City of Jade

TAIWAN, MYANMAR / 2016 / Burmese, Chinese (Yunnan dialect) / Color / Blu-ray / 99 min

Director: Midi Z
Script: Midi Z, Wu Pei-Chi
Photography: Midi Z, Wang Fu-Ang
Editors: Midi Z, Lin Sheng-Wen
Executive Producer: Jessie Shih
Producers: Wang Shin-Hong, Midi Z, Isabella Ho, Lin Sheng-Wen
Production Company, Source: Seashore Image Productions (Isabella Ho)

The director narrates the history of his own family while filming his brother and fellow jade miners as they work in Kachin, Myanmar. His mother and grandfather were arrested for drug use, and his brother also spent time in jail for drugs. Reuniting with his brother after sixteen years, the director joins him as he goes to the mine. Filming took pace in the middle of the intermittent warring between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army. Through episodes such as the confiscation of machines and scooters, the film tells the story of the current social conditions of Myanmar, alongside the director’s heavyhearted rendering of his ambivalent feelings towards his brother.