Friends in High Places

by Lindsey Merrison
color, 88 min, 2001
56 minute version also available

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“Buddhism and nat worship are like mangoes and bananas”

Whether contending with a deceitful daughter-in-law, forecasting financial prospects for a tea shop, or freeing a husband from government detainment, Friends in High Places reveals the central role of nats and spirit mediums in alleviating the day to day burdens of modern Burmese life.

“Leprosy isn’t as contagious as people’s problems,” notes one medium, “my clients bring their worries into my home. I don’t need to go out on the street to learn how cruel life can be.” Yet despite their skills in channeling good luck for others, the life stories of the mediums prove to be as poignant as the stories of those who seek their assistance.

Just as nats lie somewhere on the spectrum between mortals and the divine, the gay men who serve as primary conduits for the nat spirits are considered to be neither male nor female. Regarded by society with a curious mix of disdain and reverence, the male mediums profiled in this film – ranging from the gentle, melancholy “Lady Silver Wings” to the hard drinking, ego-driven “Mr. Famous” – illustrate the special niche granted to gay men in Burmese society.

Exquisite footage accentuates Lindsey Merrison’s keen eye for nuance as she takes the viewer on a journey examining the extremes that define Burmese spirit mediums and their way of life. Deceit and artistry, tragedy and comedy, faith and cynicism – in a country known both as a 2,500 year bastion of Buddhism and more recently for its legacy of political corruption and instability, the world of the nat becomes an analogy for the many unusual juxtapositions within Burma itself.

Awards and screenings:
>Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Scientific Documentary, XV Parnu Film Festival, Estonia 2001
Official Selection, Visions du Reel, Nyon Switzerland, 2001
10th Brisbane International Film Festival, 2001
Margaret Mead International Film Festival, NYC, 2001 Touring Festival Selection, 2002
Berlin International Film Festival, 2002
Outfest, Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, 2002
Montreal International Queer Film and Video Festival, September 2002

Review
Variety: Friends in High Places
(Docu -- Germany-Switzerland)

A Lindsey Merrison Film (Berlin)/Dschoint Ventschr (Zurich) production, in association with Arte/WDR (Cologne), DRS (Zurich), YLE (Helsinki), NRK (Oslo) and SBS (Sydney). (International sales: Documentary Educational Resources, Watertown, N.Y.) Produced, directed by Lindsey Morrison.

By EDDIE COCKRELL
Having examined the strong Anglo-Burmese heritage suppressed by her mother in 1996 debut "Our Burmese Days," helmer Lindsey Merrison journeys deeper into the contempo society of Myanmar (as country's been known for past dozen years) in lively, colorful docu "Friends in High Places." Story of flamboyant mediums and the cult that's sprung up around them has already nabbed one ethnographic fest prize and will garner more praise on the circuit before vigorous tube and ancillary life.

Pic examines influential role of the "nat" in the lives of the Burmese. These mediums, once predominately older ladies, are now primarily gay men known as "nat kadaw." For a repressed population that's some 80% Buddhist in a dictator-controlled society where unburdening oneself to a stranger is considered shameful and scandalous, these sassy, assertive, almost supernatural figures -- part fortune teller, carnival barker, and cabaret artist -- have become a primary source of solace and inspiration. "If there is Buddha," says one of the two older Burmese women narrators Merrison uses as unofficial guides, "there must be nats."

Though off-camera throughout (and heard asking questions only fleetingly), Merrison can barely contain her glee at the spectacle of these gaudy figures, who go by such names as Mr. Famous and Lady Silver Wings. Whether advising prayer to recover lost money or providing intricate instructions designed to garner success and fortune, the nats and the elaborate trappings surrounding them and their often eccentric ceremonies put most Western TV hucksters to shame. Confides one, on the booming nature of his business: "Leprosy isn't as contagious as people's problems."

Tech credits are lush, with Lars Barthel's smooth, perceptive 35mm lensing in the capital of Yangon never hinting that filming was done entirely on the sly, with no permits. A 58-minute cut of pic, prepped for tube play, also screened in the Berlin fest market.

Camera (color), Lars Barthel; editor, Stewart Young; music, U Sein Kala Hsaing, Waing Ensemble; sound (Dolby Digital), Marc von Stuerler, Annegret Fricke. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 17, 2002. Running time: 89 MIN.

© 2001 Cahners Business Information © 2001 Variety, Inc.

Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards
Official Selection, Visions du Reel, Nyon, Switzerland, 2001
Prize for Outstanding Ethnographic Documentary, 15. Parnu Documentary Film Festival, Estonia, 2001
10th Brisbane International Film Festival, 2001
Cork Film Festival, Ireland, 2001
Margaret Mead Festival, New York, 2001
Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California, 2002
Berlin International Film Festival, 2002
Singapore International Film Festival, 2002
Beeld voor Beeld Film Festival, Amsterdam, 2002
Bilan du film ethnographique, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, 2002
One World Film Festival, Prague, 2002
Turin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 2002
Göttingen International Film Festival, Germany, 2002
Pink Apple Film Festival, Zurich, 2002
The New Festival, New York, 2002
Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, 2002
Cinemanila, Philippines, 2002
Bangkok International Film Festival, 2002
San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, 2002
Outfest, Los Angeles, 2002
MixBrazil, Sao Paolo, 2002
Image + Nation, Montreal's Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, 2002
Madrid Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, 2002
Kalamata International Documentary Film Festival, Greece, 2002
Award of Commendation, Society for Visual Anthropology, American Anthropological Association Screening Program, 2002
Astra Film Festival, Romania, 2002
Asiaticafilmmediale, Rome, 2002
Pennsylvania Film Festival, 2002
Ljubljana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Slovenia, 2002
Forumdoc.bh.2002
Documentary & Ethnographic Film Festival of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2003
Northeastern Anthropological Association Film Festival, Burlington, Vermont, 2003
Brussels Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, 2003
8th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, London, 2003
Pride International Film Festival, Philippines, 2003
Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, New York, 2003

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