Directed by Anders Østergaard, a Danish filmmaker, Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a documentary that has as its main substance video footage recorded and smuggled out of the country by Burmese pro-democracy activists. The narrator, Joshua, is the central activist, and the period of time he covers is between August and September of 2007. At this moment in time (2007), there was a surge of protests against the oppressive military junta, which even to this day holds the legitimate leader of the country, the eternally beautiful Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest. Instigated by a sudden hike in fuel prices, the uprising was led by monks and ended with lots of arrests and blood on the streets of Rangoon. What makes the documentary important is its connection with the recent protests in Iran. The protestors and activists in both countries utilized new technologies to communicate with the rest of the world. In the case of Iran, it was Twitter; in the case of Burma, it was small digital cameras. Be it for the bad reasons (9/11) or for the good ones (Burma), consumer products and services are the weapons of the 21st century.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...