Watch: A Film that Shows the Reality on the Ground
A word from Dr. Mitch:
My friend and professional filmmaker Matt Blauer has been documenting the conflict in Burma for many years. I think his newest film, Hidden in the Trees, is one of his best yet. Yeah, I’m in it — briefly — so the cynic could say that's why I like it so much. But my role is small. I’m hardly the point.
What I love about this is something else. Matt captures the reality of war for us here. The stress, the pain, the quiet tragedies. And those are all very real. But somehow, he also reveals the beauty woven through it. The love. The soul of a people who continue to endure.
Watching it, you don’t just see these things; you feel them.
There is one moment in particular that is very important for me, personally. It holds one of the more profound realizations in my life. For a few minutes, it felt as though the fabric of things had been torn open, and I could hear faint whispers of the Logos raw and clear. What I heard was not the proud blare of empire, nor the machinery of power or force that seems so loud in our world today. Instead, almost to my surprise, it was something meek.
For a moment, the quiet power of love and beauty gently pushed aside my fear and even my capacity for hate. And I only realized it in retrospect. But I suspect I will spend the rest of my life trying to live out that brief encounter, learning, however imperfectly, to echo that language that first spoke the universe into being.
Matt’s film gives me a way to remember that whisper
“For a grandpa.”
It takes me right back to that place. When the bomb hits close, I’m the grandpa they are calling to. I am humbled and deeply thankful for such a precious and rare gift. Now, I want to share that with you.
