--a go-to Odd Trio technique that keeps the listener teetering edgewise.  The effect is equally theatrical and bombastic, like the questionable safety of a wooden roller coaster: risky but thrilling nonetheless. Gilley's soprano soars, casting shadows around the cymbal-flecked landscape, while Smith and his guitar build drama with searing crunch.  Just before a clever circling back to the start, themes in unison lend some stability to what is, at times, a fairly gnarly ride; it's packed to the gunwales with inventiveness from this classically trained cohort.

The Odd Trio seems to draw from volumes of discipline, creativity, and overall gusto with Birth of the Minotaur.  Expect future explorations to continue confounding and invigorating with their by now well-established taste for challenging, original material at the forefront of instrumental jazz.

The Birth of the Minotaur - the full release via BandCamp
or B o.t. M - via CDBaby

"Pasiphae's Wild Ride" - Enjoy a side of visuals, at no extra charge

The Odd Trio @ Facebook
or T.O.T. @ SoundCloud

The Odd Trio: Lo-Fi Hi-Jump Review

Although the title cut from The Odd Trio's debut packs a viciously funky wallop, the surrounding tracks also cover a varied topography of tight, avant-garde compositions alongside liberating improvisations.  On the whole, Lo-Fi Hi-Jump is an essential jazz fusion tasting menu from a group whose work has only just begun to ripen.

listen to it all right...over...here.

"Do What Now" features the three classically trained musicians on their tippy toes, reaching for the fruits of guitarist Brian Smith's songwriting labors.  As a member of the Georgia Guitar Quartet, and now a new psyche-chamber ensemble called Revien, Smith deliberately leaps between tricky syncopation with saxophonist Marc Gilley (the HEAP) and alternatingly liquid yet sometimes heavily-shredded metal riffs.  Drummer Todd Mueller (Arasmus Ensemble) drives the trio's evident "interest in shifting meters" deftly holding together this taut theme. 

On "Lost Man's River", The Odd Trio most closely approximates its fevered live explorations.  According to some succinct liner notes, this spontaneous track was recorded at the group's very first session, yet it already has the feel of years spent together in the discipline of jazz creation.  With an utter sense of openess, nothing is lingered upon, no single melodic phrase or rhythm drops anchor, so the entire piece rocks and meanders without ever becoming capricious.

"Indian Summer" serves up a considerable dose of Latin seasoning that underpins floating alto-sax lines from Marc Gilley, Flamenco-style classical guitar accents from Smith, and driving rimshots with shuffling pandeiro from Mueller.  On the whole, this one drums up pastels, the art-deco Miami waterfront, choppy Atlantic waves reflecting off chromed rides, at least for this reviewer.  The echoing melody contrasts brightly against one of the more understated electric guitar solos of the collection.

With a two-year anniversary on the horizon, there's no indication of letting up for The Odd Trio.  The three crafty musicians have, by now, become attuned to one another's nuanced playing, especially in live performance.  If anything, what Lo-Fi Hi-Jump tends to hold on reserve is delivered at full amplitude on stage.  Expect the recorded catalog to grow; these songs represent just one vintage from a vast cellar of highly energetic, consistently inventive artistry.

Lo-Fi Hi-Jump ~ listen and buy the debut release from The Odd Trio
The Odd Trio ~ the official band page

Revien Debuts in Athens, GA: Radiohead, Neko Case, Originals and Classics

With compositions that traverse centuries, Revien is a new trio including members of the Georgia Guitar Quartet, Maps and Transit, and the Odd Trio.  While remaining rooted in classical refinement, their original take on chamber music defies expectations and branches out into contemporary, even pop territory, to exquisite effect.

July 16th at Hendershot's Coffee Bar was Revien's "maiden voyage" and it did, indeed, feel like a return to past loves with renewed enthusiasm via compositions by DeBussy, Bach, de Falla, as well as fresh takes on Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, Led Zepplin, and Neko Case.  Originals by guitarists Brian Smith (GGQ, Odd Trio) and Kyle Dawkins (GGQ, Maps and Transit) round out the group's expansive repertoire, a bohemian stew that's bound to come to a boil as more live shows ensue.  Phil Snyder's (GGQ) alternatingly fibrous yet delicate cello ties together the trio's guitar, mandolin, and effects-laden tangents.  It is, in part, Snyder's return to his first instrument, his first musical passion, that gives the new group its name, derived from the French "to return" or "to come back".

