Shifting Shadows of Identity

Shifting Shadows of Identity, an evening of short films from different regions of Thailand, presents new perspectives on Thai national identity. The event is organised by The Basement — an underground collective of emerging visual artists — and the films have been selected by Srinakharinwirot, Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Silpakorn, and Bangkok university film clubs. The screening will be held on 21st February, on the rooftop of the Apron Bar in Bangkok, and is taking place alongside the bar’s Expanding Pecel Lele programme celebrating Indonesian culture, as part of Bangkok Design Week 2025 (which runs from 8th to 23rd February).

Possathorn Watcharapanit’s Selfie of My Run to My Return from Runaway is one of the highlights of Shifting Shadows of Identity. Possathorn films himself with a selfie stick as he jogs around his home town, the black-and-white images accompanied by a voiceover from the director. Slowly, another image begins to emerge, gradually dissolving into view: footage of anti-government protesters gathered around a burning brazier. This scene (filmed by Voice TV) eventually replaces Possathorn’s selfie shot, and the film ends with a caption heralding the “flame of the birth of a new era.” (Selfie of My Run to My Return from Runaway was previously shown in the Angry Young Citizen strand of Wildtype 2022.)

Shifting Shadows of Identity will conclude with an early video piece by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Haunted Houses (บ้านผีปอบ). A documentary in which villagers perform lakorn scripts, the film plays on the link between ‘media’ and ‘medium’: the Thai collective fascination with both mass entertainment (TV soap operas) and the spirit world. (Haunted Houses was previously shown at Alliance Française in 2017, and at the Jim Thompson Art Center in 2011.)

The 7th Bangkok Experimental Film FestivalNowhere Somewhere

After a long hiatus of thirteen years, the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival staged a triumphant return this year. The 7th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (เทศกาลหนังทดลองกรุงเทพฯ ครั้งที่ 7) took place from 25th January to 2nd February, at a cinema in the new One Bangkok complex. The festival’s theme this time around was Nowhere Somewhere (ไร้ที่ มีทาง), and one of its highlights was Riding the Shortbus on 27th January: a screening of the transgressive comedy Shortbus followed by a Q&A with its director, John Cameron Mitchell. (Shortbus was also shown at the 2007 Bangkok International Film Festival.)

The festival offered another chance to participate in the virtual reality version of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s A Conversation with the Sun (บทสนทนากับดวงอาทิตย์), which was previously shown at the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai. There were around 100 timeslots for the VR experience, all of which sold out in a matter of minutes. Viewers wearing VR headsets found themselves in a large cave, and the sun rose out of the ground into the sky. It was an overwhelming experience, and a hugely ambitious project. The film includes a shot of monarchy-reform protesters at Ratchaprasong in Bangkok (filmed on 25th October 2020), which also appears on the cover of the festival catalogue.

There was an onstage conversation between Apichatpong and Tilda Swinton, The Last Thing You Saw That Felt Like a Movie: An Encounter (ภาพสุดท้ายคล้ายหนัง บทสนทนา), on 25th January, which also featured a performance by Swinton. (Apichatpong and Swinton previously took part in a Q&A at the Thai premiere of Memoria.) Apichatpong also appeared at Dreams / Distortions / Disruptions (ฝัน / ปั่น / ป่วน), a panel discussion about the development of experimental cinema with five other directors, moderated by Chulayarnnon Siriphol, on 26th January.

A workshop gave participants the chance to make their own 16mm films, which were screened on 1st February as part of a series of events titled Before We Go. One of those who took part was the artist Oat Montien, who directed an explicit film about gay cruising. To desaturate the colour, Oat mixed his own semen into the developing fluid while processing the film. (Viewers were required to sign consent forms acknowledging that they were at least twenty years old.)

