Synopsis
The port of Dala on the banks of the Yangon river in Myanmar is a final destination for old boats. This short documentary unobtrusively observes the hazardous, backbreaking work of a group of boat wreckers as they go hammer and tong at these old hulks, tearing them apart under the hot sun – often with their bare hands – for a meagre wage.
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Credits
Director: Kaung Swan Thar
Camera: Yan Paing Htun
Sound Recordist: Paing Aung
Editor: Zin Mar Oo
Project Mentor: Nwaye Zar Che Soe
Editing Mentor: Melanie Sandford
Music by Skaila Kanga
Categories
Documentary, Society, Health, History, Work, Environment/Climate Change
Technical Details
Duration: 18‘43‘‘
16:9 Anamorphic
DVD PAL
English Subtitles
2021
Director's Biography
Kaung Swan Thar was born in Thanlyin on the other side of the Bago river from Yangon in 1997. He took up studies in history at Yangon’s Eastern University in 2019 but his desire to use images to tell stories has since drawn him to photography and, in 2020, he started training in filmmaking at YFS. An alumnus of the Yangon Photo Festival, his 2017 photo-story ‘Underground Lives’ portrays the people who live underneath railway workers’ dwellings. Dala Boatbreakers (2021), his first film as a director, was honoured by being selected for the prestigious ethnographic film Festival Jean Rouch in Paris. He has since made two more documentaries, one about a punk musician who helps run a soup kitchen and the other Pilikan – A Hindu Temple in Thanlyin in Myanmar.
Awards & Nominations
Director's Filmography
Director
18‘43‘‘
