Award-winning Thai shorts coming to Singapore

A chance to see some of the award-winning shorts from the recent 13th Thai Short Film & Video Festival will be in Singapore at the ninth Asian Film Symposium at the fifth Singapore Short Film Festival from September 13 to 21 at the Substation.

Here are the films packaged in the S-Express Thailand program showing on Sunday, September 20:

• Man and Gravity, Jakrawal Nilthamrong -- Okay, this is the Man and Gravity that premiered in competition at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam and was later shown in Bangkok as part of the 6 Degrees of Separation series. It's about a man with a loaded-down, under-powered motorbike. A sequel of sorts, Man and Gravity: Plateau, which was made in Japan, was a runner-up for the R.D. Pestonji Award at this year's Thai Short Film & Video Festival.
• Abtakon, Thawatpong Tangsajjapoj -- This was a runner-up for the Payut Ngaokrachang medal at this year's Thai Short Film & Video Festival. Making a special cup of coffee can be harder than one can imagined.
• Red Man, Nattaphong Homchuen -- What happens when you where the wrong color to the office in Thailand's color-coded society? This won a special mention for the White Elephant Award for student filmmakers.
• Français, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit -- The other runner-up for the R.D. Pestonji Award this year is about a blind college student who is struggling to study for a test on French philosophy, but the Braille translation of the materials she needs isn't ready. She convinces her roommate to help, but the roommate can't read French.

The S-Express programs are part of the Asian Film Symposium, which was a separate annual event from the biennial Singapore Short Film Festival. This year the fest becomes an annual event with the symposium being a segment under it. Check out the full program, which includes S-Express programs from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Chinese, and the closing program includes a retrospective of shorts by Indonesia's Edwin.