Following a call for submissions last year, more than 500 films were received. Sixty-seven titles were selected, screening in fourteen Open Call (โอเพ่น คอลล์) programmes curated by Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa and Chayanin Tiangpitayagorn. The Body Craves Impact as Love Bursts (ร่างกายอยากปะทะ เพราะรักมันปะทุ) by Wattanapume Laisuwanchai was shown in Open Call no. 2, On Gazing Back at the Big Brother, an Ever-watchful Observer (การจ้องมองกลับไปยังพี่เบิ้ม (บิ๊กบราเธอร์) ผู้สังเกตการณ์ที่เฝ้าระวังอยู่เสมอ), on 25th, 27th, and 30th January. No Exorcism Film by Komtouch Napattaloong was part of Open Call no. 8, On Gazing Back at War and Its Aftermath (การจ้องมองกลับไปที่สงครามและผลที่ตามมา), on 25th–26th January and 1st February. On Gazing at the Spirit of Resistance and Its Weight (การจ้องมองดูจิตวิญญาณแห่งการต่อต้านและมวลน้ำหนักของมัน), Open Call no. 14, featured Weerapat Sakolvaree’s Nostalgia, on 25th and 29th January, and 2nd February.

No Exorcism Film was previously screened at last year’s Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน), The 28th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 28), and Wildtype 2024. Nostalgia has previously been shown at Nitade Experimental Shorts, the Chiang Mai Film Festival (twice), Bangkok University, Future Fest 2023, Wildtype 2022, and The 26th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 26).

The Bangkok Experimental Film Festival — originally known as the Bangkok International Art Film Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์ศิลปะนานาชาติ กรุงเทพ) — was founded by Apichatpong and curator Gridthiya Gaweewong in 1997, which was a pivotal year for Thai cinema. The Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น) also began in 1997 (and is still going strong). 1997 also marked the start of the Thai New Wave, when Nonzee Nimibutr’s debut film Dang Bireley’s and Young Gangsters [sic] (2499 อันธพาลครองเมือง) broke domestic box-office records and Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s debut Fun Bar Karaoke (ฝันบ้าคาราโอเกะ) premiered at the Berlinale. (Thai Cinema Uncensored describes the “confluence of events” that took place in 1997.)

The Bangkok Experimental Film Festival was last held in 2012, at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. The previous event took place in 2008, at the Esplanade cinema.

Orbiting Body

Orbiting Body (รูปโคจร) opened at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on 13th June, and runs until 8th September. The centrepiece of this sparse exhibition is Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Blue Encore (ออกแบบในใจ), large-scale landscape paintings by Noppanan Thannaree and Amnart Kankunthod suspended on motorised rails, opening and closing like theatrical backdrops or curtains. Blue Encore was previously shown at the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai.

Thailand Biennale

As part of the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai, the Thai Film Archive’s mobile cinema truck will be screening classic Thai films in the grounds of the province’s historic City Hall. The Cine Mobile event begins today, with Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ), and runs until 7th February.

A virtual reality version of Apichatpong’s installation A Conversation with the Sun (บทสนทนากับดวงอาทิตย์) is also part of the Biennale, on show at the Kotchasan building from 25th to 29th January. The director will take part in a Q&A at the venue today. The VR experience begins with a thirty-minute, two-channel video that includes a shot of monarchy-reform protesters at Ratchaprasong in Bangkok (filmed on 25th October 2020).

Apichatpong’s short film Emerald (มรกต) will be screened daily from 16th January until 9th February, in the What Lies Beneath: Notes from the Underground programme, part of an ongoing Cinema for All (ซีเนม่า ฟอร์ ออล) season at Ban Mae Ma school. (Apichatpong took part in a Q&A with Tilda Swinton at Ban Mae Ma on 5th January.)

The Biennale opened on 9th December last year and ends on 30th April. The theme is The Open World (เปิดโลก).

Thai Queer Cinema Odyssey

The Thai Film Archive at Salaya will screen a season of gay films thoughout May and June, under the Thai Queer Cinema Odyssey (การเดินทางของหนังเควียร์ไทย) banner. This will be a rare chance to see the pioneering films of the 1980s — The Last Song (เพลงสุดท้าย), Anguished Love (รักทรมาน), and I Am a Man (ฉันผู้ชายนะยะ) — that constituted the first wave of Thai queer cinema. Also, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit’s Insects in the Backyard (อินเซค อินเดอะ แบ็คยาร์ด) will be shown on 17th and 30th June. The highlights of the season, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady (สัตว์ประหลาด) and Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Mundane History (เจ้านกกระจอก), will both be screened in 35mm. (Tropical Malady will be shown on 24th and 30th June, and Mundane History on 20th and 28th July.)

