Showing 1 - 10 of 12
Cool Pattani
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/09/2019
» Last weekend, along an old street in Pattani, skater boys and Lambretta riders were hanging out with poets and activists. As the rain let up and the night cooled, jazz musicians hummed and strummed, while a DJ was spinning upbeat music next to a digitally-mapped, fashionably-faded brick wall.
The sad saga of southern discomfort
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 04/03/2017
» We thought never again, but we’re always wrong. The godless attack and murder of four people, including an eight-year-old boy, in Narathiwat on Thursday was the latest reminder of the longstanding deep South anguish. The death toll is nearly 6,800 and counting. A beautiful region has been cursed for 13 years and counting. A land of many faiths is being threatened by faithless goons, and the urge among authorities to tighten their grip will fan the flames of violence.
Finding salvation for the South
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/02/2017
» When Muhammad Anwar bin Ismael Hajiteh was released on Jan 7 on a royal pardon, activists and civic groups in the deep South greeted the news with jubilation.
Colourful journey into Thailand's soul
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/01/2017
» The train clangs ahead, moving people and dreams, as it has done since 1893. In Railway Sleepers, a minutely observed film shot entirely on-board a Thai train, we see kids on school trips, young men travelling north and south, hawkers selling food and horoscope books, families and lovers, vacationers who turn the sleeping car into a party venue. They're passengers, and they're also humans. They are, as director Sompot Chidgasornpongse says, a collection of faces that make up a portrait of Thailand.
Serving up cruelty, a taste of 'Thainess'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/08/2016
» The debate on the meaning of "Thainess" always fills me with patriotism and stomach ache. After last week's bombings, the army chief warned us to look out for people who wore hats, glasses and carried backpacks, because "Thais don't do that". The general meant well -- that we should watch out for suspicious agents of terror -- but the way he framed it was a crass, militaristic way of monopolising the definition of something that is shifting, malleable, even undefinable.
Short Film Fest celebrates 20 years
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/08/2016
» Celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend, the Thai Short Film and Video Festival holds high its faith in small, personal movies. The longest-running film event in the country, the festival has over the years grown in size, scope and participants (as well as length, showing a programme of long films too), though at heart it remains a free-for-all showcase of student and independent films, as in its first edition in 1997.
IS a threat even if they aren't here
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/07/2016
» Ramadan has ended, and what a bloodied Ramadan it was as the godless terror of the so-called Islamic State (IS) -- though I prefer Daesh -- spilled innocent blood and soiled the spirit of the holy month.
All aboard for a scary trip down South
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/04/2016
» The news reads: Hard-line critics of the regime will be sent to take intensive "training courses" in the Deep South. The National Council of Peace and (dis)Order (NCPO) has confirmed the courses in the camps, which will be longer and more rigorous than the regular attitude adjustment series.
Romanticising the insurgency
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/07/2015
» Rarely do we see a Thai film set in the Deep South and rarely do we see a film with so many people saying "assalamu alaikum" to each other. So now that we have one in the cinema, it turns out to be such a piece of romantic fluff that it hardly does justice to the complicated reality of the region and its people. What should we expect when Latitude Tee Hok (Latitude No.6) has been financed by the military — the Internal Security Operations Command, to be precise — and produced by UCI Media, an affiliation of a company that sells communication equipment to the army?
Mandela let us see we're all so very human
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 14/12/2013
» On Tuesday night I caught the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom at a screening in Dubai, where I was attending a film festival. On that same day, South Africa bid adieu to Nelson Mandela, the man, the fighter, the prisoner, the township hero who became a global idol for peace, the towering personality whose stature and courage were so formidable that no movie could ever match.