May Thyn KYI
Every year, thousands of young people flock to Yangon from Myanmar¡¯s rural dry zone to work in the factories that have sprung up on the outskirts of the country¡¯s former capital. Ma Nwet Yin Win is one of them. She and her sister left their home on an alluvial island in the Ayeyarwaddy River twenty years ago. Climate change has made life there difficult, but fighting for workers¡¯ rights in Yangon is no less daunting.
Ma Nwet Yin Win, aged 17, left the rural area that is devastated due to the climate change and came to Yangon. In the city¡¯s factory, she experiences yet another devastation. Desolate desert and the crowded city filled with people struggling with labor, all day, are two different yet co-existing types of devastation. Ma Nwet Yin Win resists back to the devastated environment of city laborers by participating in the labor union. Because of this, she was let go from work and can no longer send money to her home. However, with calm eyes and tidy look, Ma Nwet Yin Win cleans, makes meals, works on computer, helps out with farming, and ties the red headband at the strike site. The scene of city strike transitions into her hometown, a cracked land brought on by the draught. Ma Nwet Yin Win misses home but the union activity is her calling. The two activities, the strike that brings change at the factory and enriching the cracked land, come across each other in Ma Nwet Yin Win who organizes herself for a better life.
May Thyn KYI
May Thyn Kyi was born in Yangon. Frustrated by constraints for women working in journalism, she left reporting and announcing jobs at the Eleven Media Group and Mandalay FM to instead work in communications for the Rainfall Feminist Organization. Since joining YFS in 2020, she has worked on several projects, such as fellow student Mai Aik Yunn¡¯s A Boy with Dreams. Shifting Sands is her directing debut.