Insects in the Backyard

Insects in the Backyard premiered at the World Film Festival of Bangkok in 2010, though requests for a general theatrical release were denied, making it the first film formally banned under the Film and Video Act of 2008. When the censors vetoed a screening at the Thai Film Archive in 2010, Tanwarin cremated a DVD of the film, in a symbolic funeral. (The ashes are kept in an urn at the Thai Film Museum.) Tanwarin appealed to the National Film Board, which upheld the ban, so she sued the censors in the Administrative Court.

As Tanwarin explained in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored, the censors condemned the entire film: “When we asked the committee who considered the film which scenes constituted immorality, they simply said that they thought every scene is immoral”. When she appealed to the Film Board, they were equally dismissive: “we were told by one of the committee members that we should have made the film in a ‘good’ way. This was said as if we did not know how to produce a good movie, and no clear explanation was given.”

On Christmas Day 2015, the Administrative Court ruled that Insects in the Backyard could be released if a single shot was removed. (The three-second shot shows a hardcore clip from a gay porn video.) Although the film was censored, the verdict represented a victory of sorts, as the court dismissed the censors’ view that the film was immoral. Following the court’s ruling, it was shown at House Rama, Bangkok Screening Room, Sunandha Rajabhat University, ChangChui, and Lido Connect. It was shown at the Thai Film Archive in 2018 and 2020.

Tropical Malady

Internationally, Tropical Malady is one of Apichatpong’s most acclaimed films, though it had rather lacklustre distribution in Thailand. In a Thai Cinema Uncensored interview, he discussed its disappointing domestic theatrical release: “I think, from Tropical Malady, there’s this issue of releasing the film, and marketing, that I don’t like. And also the studio was not interested in the film, anyway, because there’s no selling point: there’s no tiger, there’s no sex, so it’s very personal.”

Tropical Malady: The Book, a deluxe coffee-table book published in 2019, raised the film’s Thai profile. It was previously shown in 35mm at Alliance Française, and it has been screened several times at the Thai Film Archive, including in 2009 and 2018.

Mundane History

Mundane History was the first Thai film to receive the restrictive ‘20’ age rating, though similar content has since been passed with an ‘18’ certificate. One of the greatest of all Thai films, it was previously screened at Warehouse 30 in 2018 and at Bangkok Screening Room in 2017. Anocha’s Krabi, 2562 (กระบี่ ๒๕๖๒) will also be shown at the Archive, on 15th and 26th August.

15th World Film Festival of Bangkok

The 15th World Film Festival of Bangkok (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์โลกแห่งกรุงเทพฯ ครั้งที่ 15) opened on 2nd December, and closed yesterday with an award for veteran Thai New Wave director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and the Thai premiere of Sorayos Prapapan’s Arnold Is a Model Student (อานนเป็นนักเรียนตัวอย่าง). There had been a five-year hiatus since the 14th festival, which was held in 2017.

In his acceptance speech, Apichatpong recalled the Ministry of Culture’s dismissal of his work, and told young directors, in both Thai and English: “don’t give a damn” about such attitudes. Phantoms of Nabua (ผีนาบัว), perhaps Apichatpong’s greatest short film, will be shown at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya on 23rd December as part of the 26th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 26).

Kriengsak Silakong, the World Film Festival’s founder and organiser, sadly died earlier this year, and the Lotus award for lifetime achievement has been renamed in his honour. (Kriengsak’s final public appearance was in February this year, when he interviewed Apichatpong at the Thai premiere of Memoria.) Like the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th festivals, this year’s event was held at CentralWorld’s SF World cinema. (The 6th, 7th, and 8th festivals were held at Paragon Cineplex; the 5th, 9th, and 10th took place at Esplanade Cineplex.)

