Los Angeles Filmmaker Films at War-Torn Thailand-Burma Border to Tell an Untold Story

Filmmaker Dylan Chow in Stanton, Calif., on June 20, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

As Los Angeles filmmaker Dylan Chow and his film crew of 30 worked in the mine-riddled jungles of the Thailand-Burma border in 102-degree heat this past April, occasional gunfire could be heard in the distance as forces of Burma’s military dictatorship fought rebel groups.

“I went there to make a film and be a witness for my people who are trapped and suffering right now,” Chow told The Epoch Times. “You see so much suffering, but no one including reporters are telling this story, so I knew last year that it was time to get this film going.”

On February 1, 2021, government officials of Burma’s democratically-elected National League for Democracy were ousted in a coup d’état staged by Burma’s military, resulting in thousands of deaths and detentions in what the United States State Department has called a “political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.”

As native of Burma, Chow said his calling to create the film started in 2006 when he was an actor.

Almost a decade later, he founded his film production company Innlay Production, and along the way he developed a passion for screenwriting, which he used to write the script of his upcoming 80-minute film “Zoomers.”

Set photography of film production "Zoomers" at the Thailand-Burma border. (Courtesy of Dylan Chow)

The film is broken into seven stories based upon true events of Burma’s recent national lockdown by the military dictatorship, and cast with seven actors who fought in resistance units against it.

“It was me and a Burmese friend still in-country who wrote the story to this film over the course of last year,” Chow said.

According to Chow, he started filming in early April and finished after several weeks of production.

While the actors of the film were highly skilled in weaponry and hand to hand combat, none, according to Chow, had any acting skills.

“With our tight budget for ‘Zoomers,’ I only had a small window of time to train them with acting, but they were so willing because they knew that the world needed to see these stories,” he said.

With a budget of slightly over $40,000, Chow fundraised about half that and the rest came from his own pocket.

He said this was a necessary sacrifice along with risking his life as he took the lead of his small crew to film in one of the world’s most geo-politically unstable regions.

“Being the leader of this production, being caught by the Burmese military would have most likely resulted in my imprisonment and death,” he said.

Dylan Chow (C) oversees filming of "Zoomers" at the Thailand-Burma border. (Courtesy of Dylan Chow)

During the four weeks of production, Chow said he acquired skills he never learned in film school, including serving as an on-site counseling for his actors.

“We had Burmese military uniforms that actually brought trauma to our actors who have had combat experiences,” he said.  “The sight of the camouflage would immediately bring them back to their experiences of torture by the Burmese military, along with executions of family members and friends.”

Other added challenges, he said, included filming in low-light settings to capture Burma’s lack of electricity and power the nation is currently facing under hardline military dictatorship. Production discretion was also enacted to not attract unwanted attention.

Additionally, footage was also consistently moved to hidden locations to avoid being discovered by the Burmese military.

“Being caught with footage like ours is a death sentence by the military junta,” he said.

Set photography of film production "Zoomers" at the Thailand-Burma border. (Courtesy of Dylan Chow)

Since his return and completing a rough edit of the film, Chow’s next step is color correcting and sound editing, which, he said, he hopes to have completed by September. From there, he will enter “Zoomers” in several film festivals, including the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and Sundance.

“My team and I have been working hard on this, and I think it was worth all the sacrifices I made in an attempt to get this film before an international audience to see what is going on in Burma right now,” Chow said.

As for the local actors he recruited, some have since claimed refugee status in nations across the world, while others are preparing for another tour of duty fighting in the jungles of Burma.

“I told my father that if I had died while making ‘Zoomers,’ it would have been for my country,” Chow said. “There is no one telling this story, so I am telling it … and now is the time for the world to see it.”