UTAH FILM CENTER TO HOST BURMESE HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE BO KYI AND A SCREENING OF "INTO THE CURRENT" AS PART OF NATIONAL TOUR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 9, 2012

For more information: Levi Elder - 801.746.7000 // lelder@utahfilmcenter.org

UTAH FILM CENTER TO HOST BURMESE HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE BO KYI AND A SCREENING OF

INTO THE CURRENT AS PART OF NATIONAL TOUR

Salt Lake City, UT – Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and co-founder of the internationally respected organization Assistance Association for Political Prisoners–Burma (AAPP-B), comes to Salt Lake City as part of a US campaign tour to raise awareness on the political prisoner situation in Burma and to launch the acclaimed film INTO THE CURRENT: BURMA'S POLITICAL PRISONERS.  The Salt Lake City event is on Tuesday, March 20 at 7:00 pm at The City Library (210 E. 400 S.). Bo Kyi will introduce the film and participate in a moderated Q+A with Troy Williams, Public Affairs Director at KRCL. More information about the film and the screening are available at www.utahfilmcenter.org. The event is presented in partnership with Burma Humanitarian Mission.

The month-long campaign tour will include events and appearances in many cities and on university campuses across the US. The kick-off event will be held March 10, 2012 in Oakland, CA as part of the annual Burma Human Rights Day.

Bo Kyi received the Freedom and Human Rights Award (2011) and the Human Rights Watch Alison Des Forges Defender Award (2009) for his “extraordinary activism and heroic efforts.” He spent over seven years in Burma’s prisons for his pro-democracy activities.

He is co-founder of AAPP-B, an organization on the Thai-Burma border that documents prison conditions and the oppression against activists, advocates for the release of political prisoners, and provides valuable support to families of imprisoned loved ones. These political prisoners, who never should have been imprisoned in the first place, are serving longer-than-life sentences for exercising their most basic universal freedoms.

INTO THE CURRENT: BURMA'S POLITICAL PRISONERS, directed by Jeanne Hallacy, is a moving film that sheds light on Burma's unsung heroes – its political prisoners – and the price they’ve paid for speaking their truth under the powers of a military regime. The film is a co-production with the Democratic Voice of Burma and features Bo Kyi’s work to free all political prisoners in Burma while striving to deepen the understanding of their role as political leaders.

During the tour, Bo Kyi will address the essential role political prisoners have to play in Burma’s burgeoning democracy movement and in national unity, as well as the sincerity of the recent rapid-fire changes that have taken place in Burma, including a substantial release of high-profile political prisoners on January 13, 2012. He will elaborate on what is needed to solidify these changes and genuinely move Burma towards a sustainable democracy.

This film is part of the Utah Film Center’s FILMS WITHOUT BORDERS series, which is generously sponsored by the Lawrence T. Dee and Janet T. Dee Foundation, the Marriner S. Eccles Foundation, eBay Foundation, and the Salt Lake City Arts Council. Utah Film Center programs are made possible by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Rio Tinto, Salt Lake County’s Zoo, Arts and Parks Program, Sorenson Legacy Foundation, the Swartz Foundation, and Zions Bank.

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