Over the past decade, Sorayos has made witty, satirical short films such as Dossier of the Dossier (เอกสารประกอบการตัดสินใจ), Auntie Maam Has Never Had a Passport (ดาวอินดี้), and New Abnormal (ผิดปกติใหม่). He has also dabbled in documentary filmmaking, with Prelude of the Moving Zoo and Yellow Duck Against Dictatorship. His debut feature Arnold Is a Model Student combines both of these elements, sharp satire mixed with found footage. The film was conceived in the aftermath of the 2014 coup, when the military’s authority was accepted unquestioningly by large swathes of the population. Eight years later, the film is complete and the junta leader remains in power.

The eponymous Arnold coasts through his final school year, while his classmates rebel against institutional authoritarianism, personified by the matronly teacher Ms Wanee, who tells them: “Know your place and you will be successful.” This somewhat feudalistic attitude persists in wider Thai society, and is inculcated by an education system that encourages conformity. The film’s parody of a traditional instructional video — “How to Behave Elegantly Like a Thai”, in which Ms Wanee teaches students to prostrate before their elders — seems absurd, though it’s based on a real video made by the Ministry of Culture, as seen in the documentary Censor Must Die (เซ็นเซอร์ต้องตาย).

The film’s high school is a microcosm of Thailand — as in the recent music videos อีกไม่นาน นานแค่ไหน (‘how long is ‘soon’?’) and อนาคตคือ (‘the future is...’) — and the connection to contemporary politics is clear. Arnold attends a REDEM rally, and symbols of state authority are visible throughout the school, from a large portrait of Rama X in the headmaster’s office to the number 112 on a table in the computer lab. (The lèse-majesté law is article 112 of the criminal code.) When the fictional high school students organise a protest, their headmaster orders them back to class. Cut to: documentary footage of water cannon being deployed against anti-government protesters, with riot police shouting “Disperse now!”

A Conversation with the Sun

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new exhibition A Conversation with the Sun (บทสนทนากับดวงอาทิตย์) opened in Bangkok on 28th May. The centrepiece is a two-channel video installation, with a smaller image projected onto the center of another. The footage, which the gallery calls “a personal memory archive,” was filmed by Apichatpong over the course of several years. A white scrim on motorised rails glides slowly up to and away from the screen, partially obscuring the image.

A Conversation with the Sun continues until 10th July at CityCity Gallery, and Apichatpong is developing a virtual reality version for next year’s Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai. The Biennale will run from 9th December 2023 to 30th April 2024, with VR screenings of A Conversation with the Sun from 25th to 29th January 2024.

A Minor History, Part II: Beautiful Things

Phase two of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s A Minor History (ประวัติศาสตร์กระจ้อยร่อย ภาคสอง) exhibition opened on 18th February at 100 Tonson Foundation in Bangkok, and runs until 10th April. The second phase was originally due to begin on 25th November last year, though part one was extended until Boxing Day due to coronavirus restrictions. Like the first phase, part two — subtitled Beautiful Things (สิ่งสวยงาม) — features a vertical video installation with scrolling text documenting fragments of Apichatpong’s interior monologue.

Alongside the video and photographs by Apichatpong are two works by other artists, Methagod and Natanon Senjit. Methagod’s small sculpture Thep Nelumbo Nucifera is decorated with images of lotus flowers, whose seeds remain dormant for extended periods before sprouting. As curator Manuporn Luengaram writes in the exhibition press release, the sculpture therefore “reminds us of the perpetual resurrection of Thailand’s youth movements despite being time and again suppressed.”

Natanon’s Break Out of the Loop of National Conflict into Peaceful Nature, painted on two large boards, depicts the Mekong riverbank crowded with anti-government protesters, royalists, and military officers. One corner shows the murder of Porlajee Rakchongcharoen, who was also the subject of Pin Sasao’s installation ถังแดง​ (‘red barrel’). This echoes the underlying theme of A Minor History: the Mekong as a site for the disposal of the bodies of murdered political dissidents.

