but bbc burmese does have a team on the ground in yangon and there are very brave freelance journalists that we work with across the country, who are in areas, that can film for us, so often using mobile phones. other times we re able to get things like gopros, little cameras that people can use to send video diaries. the threat of jail time is very real. and then the stories that we re hearing from those jails are horrific. stories of torture, abuse, terrible conditions. and then the military has also carried out death sentences against activists, people that they deem are against them. and you yourself have travelled to the border areas of thailand, haven t you, in order to make these films? we went to the nearest places where we could report freely,
on the evacuation flights but was forced to stay behind, to care for his elderly parents who were too infirm to leave. his name is tariq babikeer, and he has been sending us these daily video diaries of life in the city. it s its may two. carnage is still ongoing. people are robbing warehouses for essentials. sugar, wheat, etc no cooking oil, wheat, sugar. of the bags of sugar and wheat, it s been robbed from that warehouse in the back. gunfire
because of that tape. all because it was caught on camera. it was on the news around the world. and when the police were acquitted, lajust exploded in riots and for, like, several days, it was like a huge reality show. it was like the world had gone sort of television. and you had the same thing with oj, when he fled down the freeway from well, pursued by cameras and helicopters and everything. that was another kind of weirdly, mmm, life as a reality show, i suppose. and after rodney king s beating, you gave out cameras to people in south central la. mmm. was that transforming the way that technology was transforming the way you could tell stories, or the stories that were getting on tv? it was. but to be honest, it was that idea came from the bbc, the bbc community programme unit. jeremy gibson and robin gutch was doing a series that was very successful in the uk called video diaries and people
but to be honest, it was that idea came from the bbc, the bbc community programme unit. jeremy gibson and robin gutch was doing a series that was very successful in the uk called video diaries and people would be given a video camera and tell their story, and when the la riots happened, and because they had happened because of this tape, this rodney king tape, randy and i thought, well, what if we did a kind of mass video diary exercise, where we gave cameras to lots of different people in la to tell their stories? so, really, it was an idea that began with it and that actually run on the bbc. it was called la stories. la stories, yes. you know, you left the uk for america, as you mentioned, and you went to film school in america, in new york. i did an interview with donna langley, who s the chairman of universal pictures, last year, and she was saying she very much felt at about the same age as you,
jeremy gibson and robin gutch was doing a series that was very successful in the uk called video diaries and people would be given a video camera and tell their story, and when the la riots happened, and because they had happened because of this tape, this rodney king tape, randy and i thought, well, what if we did a kind of mass video diary exercise, where we gave cameras to lots of different people in la to tell their stories? so, really, it was an idea that began with it and that actually run on the bbc. it was called la stories. la stories, yes. you know, you left the uk for america, as you mentioned, and you went to film school in america, in new york. i did an interview with donna langley, who s the chairman of universal pictures, last year, and she was saying she very much felt at about the same age as you, i think that she needed to leave britain to make a success of herself and to, you know, do the things she wanted to do. did you feel the same way? idid. i felt that