Bangkok Cinema Scene special: 16th Thai Short Film and Video Festival

The 16th Thai Short Film and Video Festival gets underway this week at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, screening some of the best Thai independent and student shorts as well as special programmes of films from all over the world.

It all starts at 5.30pm on Thursday with the local premiere of Ashes, one of the latest by Cannes Palme d'Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Premiered earlier this year on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, the 20-minute experimental work was shot with the retro hand-cranked Lomokino 35mm-film camera. It's politically tinged, with Article 112, the controversial lese majeste law, credited among the "stars". Also in the cast is King Kong, not the giant ape, but Apichatpong's dog.

Other shorts in the opening are Pitch Black Heist, starring Michael Fassbender, which is part of the Bafta shorts package sponsored by the British Council, Thailand, and Il Capo, a look inside an Italian marble quarry that's part of the annual Best of Clermont-Ferrand package from the French short-film fest that's the biggest in the world. The opening night will also feature shorts by French comedy legend Jacques Tati.

One of many special programmes is from Friends Without Borders, a Chiang Mai NGO that works with the migrant community. It includes the latest from director Supamok Silarak, The Assembly of the Samurais, a behind-the-scenes feature documentary on the Friends Without Borders Holding Hands filmmaking workshop that brought together five ethnic filmmakers. It premiered earlier this year at Chiang Mai's Fly Beyond the Barbwire Fence Festival.

The shorts from the workshop will also be shown: Ja Daw's Choices, a romantic drama that's the first film by young Lahu Mo Tha, who is the main subject of The Assembly of the Samurais; A Comb and A Buckle, a family drama by Ja Bue, another young Lahu; Jabo Means the Man of Fortune, an action-drama by Lahu director Maitree Chamroensuksakul; Ta Mu La, a refugee's tale by Saw Shee Keh Sher, a Karen environmental activist and  When the Sky's Color Changes, a comedy by Hmong NGO leader Insree Khampeepanyakul about a district chief who unwittingly travels to a future in which the only safe places on earth are highland villages. Both Ta Mu La and Jabo were prize-winners at the Barbwire fest.

One of the Thai Short Film and Video Festival's annual programmes focuses on "queer" shorts, which this year takes a tuneful twist with Queer Musical! The programme offers five shorts focusing: Skallamann by Maria Bock from Norway; Boy Meets Boy by Gwang-soo Kim Jho from South Korea; Au Clair de la Lune by Dominique Filhol and Antoine Espagne from France; Slut the Musical by Tonnette Stanford from Australia and Put Your Fur Up by Thai filmmaker Phuwadon Torasint.

Spiritual matters are addressed in Dhamma Shorts, featuring three new works by well-known Thai filmmakers. Sang-Yen by Sivaroj Kongsakul; I Dreamed a Dream by Chookiat Sakveerakul and In the Farm by Uruphong Raksasad. All premiered earlier this year at the Buddhist International Film Festival Bangkok.

More pressing worries are examined in Apocalypse Now – not the Vietnam War epic, but a package of shorts by three filmmakers on the end of the world. They are Portrait of the Universe Napat Treepalawisetkun; L' Attaque du Monstre Géant Suceur de Cerveaux de l'Espace and Armadingen by Germany's Philipp Kaessbohrer.

Another compilation is this year's selection from the Digital Project of South Korea's Jeonju International Film Festival, featuring works by three Asian filmmakers: The Great Cinema Party by the Philippines' Raya Martin; Light in Yellow Breathing Space by Sri Lanka's Vimukthi Jayasundara; and When Night Falls by China's Ying Liang.

Another annual feature of the Thai Short Film and Video Fest is the S-Express packages of shorts from around the region. This year features programmes from the Philippines,Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Of course the main reason for the festival is the competition sections for new Thai indie shorts, student films, Thai animation, short documentaries and international filmmakers.

The festival runs daily from Thursday until August 26 except Monday at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center.

Screenings will be in the fifth-floor auditorium and in the fourth-floor conference room. Admission is free.

For more details, search for "16th Thai Short Film and Video Festival" on Facebook or visit www.ThaiFilm.com.

