3rd World Film Festival

Hard on the heels of the Pusan film festival is the World Film Festival of Bangkok, from October 15-24. This pretty much ensures I won't be able to attend the Korean event. I probably couldn't afford it anyway.

As part of the 3rd World Film Festival, organizers have invited 14 filmmakers to produce short films to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Filmmakers who have been invited are Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Lek Manont, Navarat Tharavanij, Pimpaka Towira, Pipope Panitchpakdi, Pramote Sangsorn, Santi Taepanich, Somkid Thamniamdi, Sompot Chidgasornpongs, Suchada Siritanawat, Thunska Pansittivorakul, Christelle Lheureux, Folke Rydn, Margaret Bong and Chew Jen.

They have been asked to create a piece of imaginative art inspired by the tragic incident. Each filmmaker can visit any province in the South of Thailand that was affected by the tsunami, but only five days are allowed for shooting. The work must be produced in a form of digital video of 7-15 minutes in length and the filmmakers must send their work to Office of Contemporary Art and Culture by August 30, 2005.

The films will be premiered at the festival.

Other highlights include a retrospective on Roman Polanski, who has been invited to attend, with no expenses spared to make sure the controversial director will be comfortable and happy during his stay in Bangkok.

In conjunction with the festival, there will be a competition for independent filmmakers from selected Asian countries to win a trip to Nantes, France to attend a workshop on how to raise funds from Europe for filmmaking. Invitations to join have been extended to filmmakers from Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes )