Punx Not Dead: Yangon Calling – Punk in Myanmar

London’s punk attitude and spirit has spread far and wide since 1976. This award-winning documentary explores its recent manifestation in Burma, a society insulated from the majority of the west’s cultural influence.

In the 1990s, sailors brought the first punk rock cassettes into the isolated Southeast Asian country. Since then a scene with several hundred followers has emerged in Yangon, the country’s largest city. Yangon Calling – Punk in Myanmar introduces the main protagonists of the punk scene and shows their life in Myanmar’s underground. During six weeks, filmmakers Alexander Dluzak and Carsten Piefke filmed secretly and without authorisation in Yangon, using small cameras. They accompanied the punks to their homes and to their work in tailors’ shops and tattoo studios, to rehearsal rooms and secret illegal concerts. They spoke with punks who had been jailed during the military dictatorship and saw them numb their anger with heroin. This is a film about life in an authoritarian state, about personal tragedy and the struggle for freedom in a country where punk still represents true rebellion!

Presented by Doc´n Roll Film Festival as part of Sounds of London, a three month, fourteen film cinematic celebration of the capital’s rich and rebellious musical heritage. Part of Punk.London - 40 years of subversive culture.

Part of Britain on Film, this event is supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London and proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network funded by the National Lottery.

Yangon Calling: Burmese Punk, dir. Alexander Dluzak and Carsten Piefke, Germany/Myanmar 2014, 61 mins