February 1st
PerSo Short

Original Title: 1er Février

Written and directed by: Leïla Macaire and Mo Mo (pseudonyme)

Productor: Angele de Lorme

Graphic and Animations: Alexandre Bertrand

Original soundtrack: Ïto

Sound design and sound mix: Emmanuel Jarrige

Editing: Leila Macaire

Archives images: Mo Mo and Maung Sun

SYNOPSIS

February 1st 2021 : the military staged a coup in the republic of Myanmar. This visual documentary assumes the form of a travel diary, while exploring the reflection towards art, revolution and freedom of two filmmakers, two women (Burmese and French), who have both witnessed the country in a much different light.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

When the military took over the country once again on February 1st 2021, Mo mo (pseudonym) couldn’t even bring herself to think about freedom anymore. She wanted to erase the delirious foretaste of full freedom from her memory. Questions were raised: Are we free alone or together? Does freedom have limits? Coming from different backgrounds as women and as filmmakers, we have both experienced moments of freedom whether wandering alone in foreign lands, familiar places or within solitude. Myanmar, currently known as one of the most unfree and repressed places on earth, offered us blissfulness to some extent. Those moments are vivid to us, just like a diary recording which only exists in our heads. This film is made for the love of being free together. It is an ode to a fight that currently feels lost.