Silent Hopes: Documentary Film About Long Neck Karen People

We produced this documentary film for the University graduating workshop. The "Silent Hopes" is about Long Neck Karen people who are living in Mae Hong Son, the Northern Party of Thailand. Long Neck Karen are also called "Padaung" People. Padaung is a sub-group of Karen living in Kayar State of Myanmar. Population is approximately 30,000 people. In late 1980s and early 1990s, some Padaung started moving into the north party of Thailand by crossing Thai-Myanmar Border because of political turmoil in Myanmar. Initially, they stayed in the refugee camps together with other ethnic refugees who fleet from Myanmar. The one prominent tradition of Padaung is that Padaung women wear brass rings around their necks since they are at the age of 5 to 9. They become a tourist attraction for Thailand because of this prominent traditional custom. Thai authorities built artificial villages for them to promote tourism business in Mae Hong Son area, northern part of Thailand. Then, Padaung were moved to those artificial villages from refugee camps. However, Padaung has no access to utilities such as electricity, road, health care and schools for education.

We visited Padaung Villages in Mae Hong Son which is located 924 kilometres from Bangkok, Thailand. Then, we did this 15 minutes long documentary file by using two Canon 7D DSLR cameras. You will see the life, culture, hopes and difficulties of Padaung People in this video.

Video Length: 15 minutes
Language: Burmese and Thai