Showing 31 - 40 of 62
Windows on the world
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/09/2017
» As Hussain Currimbhoy sees it, this is a golden age for documentary filmmaking, a time when the criss-crossing narratives of the world tangle with audiences' growing suspicion over traditional media. The emergence of streaming services has also revolutionised distribution philosophy and connected doc-makers with audiences in ways unseen before, especially with audiences who once had little interest in documentary titles.
Starting with the script
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 29/06/2017
» Script development is key to successful movies, and good scripts are what filmmakers in Southeast Asia need. The first Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (or Seafic) has been conceived for the purpose of strengthening the quality of feature-length fiction films from the region, and after eight months, the programme is reaching its climax this weekend in Bangkok.
A new vision on Siam's enduring symbol
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/04/2017
» The elephant and the man, walking down the road to redemption and encountering the wounded and the marginalised, the madmen and the prostitutes. In the film Pop Aye, which will kick off Bangkok Asean Film Festival 2017 this evening (see sidebar), the fine-tusked beast accompanies the lost soul as the duo find their way home from Bangkok to the Northeast.
Coldplay thrill Bangkok with sound and spectacle
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/04/2017
» Thailand, according to Coldplay, is amazing. Coldplay, according to the 60,000 fans packing Rajamangala Stadium, is also pretty amazing -- no, maybe not "the best band in the world" as some gush on Twitter, but a top-quality package of dazzle, flares and fireworks, fan service, visual evocation and robust pop-rock-ballad sounds. If last Friday's gig were a movie, it was a blockbuster. It keyed you in excited and sent you out feeling entertained and satisfied.
That precious gold statuette
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/02/2017
» The Oscars takes place Monday morning Thailand time. We pontificate and prognosticate the results
Once lost, now found
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» The 69th Cannes Film Festival begins today in southern France with its usual fanfare. Regarded as the world's most prestigious event of cinema professionals, the festival celebrates film as art, commerce, glitz and as cultural treasure. Fittingly, this year Cannes has invited only one Thai film to screen in the Cannes Classics programme -- the recently discovered 1954 Santi-Vina, which was once thought to be lost and has now been restored to its celluloid glory.
Nepalese film scoops top prize at SGIFF
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/12/2016
» A Nepalese drama about political and cultural divides won top prize at the 27th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). The 12-day event, part of the Singapore Media Festival that ended on Sunday, also saw two Thai feature films in its Silver Screen Competition, though they came home empty-handed.
'Pre-truth' far scarier than 'post-truth'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/11/2016
» 'Post-truth" -- that's Oxford Dictionaries' word of 2016. Trump-inspired and aided by Facebook algorithms, it clicks. What happens isn't as important as what you think happens, and if you think something is true, then what is true is simply what you think. But truth be told, post-truth still suggests an involvement of truth, how truth is there and yet is blithely bypassed by emotion and prejudice, and thus there's a more dangerous term that fits better in some places: "pre-truth".
A trip to the other world
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/11/2016
» A quick lowdown on Thai love motels: trashy lighting, soap-smelling beds, bad pillows, cheap porn on the TV and a trove of hush-hush secrets guarded by naked walls. Outside, the thick tarp curtains separate the public from the personal, the exposed from the invisible, the respectable from the randy. Inside, it is another world, a fantasy world, an alien world.
To Myanmar with love
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/11/2016
» The big problem about shooting a film in Myanmar, says Thai filmmaker Chartchai Ketnust, was not obtaining permission. It was the mob of onlookers trying to get a peek of the stars.