Last October, 100 Tonson also showed Apichatpong’s video installation Silence, commemorating the 45th anniversary of the 6th October 1976 massacre. His new feature film Memoria opens in Thailand this week, after its premiere at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Memory of Filmmaking

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new film Memoria will have its Thai premiere on 24th February. The screening at Bangkok’s SF World cinema will be followed by a post-screening discussion with Apichatpong and actor Tilda Swinton. The following day, Apichatpong will also be present to discuss Memoria when it’s shown at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, before it goes on general release on 3rd March.

On 26th February, the Film Archive will host a masterclass by Apichatpong, Memory of Filmmaking, moderated by Sompot Chidgasornpongse and Nottapon Boonprakob. Apichatpong has previously given similar presentations at the Film Archive — ตัวตน โดย ตัวงาน (‘self-expression through work’) in 2011 — and elsewhere: What Is Not Visible Is Not Invisible at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in 2017, Indy Spirit Project at SF Cinema City in 2010, and Tomyam Pladib (ต้มยำปลาดิบ) at the Jim Thompson Art Center in 2008.

Memoria received its world premiere at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. The second phase of Apichatpong’s exhibition A Minor History (ประวัติศาสตร์กระจ้อยร่อย ภาคสอง), subtitled Beautiful Things (สิ่งสวยงาม), opened at 100 Tonson Foundation in Bangkok on 18th February, and runs until 10th April.

“I’ve killed too many communists...”

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s most celebrated work, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ), was also his first overt political statement on film. Boonmee — a former military officer who fought the student Communists radicalised after the 6th October 1976 massacre — is dying of kidney disease, and wonders aloud whether he is being punished: “I’ve killed too many communists.” His sister tries to reassure him — “But you killed with good intentions... You killed the commies for the nation, right?” — though Boonmee is unconvinced, and the conversation peters out; a brutal guerrilla war has become a faded memory, both for Boonmee and the country as a whole.

Two recent Thai films also portray former military men on their deathbeds. In the opening line of Taiki Sakpisit’s The Edge of Daybreak (พญาโศกพิโยคค่ำ), a man narrates his role in the anti-Communist purge: “I was leading my unit into the woods to catch the students.” Similarly, Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s Anatomy of Time (เวลา) begins with a flashback in which a military officer leads an attack on Communist insurgents. In both films, the unnamed men remain largely bedridden, tended by nurses and family members, though their violent reputations have not been forgotten: in The Edge of Daybreak, the man is smothered with a pillow; and in Anatomy of Time, the man’s nurse wishes him a “slow and painful” death. (On the other hand, like Boonmee’s sister, one of his military colleagues believes he “made many sacrifices for the country.”)

In all three films, the men’s karma is directly cited as the reason for their sickness. In an extended flashback in Anatomy of Time, the man’s wife asks: “Dad, is it true that we all have to pay for our sins?” Her father explains that, according to Buddhist teachings, karma does indeed exist. Likewise, Boonmee tells his sister: “You know, this is a result of my karma.” In The Edge of Daybreak, the man’s family believe that they are cursed and, as if to confirm this, the exquisite black-and-white camerawork lingers on images of decay, such as rotting food and their crumbling home. The legacy of violent suppression is also a curse on the country itself, and these three films offer a reckoning with Thailand’s past and a commentary on its continuing military rule.

A Day

The new issue of A Day magazine (vol. 22, no. 250) was published yesterday. The issue is entirely devoted to Apichatpong Weerasethakul, under the theme of “Apichatpong’s Universe”. It includes an interview about Thai film censorship (with photographs by Nattawat Tangthanakitroj), on pp. 216–219.

The Year of the Everlasting Storm

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest feature film, Memoria, won the Jury Prize after its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film received a standing ovation, after which Apichatpong memorably declared: “Long live cinema!” With coronavirus vaccines in short supply and the registration system in disarray, he also used his Cannes acceptance speech as an opportunity to call on the Thai government to “please wake up, and work for your people, now.”

