Ulf Svane and Paul McBain’s new documentary Ghosts: Confronting the Dead in Thailand includes an interview with Thongchai Winichakul filmed at Thammasat University. Dozens of students at Thammasat were killed on 6th October 1976, and Thongchai is Thailand’s foremost authority on the history of that brutal event. (He has written about it extensively, including in his English-language book Moments of Silence.)
In the documentary, Thongchai discusses Thammasat’s notorious ‘red elevator’, which — according to legend — is haunted by victims of the 1976 attack. There are unlikely to be genuine apparitions haunting the lift, though such tales of ghosts are a reminder of the spectre of history: Thongchai stresses the need to “confront the ghost, or talk about the ghost”, in order to come to terms with traumatic historical events.
Ghosts is the latest of more than fifty films that refer to 6th October 1976. Previously, the Thammasat elevator inspired the horror film Haunted Universities (มหาลัยสยองขวัญ), which was censored to remove dramatisations of the violence that took place on that day. Also, a photograph of the elevator doors, titled Half Day Closing, was part of filmmaker Taiki Sakpisit’s exhibition Dark Was the Night (ผีพุ่งไต้).
In the documentary, Thongchai discusses Thammasat’s notorious ‘red elevator’, which — according to legend — is haunted by victims of the 1976 attack. There are unlikely to be genuine apparitions haunting the lift, though such tales of ghosts are a reminder of the spectre of history: Thongchai stresses the need to “confront the ghost, or talk about the ghost”, in order to come to terms with traumatic historical events.
Ghosts is the latest of more than fifty films that refer to 6th October 1976. Previously, the Thammasat elevator inspired the horror film Haunted Universities (มหาลัยสยองขวัญ), which was censored to remove dramatisations of the violence that took place on that day. Also, a photograph of the elevator doors, titled Half Day Closing, was part of filmmaker Taiki Sakpisit’s exhibition Dark Was the Night (ผีพุ่งไต้).
