Lao premieres, Home, Boundary and River Changes Course among highlights at 2013 Luang Prabang fest

With his lineup released last week, Luang Prabang Film Festival director Gabriel Kuperman revealed a few of his highlights in an article in The Nation today. Here's the details:

The opening film will be Big Heart, directed by Laos' Mattiphob Douangmyxay. It's about a young boxer overcoming personal obstacles while falling in love.

The other Lao premiere will be I Love Savanh by Bounthong Nhotmanhkong. It's about a Japanese expat working in southern Laos and taking romantic interest in a weaver.

"These impressive titles are the feature film debuts for both directors, and both show incredible promise for the filmmakers," Kuperman says.

Other highlights are two films by acclaimed Love of Siam director Chookiat Sakveerakul. He's expected be on hand to present his award-winning Chiang Mai-set drama Home as well as his teen comedy Grean Fictions.

Noted Thai indie filmmaker Nontawat Numbenchapol will also be there, showing his documentary Boundary, covering the Thai-Cambodian border dispute around the Preah Vihear temple.

More views from across the border come from Cambodian genocide survivor and activist Youk Chhang, who will present A River Changes Course, which won the World Cinema Jury Prize at this year's Sundance festival. Directed by Kalyanee Mam and produced by Chhang's Documentation Centre Cambodia, it's a look at how the country's ancient culture and fragile environment is being devastated by globalisation.

And from Vietnam, Thi Nhung Mello-Pham will present Here ... or There? At age 65, she's made her debut feature, a semi-autobiographical drama about a Vietnamese woman who retires with her European husband to a remote Vietnamese fishing village.

Also peppered in there as possibilities for the main screen are Pen-ek Ratanaruang's hitman thriller Headshot (though with its gun-toting monk maybe not on the main screen), Visra Vichet-Vadakan's Karaoke Girl and a two-pack from Kongdej Jaturanrasmee, P-047, which I'm not sure what they'll make of in Laos, and his more-accessible teen drama Tang Wong.

The Luang Prabang Film Festival runs from December 7 to 11.

Paradoxocracy returns

If you missed Paradoxocracy (ประชาธิป'ไทย, Prachathiptai) (and it's very possible you did) when it was released for a limited run in Bangkok in June, you now have another chance to catch it.

House on RCA has it listed on their schedule in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the October 14, 1973 student uprising against a military dictatorship.

Directed by Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Pasakorn Pramoolwong, the documentary gathers together a dozen or so academics who talk about the tumultuous times constitutional monarchy was put in place in 1932. Frank and sometimes funny, it's censored in a couple of places. If you're interested at all in Thai politics, hurry on over to House and catch it while you can.

Paradoxocracy will also screen at 1pm on Sunday, October 13, at the Thai Film Archive as part of a program that features two other documentaries, Ngao Prawat Sart (The Shadow of History) by Panu Aree and Octoblur (Lom Tulakom) by Patana Chirawong.

East Winds Film Festival has Pee Mak and Pawnshop

The East Winds Film Festival, put on by Conventry University's East Asian Film Society, will present the European premiere of the record-breaking Thai box-office smash Pee Mak Phra Khanong
(พี่มาก...พระโขนง), with special guest director Banjong Pisanthanakun.

The fest will also screen the U.K. premiere of Banjong's solo feature debut, the hit 2010 romantic comedy Hello Stranger.

And to round out the East Winds Thailand Showcase, the fest will host the international premiere of the "arthouse" horror Pawnshop, directed by Parm Rangsri and starring Krissada Sukosol Clapp. which is part of the festival's Halloween night "East Winds Chills" program.

Aside from the Thai selection, a big highlight will be the opening film, the European premiere of Dustin Nguyen's directorial debut, the action-packed epic "Eastern western" Once Upon a Time in Vietnam.

The East Winds Film Festival – the U.K.’s only major showcase of East Asian cinema outside of London and the first of its kind in the Midlands – will take place at Coventry University’s purpose-built digital cinema facility at its student center, The HUB, from October 31 to November 3.

Five Star establishes Kiat-Charoen Iamphungporn Foundation

Five Star Production, one of Thailand's oldest movie studios, has a launched a new foundation named after its late founders, the Kiat-Charoen Iamphungporn Foundation, that will be devoted to the education of new filmmaking talents.

Film Business Asia has more details:

Headed by Saicharoon Iamphungporn, who serves as president, the foundation is well supported by the industry with a seven-member committee and 24 consultants consisting of exhibitors, directors, producers, post production houses and animation companies.

To nurture new talents, the foundation will offer classes conducted by top Thai filmmakers. The first class is on scriptwriting which will be held on eight weekends in January and February 2014. Thirty students – selected from over 500 applicants – will attend.

In addition to Five Star, industry executives from GTH and Phranakorn have kicked in start-up funds.

Instructors will include Five Star alum Pen-ek Ratanaruang, GTH talents Banjong Pisanthanakun and Jira Maligool, indie producers Aditya Assarat and Soros Sukhum ans screenwriter Amraporn Pandinthong.

Please see Film Business Asia for the full story.

Somewhere Only We Know joins the crowdfund

Wichanon Sumumjarn, the award-winning maker of Four Boys, White Whiskey and Grilled Mouse and the feature In April the Following Year, There was a Fire, is the latest director to turn to crowd-funding.

He's making a short called Somewhere Only We Know, about Bee, a country girl working in Bangkok. She spends a night with her ex-boyfriend.

The goal is raise 100,000 baht, or about $3,200. For $20, you get a DVD of the film. Donate $50 and you'll get a "special thanks" in the credits. Contribute $500 and you'll get executive producer credit.

Contributors will also be listed on the Facebook page for Wichanon's next feature project, Beer Girl.

For more details, check out the campaign page at Electric Eel Films.

