Apichatpong-a-rama: Keynote in Busan, Wavelengths in Toronto, trailer in Seoul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul will give a keynote presentation at the first Busan Cinema Forum, which will be held during the 16th Busan International Film Festival.

Under the theme "Seeking the Path of Asian Cinema in the 21st century: East Asia", the forum will host representatives from the film magazine Les Cahiers du Cinéma and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Six world film research organizations and a group of critics will also participate.

Apichatpong is a keynote presenter along with Dudley Andrew, film studies professor at Yale University.

There are more words about it in a press release.

The forum will be held from October 10 to 12 during the October 6 to 14 fest.

At the Toronto International Film Festival, Apichatpong's short film Empire has been added to the Wavelengths program. The two-minute video of a cave diver, "a beguiling miniature of an enchanted grotto", was originally created as the trailer for last year's Vienna International Film Festival.

Empire screens in Toronto alongside the world premiere of Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Headshot. TIFF runs from September 8 to 18.

Meanwhile, Apichatpong has created Empire x 2, which became a trailer for another fest, the recent fifth edition of the Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival (CinDi).

Featuring parting red curtains, you can watch it at the festival website or see it embedded below.

There's also an essay about it, so go read it at the festival website.

Filmed in the Lapinsuu cinema in Sodankyla, Finland, Empire x 2 pays tribute to the now long-gone movie palaces of Apichatpong's boyhood hometown of Khon Kaen.

Also at CinDi was Chira Wichaisuthikul's Thai boxing documentary Lumpinee, which was in competition. A transcript of the Q&A session is at the CinDi website.