Bangkok Cinema Scene: Movies opening July 26-August 1, 2012

Seven Something (ก 7 ปี ดี 7 หน)

Film studio GTH celebrates seven years with Seven Something (รัก 7 ปี ดี 7 หน, Rak Jet Pee Dee Jet Hon), a three-segment comedy-drama that looks at the stages of life at various seven-year cycles.

The first part, directed by Paween Purijitpanya, and starring Jirayu La-ongmanee and Suthata Udomsilp is about romance at the age of 14.

Adisorn Trisirikasem directs the second part, which covers a celebrity couple (Sunny Suwanmethanon and Cris Horwang) breaking up when they are 21 and reuniting at age 28.

Jira Maligool directs the third part, which features Nichkhun Horvejkul from the Korean boyband 2PM and newscaster Suquan Bulakul in a story about a woman marathon runner going through a crisis at age 42.

Most of the cast and crew have all been a major part of GTH's success.

Director Paween did the well-regarded horror thriller Body #19 and also had a hand in the hit horror compilations Phobia and Phobia 2. His segment Seven Something, 14, marks a departure for him as he makes a foray into teen romance.

Young actor Jirayu was in last year's hit rock 'n' roll romance SuckSeed while Suthata was in another big GTH hit from last year, the pyschological thriller Laddaland.

Adisorn is one of the six directors of GTH's first big hit Fan Chan and also directed and co-wrote the hit romance Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story. His segment, 21/28 reunites hims with his BT(L)S leading lady Cris Horwang, who co-stars with Sunny, the leading man from the big GTH hit romance Dear Dakanda.

And Jira, a co-founder of the studio, marks his return to directing for the first time since 2005's historical drama The Tin Mine.

His segment, 42.195, about marathon runners, has a pair of acting newcomers – veteran newscaster Sukwan Bulakul and singer Nichkhun Horvejkul of the South Korean boyband 2PM.

There will also be cameos and supporting appearances by other GTH stars. Among them is Panissara "Opal" Phimpru, who's been the saucy comic-relief character in several GTH films, most notably Dear Dakanda, but is now a popular TV personality and hostess. Rated G.

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Also opening

To Rome with Love – Woody Allen continues his tour of famous European cities, weaving together four tales of Rome. One has an American architect (Alec Baldwin) reliving his youth. Another has an ordinary man (Roberto Begnini) suddenly made a celebrity. Another story has a young couple drawn into separate romantic encounters, while the fourth plot involves an amateur opera singer being wooed by a talent scout. Penélope Cruz, Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Judy Davis, Greta Gerwig and Woody himself are among the other stars. Reception has been mixed, with most critics feeling let down by Woody after his best film in years, Midnight in Paris. At Apex Siam Square, Paragon Cineplex and SFW CentralWorld. Rated 13+.

Elles – Juliette Binoche is a reporter for Elle magazine who immerses herself in a prostitution ring run by a pair of university students (Joanna Kulig and Anais Demoustier). Critical reception is mostly negative. It's in French with English and Thai subtitles at House on RCA.

Step Up Revolution – The fourth entry in the dance-movie franchise centers on a young woman (Kathryn McCormick) who arrives in Miami with hopes of becoming a professional dancer. She falls in love with a guy (Ryan Guzman) who leads a dance crew in elaborate "flash mobs". They band together to save a historic neighborhood from being redeveloped by the girl's rich father. There's not yet any reviews. Rated 15+.

My Way – Taking inspiration from a photo of a Korean in Nazi uniform among the dead on D-Day in World War II, this action epic follows rival marathon runners (South Korea's Jang Dong-gun and Japan's Joe Odagiri) as they go into combat, first for the Japanese and then the Russians. Eventually, their path takes them to the beaches of Normandy. Kang Je-Gyu (Taegukgi) directs and Fan Bingbing also stars. The most expensive South Korean film made yet, critical reception, is mixed. In Japanese and Korean with English and Thai subtitles at Apex Siam Square. Rated 15+.

