Showing 1 - 6 of 6
Getting soft power right
Life, Published on 08/01/2024
» After three months in office, the Srettha Thavisin government has raved on about populist policies in the guise of digital wallets and soft power projects that will create income to boost our declining economy. With optimism, we learned that Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Pheu Thai party leader and head of the National Soft Power Strategy Committee (NSPSC), has drafted a budget of 5.1 billion baht to boost festivals and creative industries. It is welcoming news to hear this government is priortising art, music, literature, design, fashion, film, food, games, sports and festivals as essential sources for the creative economy. Where this enormous chunk of budget will come from, like digital wallets, remains to be seen.
Building them up
Life, Suwitcha Chaiyong, Published on 02/01/2019
» Construction workers are usually overlooked even though their work is fundamental to the building of cities. To shine a spotlight on them, German photographer Ralf Tooten exhibits construction-worker portraits in his exhibition "A.W.C. -- Asian Workers Covered", as a reminder of how and by whom Thailand's cities have been built.
Thailand in film
Guru, Pasavat Tanskul, Published on 27/07/2018
» It has been a few weeks since the rescue of the Wild Boar soccer team from Tham Luang cave. With the successful and miraculous feel-good news of the rescue, it was inevitable that plans to dramatise the entire ordeal will be made into a movie. Reportedly, six film production companies are in talks with the Thai government and have expressed interest in obtaining rights to make a dramatic movie version of the events.
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.
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.
Santi-Vina finally comes home
Life, Published on 22/07/2016
» On July 15, the Thai Film Archive hosted the screening of Santi-Vina, the 1954 classic Thai film whose negative prints were thought to be lost before they were discovered at the British Film Institute in London two years ago. After a lengthy restoration process by a lab in Italy and a world premiere in Cannes, Santi-Vina returned home after six decades. The screening at Scala last Friday is sure to become a chapter in Thai cinema history: it was an emotional homecoming and the 800-seat theatre was full to the tilt, something that hadn't happened at the venue for a long time.