The three close-knit musicians have honed their musical connection over years touring with the Georgia Guitar Quartet. Still, there's a freshness to the approach.  They took liberties with folk pop, like their ethereal version of Grizzly Bear's "Foreground", and reallocated bluesy, bluegrass syncopation to the classic rock of Led Zepplin's "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp"; I'd reckon most in the capacity crowd had never seen Smith wielding a slide over nylon strings, and the result was oddly down-home.  Near the close of the first set was Dawkins' "Ants in a Shell", a Maps and Transit piece commissioned as part of Brian Smith's Spring 2011 suite entitled "Daedalus", incorporating brilliant, understated electronic effects and a charming, Eastern-sounding mandolin technique using a drumstick. 



Photo by Bob Brussack

Beyond the reinvented modern covers, Snyder captivated to start the second set with two Bach solos ("Sarabande", "Courante") featuring his dexterity and sensitivity.  Another gorgeous cello solo, "Standing by the Icarian Sea", was also from Smith's "Daedalus" show at Canopy Studio in Athens.  The cellist remarked that Smith's composition was good fun to play--and equally challenging--which was evident as the pony-tailed Snyder smiled lightly amidst heavy concentration.  Neko Case's "Vengeance is Sleeping" was a standout arrangement that had an effortless, floating sound like slicing through the first watermelon of summer, knowing life's fleeting sweetness as string textures built up in delicate strata. 

Once Smith and Dawkins rejoined their "vocalist", as the group thinks of Snyder's lyrical cello phrasing, the second set unfurled easily with a warm rendition of Radiohead's "Weird Fishes", a deftly arranged Simon & Garfunkel tune, and more classical obscurities from Debussy and contemporary cellist David Popper.  The trio's rendition of Manuel de Falla's "La Vie Breve" was a triumphant finale, a harbinger of many stellar performances to come.

Revien ~ the official site; tumble on over so you don't miss out next time!

More Athens music ~ Georgia Guitar Quartet, Maps and Transit, Odd Trio

NPR's "From The Top" @ UGA

Out of sheer happenstance and the kindness of friends, I had the recent pleasure of attending the taping of NPR’s “From the Top” at Hodgson Hall on the University of Georgia campus. The show, which was recorded live on Sunday, Feb. 27th, will be broadcast on March 22nd at 8:00 pm on WUGA 91.7 and 97.9 FM.

Hosted by the renowned concert pianist, Christopher O’Riley, “From the Top” is a national showcase for young, ultra-talented classical musicians. O’Riley leads the way with his experience (he was also a child prodigy) spotlighting brilliant instrumental soloists and often collaborating with the young virtuosi as they wow crowds across the country, week in and week out. Toss in a little banter with the kids, and the recipe becomes wholly entertaining, always full of emotional performances.

The first of the featured musicians was Arianna Smith (17 yrs.) on viola, who played a piece penned by her private teacher Paul Coletti, accompanied by Christopher O'Riley on a grand Steinway & Sons.  In a black formal evening gown, Ms. Smith looked -- and sounded -- the epitome of professionalism as she swayed emotively to the composition's gypsy rhythm.

A slight, lanky boy took the stage next and proceeded to mesmerize the crowd with his passionate piano playing, this time a  piece by Brahms.  Nicholas Allgeier, from North Carolina, waivered deftly on the bench as he brought some in the audience near to tears, his hands, arms and entire person emanating the soulful interpretation; it was a memorable performance with some impressive power, and all this from a 12 year old kid whose favorite pets are his chickens, he shared.

Sunday’s radio taping at UGA offered one (huge!) added bonus: the presence of flute master Sir James Galway, a man regarded by most, including host Christopher O’Riley, as the very best in the world. Galway’s duet with O’Riley on piano in the first third of the show was a telling highlight, with the bearded master commanding the crowd’s attention as he lithely sauntered through an allegro by Poulenc. His rotund gravitas notwithstanding, Sir James Galway seemed on the verge of lift-off by way of soaring glissandos, while simultaneously anchoring the sentiment of the Allegro malincolico with dark and husky, low-register musings.  The crowd's fervent applause verified that we were all aware of the presence of a great master of his art -- the man with the golden flute.  And he did a damn fine chicken impression, as well (tune in to WUGA for that)!

