Philip Jablon has a really nice DVB piece on Myanmar’s fading cinemas. He notes that between independence in 1948 and Ne Win’s coup in 1962, picture houses were built in record numbers. In Rangoon, the junction of Bogyoke Aung San Road and Sule Pagoda Road at one time saw 14 movie theatres stretch away in the four different directions. Moreover, the city for years boasted major studios such as A1, British Burma and New Burma producing some of the best films in Southeast Asia. In a non-aligned nation, they jockeyed for position with output from all over the world. “Domestic productions aside, a trip to a cinema hall in the 1950’s could have been spent watching a film from India, China, the Soviet Union, Singapore, Japan, Britain or, of course, the standard Hollywood fare.” In the 1960s, the range of movies on show declined considerably as Burma cut itself off from the world, and attendances started to fall too. In a non-developing country, though, many cinemas survived. The chances are that will now change. Jablon’s article contains many lovely photos of the theatres that may soon be lost.