Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

Proudly from the land of temples and tea leaves, Myanmar.

​Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing has worked as a freelance filmmaker in Myanmar since 2006, acting as director, producer, editor, and sound recordist after attending film schools in both Myanmar and Germany. Her documentary short Burmese Butterfly played festivals in more than 20 countries, including Sheffield Film Fest, and her experimental film, PERIOD@PERIOD won for Best Short at the Wathann Film Festival. Midwives is her feature documentary debut. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and won the Excellence In Verité Filmmaking World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award. Midwives won the best film award at the 2022 One World Human Rights Film Festival in Prague. Midwives on Asian Competition Grand Prize and Next Award at DMZ International Film Festival.

After completing my studies at the Yangon Film School, and attending the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany) Exchange Student, I started working as a freelance filmmaker both in Myanmar and internationally.

Since 2006, when the country was still under the military regime, I've been involved in many documentaries as director, producer, editor, and sound recordist. These projects focused on a number of politically and socially sensitive topics which include acute poverty, human trafficking, monastic education, HIV/AIDS treatment and care, LGBT rights or women empowerment.

For seven years I worked at the Yangon Film School in Myanmar, mentoring the students while assisting as director and editor for their filmmaking projects. Some of these films and documentaries have played an important role in our countries current political change, while we found ourselves in a remarkable democratic transition.