Blood Amber is an arthouse observational documentary about the everyday work and life of amber miners in Burma (Myanmar). As some of us noted after watching the film, it gives you a sense of “really being there”. The whole film takes place in and around just one small mining camp—among hundreds of such mining camps in a forest in the Hukawng Valley in the mid-2010s amid a simmering war.
An interview scene in the film. Credit: LEE Yong-chao.
Among our viewers, the film started conversations about the livelihood struggles of people in Burma, gender, migration, ethnicity, religion, and the mining landscape, as well as comparisons with amber extraction sites in Lebanon, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
Everyone can request to view the film online here: https://docs.tfai.org.tw/en/film/5092.