Prominent Myanmar filmmaker and ex-political prisoner Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi dies at 64

Mizzima

Acclaimed filmmaker, poet, and human rights activist Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi passed away on Tuesday morning following a battle with liver cancer. He was 64 years old.

“In accordance with his family’s wishes, a quiet and brief funeral service was held at midday at Yangon’s Yay Way Cemetery,” a prominent writer, Thitsa Ni, shared on social media. The ceremony was conducted peacefully, with a small group of close literary and artistic peers attending to pay their final respects.

Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi was widely recognized as a pioneering cultural figure in Myanmar, utilizing cinema to document systemic human rights struggles and advocate for democratic reforms.

He was an influential mentor to a generation of young filmmakers. He served as a core founder of the Human Rights and Human Dignity International Film Festival, which provided a rare platform for social-justice filmmaking during Myanmar’s decade of partial democratic transition.

His commitment to political reform made him a repeated target of state authorities. In 2019, under the National League for Democracy (NLD) administration, he was arrested and imprisoned for publishing social media posts that criticized the military’s role in politics and advocated for amending the military-drafted 2008 Constitution.

Following the February 2021 military coup, he was arrested again by the junta under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code for incitement. He received a two-year prison sentence before being released during a mass amnesty in November 2022.

The filmmaker had been quietly battling deteriorating health in recent months, a struggle he poignantly noted in his final public social media post on 17 May, writing, “I have been away from Facebook for a while due to health reasons. The sad part is that almost no one noticed it.”

Following the announcement of his passing, Myanmar’s artistic, activist, and student communities have widely shared online tributes honouring his legacy of creative resistance and lifelong dedication to human rights.