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SUMMARY • Melodies ring throughout the streets of Yangon. From female monks giving blessings, to the singing of a street vendor selling sweet drinks, or a bus driver belting out the stops - the city hums with music.
MULTIMEDIA
Photos At Flickr • flic.kr/s/aHsktq3BjC
At YouTube • youtu.be/YY9mbXeZZNo
STORY
Many of vendors in Yangon still use an ancient tool to advertise their goods and services - their voice. This short film highlights a handful of people communicating with the public through song. Two female monks walk the streets asking in song for food. At a bus stop, a ticket salesmen melodically calls out where his busses are going. A young man cries out in quiet residential streets, offering to buy old mattresses. Then there are the songs of drinks vendors and broom salesmen.
INTERVIEW WITH RYAN ANDERSON (DIRECTOR)
“My ears perked up when I was walking through Yangon’s side streets. I kept hearing sounds - songs and calls - which have died out a long time ago in most other parts of the world. I heard the music of people communicating, selling, through song. Isn’t it odd to think that at one time, humans around the world advertised their goods and services using just with the power of their voice? In particular, the young mattress vendor, he had such a clear powerful voice. He could compete with any young person studying opera at a music conservatory. And the vendors in Yangon, they have to sing. If they were to shout all day, they’d grow horse and loose their voices. I went back to my hotel and told the receptionist about my discovery and she was like, “Oh yeah, the mattress song? I know that song. It goes like this…”.
OXLAEY MEDIA
OXLAEY creates short films, photographs, audio recordings – all with the aim of documenting our world’s cultural heritage. Led by Ryan Anderson, OXLAEY is a team of media professionals working together to create top-quality travel multimedia that entertains while preserving our cultural history.
The planet doesn’t have to be a lonely. There are countless people waiting to tell their stories. Unfortunately, corporate media only churns out “top ten” travel lists with glossy pictures. OXLAEY represents the opposite approach: Travel media focused on people and their stories from around the world. OXLAEY gives a voice who those who otherwise wouldn’t be seen or heard. After all, isn’t the aim of exploring, to learn from people with lives different than our own? Isn’t the goal of traveling to experience an unfamiliar lifestyle? OXLAEY creates travel media for modern explorers - not for lonely tourists.
All OXLAEY multimedia is shared for free on the internet under a Creative Commons license. OXLAEY is a not-for-profit project.