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Also showing

Cinema Diverse – The second entry in the Bangkok Art and Culture Center's FilmsForum screening series is Nikkini Vasa (August Drizzle) from Sri Lanka at 5pm on Saturday in the BACC's fifth-floor auditorium. It's the debut feature by Aruna Jayawardanait, who will be present for the screening along with second-lead actress Sulochana Weerasinghe. The 2011 drama is about a lonely female mortician who is shunned by other villagers. Matters are further complicated when a rival mortician arrives on the scene. It's been screened various festivals, including the Vesoul International Festival of Asian Cinema in France, where it won the two top awards – the International Jury and Netpac prize.

Cendres et sang (Ashes and Blood) – Fanny Ardant directs this 2009 drama about old hatreds between rival families being rekindled by an exiled woman's visit to a wedding. It's in French with English subtitles at the Alliance Française on Wednesday, Auguest 1, at 7.30pm.

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Take note

Director Kongdej Jaturanrasmee's indie Thai comedy-drama P-047 has been a surprise hit in its limited release, screening to packed houses at the Lido and Esplanade Ratchada.

According to the Bangkok Post, screenings were added to meet the demand, mostly from fans of indie rock musician Apichai Trakulpradetkrai who makes his acting debut in the lead role of a shy locksmith who helps an aspiring mystery writer break into people's homes, not necessarily to steal things, but to "borrow" other people's lives. It was expected that P-047 would screen for just one week, but now it appears its run will be extended for one more week.

Aside from P-047, the other hot ticket in Bangkok cinemas is The Dark Knight Rises, which had its opening weekend in the U.S. marred by the fatal shooting of audience members at a theater in Colorado.

In Bangkok, apparently unfazed fans were flocking to the IMAX at Paragon – the only "real IMAX" theater in Thailand – with the decent seats – at the rear in the center – booked solid. The Dark Knight is screening at conventional cinemas as well as the smaller-screen IMAX Digital cinemas. However, certain scenes were filmed with the extra-large IMAX-format cameras, and it's only at the IMAX at Paragon where those scenes can be enjoyed at the aspect ratio intended by director Christopher Nolan and his director of photography Wally Pfister.

Bangkok Cinema Scene special: FCCT-NETPAC Asian Film Festival

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, in association with the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) will screen six NETPAC award-winning films over the next three months. The movies are from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.

NETPAC, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is a group of Asian filmmakers, screenwriters, festival programmers and academics. The organization is perhaps best known for its special jury panels at 23 film festivals, including the Bangkok International Film Festival.

It has previously organized conferences on Asian Cinema Heritage and Culture in New Delhi in 2007 and Kuala Lumpur in 2008.

NETPAC also holds the annual Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival in Indonesia.

In collaboration with Australia's Asia Pacific Screen Awards, there's the APSA NETPAC Development Prize, worth US$5,000 to an emerging Asian filmmaker.

NETPAC was also instrumental in the development of AsiaPacificFilms.com, a digital film library that streams artistic and culturally significant films from Asia and the Pacific.

NETPAC has also supported books on Asian cinema.

Many of these now-classic NETPAC award-winning films in the FCCT series will be screened during NETPAC's 2010 Imaging Asia conference in New Delhi from August 19-22. It includes a great line-up of films, among them Uruphong Raksasad's Agrarian Utopia (2009) and Nonzee Nimibutr's ghost romance, Nang Nak (1999), both NETPAC award winners.

The FCCT's film series starts on Thursday, July 22 with Mr. and Mrs. Iyer from India.

The opening was to have been in April, but was postponed because of the red-shirt protests that took place at the Rajprasong Intersection near the FCCT's penthouse club in the Maneeya building at the Chitlom skytrain station.

