Sai Naw Kham grew up in Tangyan Township in Myanmar’s northern Shan State. Moving to Yangon in 2007, he first studied chemistry and worked as an editor for Charr Music Production. He made his first foray into directing in 2014 during his first year at Yangon Film School with The Crocodile Creek, a short film which merged myth and memory to explore present-day environmental issues in Myanmar’s Yangon River. For 32 Souls (YFS, 2015), he travelled to his native Shan to portray one woman’s memories in this war-torn part of Myanmar. Following its international premiere at DOK Leipzig in 2016, this film went on to screen to acclaim at festivals in Korea and Nepal. In 2015, he was cinematographer on the YFS short fiction film, Book Lover, and in 2020 he directed The Forgotten Voices of the Mekong as part of an anthology of short films entitled ‘Mekong 2030’. Song of Souls is his first feature-length documentary and secured a world premiere at the prestigious Sheffield DocFest in 2023.