The Courageous Filmmakers of Sundance Award-winning Documentary MIDWIVES
by Llewelyn Jang
Director Snow Hnin El Hlaing and producer Mila Aung-Thwin sat down with us to discuss Hlaing’s new film, Midwives. Hlaing’s film, depicting the lives of two midwives running a clinic in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Hlaing won a Sundance award, and her film has been immediately picked up by PBS’ “POV.”
Midwives tells the story of Hla and Nyo Nyo. Within Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Rohingya Muslims have been subject to persecution by the Buddhist government for some decades. A 2016 conflict between the Rakhine Army and the Myanmar military resulted in the increased oppression of Muslims and heightened tensions between Muslims and Buddhists. Hla and Nyo Nyo come from opposing religious and political backgrounds, being Buddhist and Muslim, respectively. Despite the divide within Myanmar, they live and work together in a clinic to provide healthcare for Muslims and Buddhists alike in a predominantly Buddhist region.
Midwives is Snow Hlaing’s directing debut, although her first venture into filmmaking came right after high school when she participated in a one-year computer art training program. There, she was exposed to the intricacies of filmmaking, and after she finished at age 18, she began working to kickstart a Burmese television station called MRTV-4. Three years later, she attended Yangon film school to learn documentary filmmaking and met Mila Aung-Thwin, who was with her on the journey to finish the film and helped produce it.
When she was younger, Snow Hlaing lived in Myanmar; her roots were close to the Rakhine state, where she often visited her grandparents as a young girl. She remembers the Muslim and Buddhist communities being friendly with one another. After a Rohingya conflict that caused Muslims to leave the country, Hlaing learned of the 60,000 Muslims who still lived in the majority Buddhist community. Her curiosity about the changing tensions in her hometown led her to film a documentary of two people, one of Muslim background and one of Buddhist background, living in that region. She maintained that the documentary had to tell the story of two midwives. After two days of traveling, she met Hla and Nyo Nyo and immediately knew she wanted to tell their story. Nyo Nyo is a Muslim who has ambitions to provide healthcare for Muslims who cannot receive help elsewhere. Unlike many Muslim women in the area, she is educated. She uses her knowledge and kindness to provide for others. Hla is a Buddhist who runs the clinic in the Rakhine state. She faces backlash from her own neighbors who do not believe she should be treating Muslims. She, herself, is not trusting or respectful of Nyo Nyo at first, as she is subject to anti-Muslim propaganda. However, throughout the film, her views shift as her relationship with Nyo Nyo does.
In Hlaing’s first three years of filming in the area, she filmed independently, often with a small camera or iPhone. Locals were uncomfortable with the cameras at first, afraid that she would sell videos to news outlets. Aside from the discomfort, it was a dangerous job. While she documented their lives and got to know Hla and Nyo Nyo as people, Hlaing had to stay hidden. When walking by soldiers, she wore a Muslim shawl, and she didn’t stay with her family to keep them safe. She lived in a hostel, making friends with locals and keeping cover with the help of Hla and Nyo Nyo. During the second to third year of her filming process, Hlaing met Mila Aung-Thwin when she was assigned as his co-director teacher for a class he was teaching. Aung-Thwin was leading a year-long beginners documentary course at Yangon Filmschool, and he was searching for an opportunity to make a film in Rakhine State. When Hlaing shared the film she was working on, Aung-Thwin immediately offered his help.
After three years of filming, another conflict between the Rahkine Army and the Myanmar military pushed the soldiers from the village, allowing Hlaing and Aung-Thwin to bring their crew to help them film.
After five years in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, Hlaing and her team reviewed and edited the footage to transfer her vision into a finished moving masterpiece. Midwives was released at Sundance’s 2022 Film Festival. It was awarded the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence In Verité Filmmaking, as it highlighted the struggles of people surviving in a state plagued with militaristic division.
As she closed out the interview, Hlaing shared her advice to future storytellers: “[If] you really know what you really want, so please go ahead and don't give in and please trust in your story and believe in yourself.” Aung-Thwin’s advice for future storytellers was to learn the art of collaboration; finding the balance between self-confidence and working with others is key to making art.
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