For a "halftime" treat, O'Riley professed his love for Athens' own R.E.M. and he did so with an interpretation -- rather freshly arranged -- of the pre-release track "It Happened Today" from the group's upcoming album Collapse Into Now.  It was a rumbling, glistening few minutes of intricate chords with a deceivingly simply melody floating atop plenty of roiling left-hand action.  This was a beautiful moment, a fleeting ode that O'Riley dedicated to R.E.M.'s advocate Bertis Downs.

Rounding out the program was a gorgeous piece of harp playing by Atlanta's own Angelica Hairston (18 yrs.) a "Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist".  Her hands where as lively and precise as any classical guitarist, and her artistry absolutely charmed all in attendance. 

The last piece of music was a trio led by Sir James Galway, which included the young Ms. Smith again on viola, as well as an award-winning violinist from San Franscisco, Kenneth Renshaw.  Their rendition of an Adagio - Allegro Vivace Disinvolto by Beethoven was sinuous yet energetic, and featured some sophisticated interplay between the teenaged string players, all while Sir James, with his immpecable flute, used his grandfatherly musical arms to embrace and guide the young talents; the crowd erupted in deafening applause that lasted and lasted until the musicians finally cleared the stage at Hodgson Hall. 

Find the full program notes at fromthetop.org and be sure to tune in to WUGA on Tuesday night, March 22nd, to hear the show.  These NPR programs are well worth their funding -- don't forget to tell your member of Congress if you agree.

Maps and Transit ~ Songs for Divining

Kyle Dawkins' string work is precise and warm like a distant voice emanating from a light-soaked church. His musical partner and wife, Julie Phillips, adds clarity and depth with xylophone and bass to make the most recent project from Maps and Transit feel gently sculpted, more manually hewn than digitally. Its sound gives a cinematic impression, painterly and full of atmosphere; even the air in the room where you listen seems to change -- though almost imperceptibly -- from the very first notes. The handy term "folktronica" has been used to describe the overall impression, but such labels only limit the scope of the duo's latest work, Songs for Divining, released on Camomille Music.

More than pairing strings and percussion with laptop beats, the pair has created an amalgam of timbres to make an ethereal whole beyond categorization. Nevertheless, with a fisheye view, the organic sound at its heart envelops influences from chamber music to hushed rock to jangly mountain field recordings.

Songs for Divining ~ cover art by Vincent Fugere

The album's electronic sounds, far from evoking cold circuitry, resonate as naturally as the analog instruments. Subtle beats, faint tones, and counter-rhythms trickle down from the Appalachian terminus, only an hour's drive from the heart of Athens, GA, where Maps and Transit makes its home. Sonic textures sizzle and fizz beneath bent banjo notes and mandolin tremolos, held together by a windy backdrop, realizing what Dawkins refers to as a "brambles-and-vines" landscape that gives the project a vast root system and a distinct sense of place.

Polyrhythmic galloping and Celtic guitar lines in 'Three Pendulums' help envisage a wide green plain unfolding before a group of haggard wanderers. As a glistening sea rises in the distance, the mood lightens, hopeful yet cautious. The sauntering cycle of the tune seems to skirt the cliffside along the way, pushing a tenuous fragility that's quietly thrilling.

During 'Ponds', Dawkins' nylon strings zing like a faint sitar, but once layered with counter-melodies, the guitars swirl, falling into banjo as snare and hi-hat add accents. Later, one hears rustling cicadas on a nightbreeze, somehow welcomed from thin air yet completely native. These are the often subtle qualities that make Songs for Divining transcendental, intoxicating, and resistant to genre pigeonholes.

Further on, crows create a chorus that binds 'Mr. Arrowood' to an hour of fading light, just as the table is set for a rollicking, quasi-funk patch which features Phillips' talent for adding timely percussive accents as well as driven bass guitar. Time shifts and shuffling, courtesy of a beat-up mandolin, keep things off-kilter contributing to a brief extraterrestrial notion. Here the pair lithely tramps a route seemingly bushwhacked by the likes of electronica heavies Aphex Twin or Amon Tobim. Without straying too widely, though, the song is resolved with a familiar, delicate banjo as birds again take wing.

