BY MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
IPS NEWS AGENCY
BANGKOK — It may have not won an Oscar, but its having been a final contender for the prestigious statue at the U.S. Academy Awards on Mar. 7 has taken ‘Burma VJ' to heights never achieved by previous films depicting the oppression and courage in military-ruled Burma.
‘Burma VJ' was beaten by ‘The Cove', a film about the brutal hunting of dolphins in a Japanese fishing town, for Best Documentary Feature of 2009 at the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and watched by millions of television viewers across the world.
Yet Sunday's disappointment for ‘Burma VJ' comes on the back of the remarkable story behind a documentary that was released in May 2009 in a single theatre in the United States to little applause and few earnings.
