Born in Yangon in 1976 Aung Ko Ko gave up his psychology degree to concentrate on photography. A computer design graduate from the University of Culture, he joined the Yangon Film School in 2005. From the outset, Aung Ko Ko’s camerawork on Yangon Film School productions such as Peace of Mind has displayed a strong cinematic eye. His first work as a director in his own right was this sensitive portrait of a young Myanmar kickboxer Into the Ring which won him a Heinrich Boell Foundation Documentary Award in 2007. He has since worked as director or cinematographer on a number of productions, including an emotional film about a UN Cares programme of workshops on HIV in Myanmar entitled Stigmatize This! which he also edited.