These nine compositions by Maps and Transit flow down and through a riparian zone, like a creek bound to join its kin, less a riled river and more a hundred life-supporting rivulets finding their entropic course. The listener, too, can find a route through time and terrain, first in the blind, then sensing the way under the quiet guidance of this duo's thoughtful musical vision.

Maps and Transit released Songs for Divining Sept. 17, 2010 on Montreal's Camomille Music.

Odd Trio: Now with Caffeine!

Seriously, it (read: jazz-fusion by ultra-gifted, classically trained players) is a good time, and that can't be denied. I'm not just being neighborly when I say that hearing Athens' own Odd Trio makes for a night of level eleven, funk-shock treatment, delivering all the positive, residual effects only that kind of instrumental intensity can provide.

Check out my latest review of the gig on Athens Music Junkie.

Find the Odd Trio @ Facebook

One more review & one more typo

I done done it, again!

After listening to a solid solo set at a local coffee shop / bar / music venue, I was inspired to write a little something about the performance by Athens' troubadour Don Chambers. So, I did. Here it is on AthensMusicJunkie. Head over and enjoy.

Kenosha Kid ~ 'Land of Obey'

For a series of evenings in the winter & spring of 2010, Kenosha Kid took up residency at the Flicker Theatre in downtown Athens, GA and the result is a wildly varied, deeply grooved and finely blitzed collection of live cuts called Land of Obey out on Nowt Records.

There, property taxes are fair, rents are reasonable if you choose to play by the rules which Kenosha Kid rarely do. Instead, guitarist Dan Nettles, bassist Neal Fountain, and drummer Marlon Patton take liberties and own each theme, each variation, each breakdown because they've built it brick by brick, phrase by phrase to deliciously seamless effect.

To open, 'Fanfare' flings listeners into a gorgeous landscape with an arpeggio in the vein of Zappa's 'Adventures of Gregory Peccary' and from then on the vistas are serene and spacious. You feel you're in for something vast, something beyond definition, beyond the limitations of genre or label. The listener is fully primed to slide comfortably into a bluesy, ash-tinged groove.

The next track, 'Muddy Waters', is like a couple sitting over a plate of catfish with a bayou steam rising all around. At first, diners pick out the bones, isolating morsels to share, but soon enough their real intentions begin to pile up. The lovers glance at one another less and less and devour the flesh more and more until what's left is a heap of a memorable carcass and a slow burning, blues-induced fog around the gut and the head. It's not straight blues -- maybe Lightnin' Hopkins tripped over Duke Ellington's cane -- but it is one of the album's best examples of Kenosha Kid's refined handling of myriad influences.

'Out the Window' is an atmospheric journey over sand and space. The 'window' might be the door of a saharan Tuareg dwelling, tanned goatskins flapping in an arid but welcome breeze. Like a contented nomad, bassist Fountain pulls but not too forcefully, instead preferring to tug the ropes from the middle of the pack like a tuneful Jaco Pastorius without the fatal chip on the shoulder. There's no hurry. From Patton, a shimmering oasis of cymbals ripples on the horizon, receding ever, arriving never. The whole shifting thing swirls shadow and smoke with glinting stars above.

'Take What You Want' features the warmest of Nettles' guitar themes, with its subtle country lilt as a tambourine keeps time in an Aquarian throwback. It's all nostalgia and echo and occasional goosebumps at the memory flood, like golden light through a pinhole camera.

'Pleasure II' blends easy psychedelia over a sycopated shuffle that keeps limbs akimbo. All along Patton's drums and Fountain's bass interplay with childlike verve, and Nettles' guitar lines swoop, bend, and creep, pushing an imaginary edge.

Other tunes find guitarist Dan Nettles clawing his way up a ragged mountain range even as the scree underneath starts an undeniable avalanche. The trio tumble end over end in slow motion and somehow, out of thin air, find extemporaneous footholds. Soon it's the mountain itself that stretches under the centrifugal force with Nettles, Fountain, and Patton standing firmly at the center of an unearthly orbit. This is not easy music to make live. It's organic chemistry and the students have become the professors: swirling guitar peels, profound bass hues, with alternatingly austere yet firm beats punctuating a disitnctly cinematic set of compositions.

