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.
Not the usual fare
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/10/2018
» Two idiosyncratic filmgoing options for fans of Thai cinema — one classic, one contemporary
Young at heart
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 23/04/2018
» On some afternoons, Thep Kengvinit would walk to Central Pinklao, sit down at an electric piano in an electronics store, and play random songs from the 1960s. "I walk because it helps loosen my joints," said the 74-year-old grandfather, "and I play because it's relaxing".
Guests of honour
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/08/2017
» Last night when the clock struck 12, India turned 70. The birth of India or the rebirth after a century of colonial rule, is an ecstatic occasion that also has a darker edge in the partition of Pakistan, carved out of the former British Raj in a brutal bloodshed between Hindus and Muslims that killed hundreds of thousands and uprooted millions (Pakistan Independence Day was celebrated yesterday).
The women of Wanita
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 08/03/2017
» Nine years ago, Ropita Mahamat almost lost her son in a shooting incident, a dishearteningly familiar story in the Deep South. One night at 9pm in Pattani, her son was picking a relative from a pondok school when unidentified gunmen opened fire on him -- or, more likely, on someone else, though the bullets hit him. This circumstance, like so many similar ones in the region, was never clearly explained.
The holy voice, the beautiful sound
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/03/2017
» In January, Hasan Samoh became the first Thai to win first place at a major Koran recital competition, taking place in the capital of Sudan where he outscored 85 other contestants from around the world. Living in Pattani, young Hasan became a celebrity in the predominantly Muslim South and, upon his return, was welcomed at Government House by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who pledged to support the 19-year-old in future competitions.
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.
Moments of record
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/10/2016
» The film fades and has scratches, but the persistence of history is strong. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture and Thai Film Archive (Public Organisation) registered 25 film items into the National Heritage list for audiovisual conservation and future reference. In November and December, the Archive will host screenings of some of the newly inducted titles.
The space in the ocean
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 16/01/2015
» In the new Thai film Tee Wang Rawang Mahasamut (The Isthmus), a Thai girl develops a strange malady after her maid from Myanmar died. She begins to speak Burmese, despite having no knowledge of the language before. And thus begins the metaphysical blurring of mental and geographical boundaries, as the girl and her mother take a road trip to Ranong, the coastal border town populated by migrant labourers from Myanmar.
Cream of the cinematic crop
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/11/2013
» Here we go again. The 11th World Film Festival of Bangkok kicks off tonight with The Rocket, and over the next 10 days more than 50 films will be made available for your perusal at SF World Cinema at Central World.