Filmed shortly after Burma threw off the colonial yolk and gained independence in 1948, an American educational video on the nation ends on an optimistic note.
Describing its diversity of cultures and people, the narrator finishes, “…all are uniting in the work of building the new nation of Burma into a strong and stable country, able to provide a better life for its people and take its place among the other growing new nations of Southeast Asia.”
These nations would rise from the ashes of the Second World War, but for Burma a military dictatorship would cut short its flourishing, bringing in decades of suppression and isolation.
Even more reason, then, to enjoy the short, broad Burma documentary that was recently posted on Facebook by archives page Myanmar Old Photos.
The clip looks at Burma's “two broad natural highways”—the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers—at riparian life, river boats, handicrafts and local food. It visits a market near the Shan town of Kengtung where fish is boiled in fat and men dance with knives.
Heading south, mahouts and their elephants are shown at the “world’s largest teak mill” before the camera switches to Rangoon’s busy airport and port.