Admission for non-members is 150 baht and 100 baht more for anyone wanting the food or wine tastings that will offered by the various embassies and sponsors. Here's the line-up:


Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, India – The NETPAC winner from the Locarno International Film Festival in 2002, this drama was noted for its "courage in raising an issue of burning relevance, in a work of cinematic density". Helmed by actress-director Aparna Sen, with cinematography by director Gautam Ghosh, score by tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and a dynamic cast, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer was commercially successful in India and won awards around the world. It screened at the 2003 World Film Festival of Bangkok. A love story set against a background of religious fundamentalism and violence, Mrs. Iyer (Aparna Sen's daughter Konkona Sensharma) is a married conservative Brahmin woman who is travelling with her child by bus to meet her husband. She encounters Raja (Rahul Bose), a young wildlife photographer on the bus. The passengers and their different ages, backgrounds and religions, present a cross-section of India's multi-cultural society. The tenor of the proceedings changes when the bus is stopped by Hindu militants and the bus passengers become divided. Mrs. Iyer discovers that Raja is Muslim and in a panic, she calls him "Mr. Iyer" and they pose as husband and wife while they look for a way out of the violence. Before the screening, India's new ambassador, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, will provide a grand feast. Thursday, July 22, 8pm.


Akasa Kusum (Flowers of the Sky), Sri Lanka – Directed by Prasanna Vithanage, who's considered the pioneer of Sri Lanka's New Wave, this is the winner of multiple awards, including the NETPAC Award at the Granada Festival in Cines del Sur, Spain, last year for "its strong portrayal of female characters whose lives, regrets and new beginnings are depicted in a delicate yet convincing way." The doyenne of Sri Lankan cinema, Malini Fonseka, portrays Sandhya, an ageing movie star who rents a room in her home to movie "artistes", most of whom use it for their trysts. Scandal erupts when a young married actress (Dilhani Ekanayake) is caught with her actor-lover in her own home. Shalika the moves into Sandhya's house and the two become close friends. Suddenly, someone totally unknown and unexpected from Sandhya’s past reappears. Fonseka was a nominee for last year's Asian Pacific Screen Awards for her performance. Thursday, July 29, 8pm.


Eliana, Eliana, Indonesia – Director Riri Riza's 2002 drama won the NETPAC Award at the Singapore International Film Festival as well as a Dragons and Tigers special citation at the Vancouver festival. Eliana (Rachel Sayidina) arrives home at the end of a day in which she lost her job and kicked a man in the groin to find her mother (veteran actress Jajang C. Noer), whom she has not seen in five months. Her roommate, Heni (Henidar Amroe), is missing. So the mother and daughter go searching while they work out some of their own issues. Thursday, August 5, 8pm.


Nang Nak, Thailand – Winner of the NETPAC Award at the 2000 International Film Festival Rotterdam, Nang Nak was among the films of the "Thai New Wave" that signaled a resurgence of the Thai film industry as it sparked a new popularity for Thai films with domestic audiences and found a legion of fans and acclaim overseas. Directed by Nonzee Nimibutr from a script by Wisit Sasanatieng, it's a reworking of the famous ghost story "Mae Nak of Phra Nakhon", about a woman who dies in childbirth while her husband is away and when he returns he is unaware that she is a ghost. Inthira Charoenpura and Winai Kraibutr star as Nak and Mak. The screening is courtesy of Cinemasia and NETPAC. Thursday, August 26, 8pm.



Bakal Boys (Children Metal Divers), Philippines – Winner of the NETPAC Award at last year's Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival, director Ralston Jover's docudrama is the heart-tugging story of children who scavenge for scraps in the murky waters of Manila Bay, often risking their lives in the process. The screening is courtesy of Queen Bessie LLC, Apogee Films and NETPAC. Thursday, Septmeber 23, 8pm.


$ELL-OU7! (Sell Out!), Malaysia – This musical satire won the NETPAC Award at the 2008 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival "for the consummate artistry with which the director satirizes business and media glitz, and his successful attempt at the presentation of the Malaysian context to an international audience, thus generating much optimism for a wider acceptance of Malaysian indie films". Director Yeo Joon Han skewers contemporary Malaysian culture, reality television and even pokes fun at independent-film directors and film festival awards. The story has struggling television presenter Rafflesia Pong (Jerrica Lai) stumbling on an idea for a reality-TV program that records people's dying words. Meanwhile, a young inventor at the Fony Corporation has developed a bean-curd machine that is turned down by the hilarious pair of pointy-haired bosses because it has too many useful functions and is too durable. $ELL OU7! also screened at the 2008 World Film Festival of Bangkok. The screening is courtesy of Amok Films & NETPAC. Thursday, September 30, 8pm.