A promotional clip from Memoria attracted attention in Thailand for its potential political meaning: Tilda Swinton’s character performs a magic trick with a red, white, and blue handkerchief, making the blue colour disappear. These are also the colours of the Thai flag, and in an online interview with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, Apichatpong confirmed: “I chose the colours.”

Apichatpong’s short film Night Colonies also premiered at Cannes, as part of the anthology film The Year of the Everlasting Storm. Night Colonies combines two of the director’s consistent themes, light and the natural world, as it features insects buzzing around neon lights. The film begins with a poem paying tribute to “distant friends, and those who had disappeared”, a reference to pro-democracy campaigners self-exiled or abducted following lèse-majesté charges.

The poem continues: “The young leaves unfold, flushed with memories in the year of the everlasting storm.” In addition to giving the portmanteau film its title, these lines are also a metaphor for the student protesters campaigning for reform of the monarchy. In fact, the film’s soundtrack includes audio recorded at protests in Bangkok on 27th July and 20th August 2020.

Apichatpong’s exhibition A Minor History (ประวัติศาสตร์กระจ้อยร่อย) — now on show at 100 Tonson in Bangkok — also addresses the murder of lèse-majesté suspects, and the title of his short film October Rumbles (เสียงฟ้าเดือนตุลา) hints at the rumblings of dissent from the student protesters. He co-directed the video installation Silence — shown at 100 Tonson last week — which refers directly to the tragic “memories” mentioned in the Night Colonies poem.

A Minor History

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new exhibition A Minor History (ประวัติศาสตร์กระจ้อยร่อย) opened yesterday at 100 Tonson Foundation in Bangkok. The work is a video triptych, filmed at a derelict cinema in Kalasin and other locations along the Mekong river. Apichatpong has previously written of his attachment to stand-alone cinemas in an essay for Unknown Forces (สัตว์วิกาล), reprinted with an English translation in Once Upon a Celluloid Planet (สวรรค์ 35 มม). The Mekong directly inspired his films Mekong Hotel (แม่โขงโฮเต็ล) and Cactus River (โขงแล้งนำ), though he has also filmed numerous other projects in the region.

A Minor History also includes a short story in text form, which describes a dream featuring Patiwat Saraiyaem (using his nickname, Bank). Patiwat is an actor and mor lam singer who was jailed for his performance in the play เจ้าสาวหมาป่า (‘the wolf bride’) and was subjected to further lèse-majesté charges after he took part in an anti-government protest on 19th September last year. He previously appeared in Apichatpong’s segment of the portmanteau film Ten Years Thailand, and Wittawat Tongkeaw recently painted his portrait, titled The Unforgiven Blues (หมอลำแบงค์).

A Minor History was originally scheduled to open on 19th August, though it was delayed due to the coronavirus lockdown. Attendance is currently by appointment only, again due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the exhibition will close on 14th November. A second phase opens on 25th November, and runs until 27th February next year. 100 Tonson, previously a commercial gallery, became a non-profit foundation last year.

Thai Film Archive

The June screening schedule at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya includes two masterpieces, released sixty years apart. Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (羅生門) was originally scheduled to be shown in 16mm on 13th and 30th June. Screenings of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ) were planned for 12th and 24th June. All screenings are free, though the dates will be delayed as all entertainment venues are currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

October Rumbles

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest short film, October Rumbles (เสียงฟ้าเดือนตุลา), was released on the Polygon Gallery’s website yesterday. The film captures a rainstorm near Apichatpong’s home in Chiang Mai, and features several of the director’s recurring motifs: light, tropical foliage, and the ambient sounds of nature.

The film’s title has a double meaning. It’s now monsoon season in Thailand, and the rumbles of thunder on the soundtrack are a daily occurrence. But there have also been rumblings of a different kind this month: protests calling for a democratic government and reform of the monarchy. Riot police used water cannon to disperse a peaceful protest in central Bangkok on 16th October, and more rallies have since been held around the capital. (The latest, at Silom Road yesterday, featured a red catwalk and a satirical fashion show.)

