Wednesday, August 20, 2008

12th Thai Short Film & Video Festival set for Bangkok Art and Culture Center

The longest-running Thai film festival, the Thai Short Film & Video Festival is bigger than ever this year, expanded from 10 days to 16 days, from August 29 to September 14.

Now in its 12th edition, it’s taking place at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center - the first film event for the brand-spanking-new facility at Pathumwan Junction.

An important showcase for young, up-and-coming Thai independent filmmakers, as well as an interesting look at feature-length documentaries and experimental works from international art-film directors.

Thanks to the digital explosion, a record 400 submissions were received for this year's competition, and the organizers had to watch them all. They narrowed the selection down during the annual Short Film Marathon, which wrapped up on August 10, after showing films for ten hours a day every Saturday and Sunday for a month.

A good many of the films were pretty awful, says the Thai Film Foundation’s Chalida Uabumrungjit, and the young filmmakers don't know how bad they were until they saw them on the big screen. Still, it's an instructive form of encouragement.

Special programs will include a best-of package from Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival in France, the world’s biggest short film festival. There will be a package of Queer Shorts, the British Council's AirplayUK music video program and the Electric Eels Showcase of award-winning Thai shorts from the international circuit.

Feature-length documentaries will be screened in the Doc Forum. They will include the premier of The Convert by Panu Aree and Kong Rithdee, about the love between Muslim man and Buddhist woman.

Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to post more in detail about this increasingly vibrant and diverse festival.

The full program has yet to be uploaded to the festival's website, but an advance look is available at the Thai Film Foundation.

See also
(Adapted from a guest article at Absolutely Bangkok)

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