From: "Thai Textile Society" <info@thaitextilesociety.org>
Subject: Reading Film and Discussion Tropical Perspectives - Outside In / Inside Out
Date: July 7th 2010

Reading Film and Discussion:
“Tropical Perspectives - Outside In / Inside Out”

Date: Friday, 9th July, 2010
Time: 6:00-8:00
Moderator: Gridthiya Gaweewong
Guest artist : Nok Paksanavin

Venue: William Warren Library
Activity Fee: Free
The Jim Thompson Art Center will show selected short films which center around the encounter between eastern and western culture. Historical and anthropological films by filmmakers from 1930s to the present such as “I am from Siam”, Phi Ta Kon and more. This is a screening session and will include a discussion about re-reading and re-examing the subtext of history and ethnography. Tropical culture viewed by different perspectives of outsiders and insiders as represented in films will also be discusses.

Screening program (running time 40 mins)

1. I Am From Siam, Anonymous from National Film Archive, Thailand),14’, UK/Thailand/USA, 1930

The film is a compilation of various life styles and important events in Siam at the time. A large part of the footage has been made by the Tropical Film Service of the Royal State Railway.

2. The Phi Ta Khon Project, Alex Kher, 12’, DVD, Australia/Thailand, 2009

This filmwas made in Dansai, Loei, a small town of Northern Thailand, during their annual “Phi Ta Khon” festival which means translated “ ghosts follow people”. Phi Ta Khon combines animist, Brahmin and Buddhist traditions, which articulate the bonds between the dead and the living, between sexual and agriculture fertility, between the community and their spirit-infested natural world.

3. Old hearts, Anocha Suwichakornpong, video, 9’, 2009

A vide diary of a woman.

4. Burmese Man Dancing, Nok Paksanavin, video, 6’, 2009

An experimental documentary about Burmese labourers in Thailand. While many filmmakers aim for clarity, in this film the subtitles – drawn from Thai people’s shot, written responses to a questionnaire - appear in an encoded, unreadable language. Viewers must interpret and make up their own story.

Ms. Somsuda Piamsumrit
Education Program Co-ordinator
The Jim Thompson Art Center
6 Soi Kasemsan 2 Rama1Rd. Wangmai Patumwan BKK. Tel: (66) 2- 612 6741
Fax: (66) 2- 219 2911
email: somsuda@jimthompsonhouse.com, education@jimthompsonhouse.com