The multi-faceted Nettles, Fountain, and Patton. Photo ~ Nowt Records

Neal Fountain consistently offers deep, chorded bass foundations massaging the fretboard with tenderness to see what stresses sublimate into the atmosphere, that is, when he's not subtly funking things up. He and Nettles seem joined by a lobe as they share the residence of melody and craftily structured harmonies, always spontaneous yet fitting. Patton's drumming is at once immpecably tight and full of quiet personality. Cymbal flourishes, striding hi-hat and snare, and speed metal toms and bass drum combos make a sturdy framework for the others' lyrical musings.

The album's cover paints little circular windows into the heads of these innovative musicians, sonic construction workers who rely upon very few fandangled materials; except for Dan Nettles' effortlessly layered loops, the building blocks are the same that Wes Montgomery used, the same as Max Roach or Bill Frisell or Mingus. Ample stage time, too, has done Kenosha Kid and their listeners an epic service: superb communication, generosity, skill and joy blend together then emerge as the transcendental Land of Obey. Find your own path there -- they've flung the gate wide open!

KenoshaKid.com - Preview . Purchase.

Nowtrecords.org - Listen . Explore . Expand your scope.

Burma VJ ~ Another Secret Worth Exposing

DVD Review
BurmaVJ: Reporting From a Closed Country
Another Secret Worth Exposing by Alexander Tank
July, 28 2010

Generally, the Academy Awards ‘Documentary Feature’ category comprises an intriguing and often highly entertaining cross-section of the world’s most fascinating narratives. This year’s winner, The Cove, let viewers into a secretive world of animal abuses and the vying parties who respectively seek to conceal or expose the heinous, brutal crimes, in this case against wild bottlenose dolphins. Despite The Cove’s ultra-high production values and engaging, spy thriller plot lines, another film in this category deserved the international attention that only an Oscar can provide: the risk-taking political reportage and the breathtaking bravery of protesters in BurmaVJ by Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller.

Whether it’s called Burma or Myanmar, the oppressive military regime ironically named the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has quietly cultivated an environment of political repression since seizing power after violently crushing a student uprising in 1988. The gripping film is narrated by the founder of a street journalism collective, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), appearing in the film under the alias “Joshua”. For most of the film, Joshua communicates with a team of street journalists armed with only video cameras and their remarkable courage. Cleverly concealing their cameras, their ultimate weapons to expose the military junta, the video journalists covertly document what has become known as the “Saffron Uprising” beginning in August of 2007 as a response to rapidly rising fuel costs brought on, after decades of oppression, by the government’s removal of protective subsidies.

The protests continue into the fall, and as students and demonstrators for the opposition are arrested and detained, throngs of Buddhist monks, voicing messages of peace and kindness in their billowing traditional saffron robes, join the non-violent effort to loosen the SPDC’s suffocating grasp on the lives of the Burmese people. With Nobel Prize winning democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi sequestered in a heavily guarded compound, the monks gradually escalate their protest and are quickly joined by students and the Burmese citizenry, all under the watchful eye of the junta’s generals via soldiers and plainclothes police in the streets. Over the course of days, a Buddhist monastery is raided by government agents and tens of monks are arrested in the bloody, repressive sweep. The mass of the uprising only increases as the daily protests gain momentum.

All the while, the DVB’s video journalists bravely capture the tumultuous and disturbing events on film. The internet, too, is a major player in the story as journalist leader Joshua works to disseminate the shocking images from a temporary outpost in neighboring Thailand. When a Japanese journalist is killed while filming the people’s peaceful revolt, that video is also leaked to the global media and the government’s taut cover of silence is temporarily broken, but the fight to spread the truth about the SPDC continues even under mortal threat to the video journalists and the protesters they capture on camera.

Despite its ramifications, with its documented human rights abuses and egregious military repression, BurmaVJ was passed over for an Academy Award in favor of a story about animal rights. This is perhaps the most telling aspect of 2009’s Oscar cycle: While important in its own right, a film about dolphins prevailed over a film about people whose lives and livelihoods are daily threatened by a violent and secretive military regime that actively engages in fervent censorship, keeping this unbelievably important secret from the rest of the world. Joshua and the DVB’s VJ’s, the Buddhist monks, and the Burmese people deserve for their story to be known and BurmaVJ is the ultimate conveyance for their ongoing struggle.

photo courtesy of lib.hku.hk

Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country - the official site

Free The VJ's - take action

NY Times take on Burma VJ - review with interviews, by John Anderson