In his director’s statement (edited from an interview on the Polygon podcast), Apichatpong directly addresses the political situation: “I was initially more aware of my own suffering, in terms of my inability to express my freedom in my own country and the role of the military or the monarchy or whatever in creating these feelings. But then you realize there are others suffering much more in the Covid time and you see these really huge gaps in equality and the power of this struggle both in this time and the struggle that has been going on for decades.”

October Rumbles will be available online until 12th November. Apichatpong’s other online short films include Prosperity for 2008, Mobile Men, Phantoms of Nabua (ผีนาบัว), For Alexis, 2013, Cactus River (โขงแล้งน้ำ), and For Monkeys Only (ทำให้ลิงดูเท่านั้น).

717: The Haunted House

Bangkok’s House Samyan cinema is celebrating Halloween with 717: The Haunted House, a seven-day season of seventeen ghost films. The season includes Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ), which will be shown on 29th and 31st October, and 3rd November.

717: The Haunted House runs from 29th October to 4th November. Uncle Boonmee was also shown earlier this year at Bangkok Screening Room (marking the film’s tenth anniversary), and last year at the Thai Film Archive (as part of a mini Apichatpong retrospective).

Thai Cinema Uncensored

Thai Cinema Uncensored goes on sale today. Published in paperback by Silkworm Books (Chiang Mai), it’s the first full-length history of Thai film censorship. It examines how Thai filmmakers approach culturally sensitive subjects — sex, religion, and politics — and how their films have been banned as a result.

The book also features interviews with ten leading Thai directors: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Yuthlert Sippapak, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Thunska Pansittivorakul, Ing K., Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, Kanittha Kwunyoo, Surasak Pongson, and Nontawat Numbenchapol. It will be released in the US and the UK on 21st March 2021, distributed by the University of Washington Press. It’s also available as an ebook, via Amazon Kindle and Google Play.

Medicines and Maladies

In September, the Thai Film Archive will host a month-long season of films about doctors and nurses, Medicines and Maladies (การแพทย์และโรคร้าย). The event offers a rare opportunity to see Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendour (รักที่ขอนแก่น) in Thailand. (It has been shown once before at the Archive, and Apichatpong held a private screening at a mobile cinema in Chiang Mai in 2018.)

Apichatpong did not submit the film to the Thai censors, and it has not been on general release here. When I interviewed him for my forthcoming book Thai Cinema Uncensored, he explained that, with the military still in power, a domestic release was too risky: “It’s a paranoid time. They’re willing to do a witch hunt, so I become paranoid of them in my own way, and I don’t want to risk it. As long as I manage to finish this film as I want, and show it, but not here.”

The film is so sensitive that Apichatpong removed one sequence from all DVD and blu-ray editions, just in case they found their way to Thailand. The scene in question shows a cinema audience standing as if paying respect to the royal anthem, though no music is heard. Apichatpong had planned to include the anthem in the scene, though he reconsidered after it was censored from another film: “I actually wanted to show the royal anthem, because it’s documentary-like. It’s what we do. But I know it’s impossible, because in the movie Soi Cowboy [ซอยคาวบอย], this was cut out. Censored. So, I said, ‘It’s impossible anyway.’ So, just silence.”

Cemetery of Splendour will be shown at the Archive, on 4th and 18th September, in its uncut version. The screenings are free of charge.

Uncle BoonmeeWho Can Recall His Past Lives

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ) will return to the big screen for tenth anniversary screenings starting next week. It will be shown at Bangkok Screening Room on 23rd, 24th, and 30th June; and 1st, 4th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 12th, and 15th July. (Uncle Boonmee was one of the first films ever shown at Bangkok Screening Room, playing there the day after the cinema opened.)

“Maybe they wanted some money under the table...”

Thai Cinema Uncensored, the first full-length history of Thai film censorship, will be published later this year. The book features candid interviews with leading directors, who recount their experiences with the film censor board.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul suggests the reason he was targeted for censorship: “Maybe they wanted some money under the table”. Pen-ek Ratanaruang discusses the sensitive footage he couldn’t risk showing to the censors: “We’ll just have to bury it in the ground somewhere!” Yuthlert Sippapak explains his battle with the military: “They don’t want the truth. I want the truth.”