Learning about, borrowing from, and copying established work to make a new product is a fundamental part of the creative industries. Motion pictures explicitly based on previous releases are called remakes. In an industry which sometimes privileges auteurship and creativity, yet has a business model that depends on mass appeal and established conventions, the production of the remake, and its possibilities for contestation present fruitful fodder in the exploration of the motion picture as art/spectacle/commodity. Burmese cinematic remakes of popular stories, novels as well as international films have been integral to the industry since its earliest years. Following a theoretical overview of the remake, its contestations, as well as its centrality to the motion picture business model, this talk will consider the meaning of the remake in Burma in the parliamentary democracy years (1948-1962). Then, turning to the socialist era (1962-1988) it will explore the remake as a cultural bellwether for Burmese engagement with global cinema.
Jane M. Ferguson is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Southeast Asian History at the Australian National University. She is the author of Silver Screens and Golden Dreams: A Social History of Burmese Cinema (University of Hawaii Press, 2025).
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