Luang Prabang Film Festival has poster-design contest, Lao Filmmakers Fund

The Luang Prabang Film Festival, which a couple days ago announced its 2013 lineup of Southeast Asian movies, has a couple other things going on – a poster-design contest and the Lao Filmmakers Fund.

Here's the details on the movie poster design contest:

Any designer living in Southeast Asia is invited to submit a movie poster design for a fictitious film called My Mother's Wedding. This is not an existing movie, nor one in production, so we encourage graphic designers to imagine what might happen in the film, who the main characters are, and how the film might take place in their own country of origin. First Place prize is $750, and the Top 20 will be displayed at the LPFF Visitor Center during the festival.

Meanwhile, there's the Lao Filmmakers Fund. Here's more about that:

The fund is publicly generated, and allows filmmakers in Laos to apply for small grants to help make their film projects possible. Grants are currently available once per year. Successful projects will be chosen by the Luang Prabang Film Festival's Board of Directors, based on the merits of the project, as well as an organized and feasible plan for execution. In our first year, the maximum grant Aaount is $3000 USD.

Deadline for entries is October 15. For more details, hit up the links above or the festival's Facebook page. 

The Luang Prabang Film Festival runs from December 7 to 11 in the UNESCO World Heritage former royal capital of Laos.

Karaoke Girl, Ilo Ilo and a Poj Arnon 3D horror in Bangkok cinemas

It's an interesting week for fans of Southeast Asian cinema in Bangkok, with the release of Ilo Ilo, the first Singaporean film to be awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and the city-state's submission to next year's Academy Awards.

There's also Karaoke Girl, the debut feature by indie Thai filmmaker Visra Vichet-Vadakan. A fixture from this year's festival circuit, Karaoke Girl is an experimental documentary and drama about a young woman who works as a bar "hostess" in Bangkok.

And as a weird aside, there's Mor Hok/Haa Pak Maa Taa Pee, the first 3D movie from Phranakorn Production and controversial director Poj Arnon.

Ilo Ilo is a family drama set against the backdrop of the 1997 financial crisis. Directed by Anthony Chen, the partly autobiographical story is about a Filipina maid who moves into an apartment with an ethnic Chinese family. She becomes a confidant to the bratty spoiled schoolboy son and newly unemployed dad, earning her a hairy eyeball from the pregnant domineering mother.

By coincidence, Ilo Ilo has a Bangkok connection, thanks to one of its producers, Wahyuni A. Hadi, wife of Thai indie filmmaker Aditya Assarat and herself one of the driving forces behind the promotion of Singaporean independent cinema. Winner of the Cannes Camera d'Or Award for best first feature – the first Singaporean film to be awarded at Cannes – Ilo Ilo is at House on RCA. Check out the trailer embedded below.



Karaoke Girl (สาวคาราโอเกะ, Sao Karaoke) depicts the grim life of a young woman who works as an escort. The debut feature of Visra  is the story of Sa, a country girl who was sent to Bangkok when she was just 15. After three years in a factory, she entered the sex trade in order to support her family. Four years later the filmmaker met her, documented her life in the city and in the country and also wrote a fictional script for her to act in. The story is drawn from Sa's actual experiences, threading memories of her rural childhood with the complicated reality of her urban life.

Boasting impressive credits, with New York University professor and Salaam Bombay cinematographer Sandi Sissel as a director of photography, Karaoke Girl premiered in the main competition at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it earned positive reviews. It went on to a bunch of other fests, including Helsinki and London's Terracotta Far East Film Festival as well as Karlovy Vary, Vancouver, Jeonju, Hamburg and Luxembourg City. It won the award for Emerging International Filmmaker at London's Open City Docs Fest.

Happily, the film had a positive effect on Sa, and she's turned her back on her old life, according to the filmmaker.

Karaoke Girl is in limited release at the Apex cinemas in Siam Square and the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchada. It'll open next week at Major Cineplex Airport Plaza Chiang Mai and at Bangkok's House cinema on October 17. The trailer is embedded below.

Mor Hok/Haa Pak Maa Taa Pee (มอ6/5 ปากหมา ท้าผี, a.k.a. Make Me Shudder is the first stab into 3D by B-movie studio Phranakorn and schlock filmmaker Poj Arnon.

The horror comedy is about young schoolboys in short pants who challenge themselves by entering haunted buildings.

I don't know what else to say about this, except it looks like utter nonsense but I will still watch it because I haven't filled my Poj Arnon quota this year. The trailer is embedded below.

World premieres lined up for 2013 Luang Prabang Film Festival

The world premieres of a pair of Lao films are among the highlights of this year's Luang Prabang Film Festival (LPFF), which will take place from December 7 to 11.

As always, LPFF will celebrate the best cinema from across Southeast Asia, and create a space for regional film professionals and fans to network, dialogue, and encourage local film production.

All screenings and activities of the festival are free and open to the public. Selected by LPFF's Motion Picture Ambassadors (film experts in each of the participating countries), the 28 feature films in the fourth annual festival will be:

• 13:00 Sunday (Laos)
• A River Changes Course (Cambodia)
• Ah Boys to Men (Singapore)
• Big Heart (Laos) [World Premiere]
• Boundary (Cambodia/Thailand)
• Contradiction (Malaysia)
• Dancing Across Borders (Cambodia)
• Deenok and Gareng (Indonesia)
• Grean Fictions (Thailand)
• Hak Aum Lum (Laos)
• Headshot (Thailand)
• Here or There?  (Vietnam)
• The Hidden: Wrath of Azazil (Malaysia)
• Home (Thailand)
• I Love Savan (Laos) [World Premiere]
• Karaoke Girl (Thailand)
• Kil (Malaysia)
• Lovely Man (Indonesia)
• Mater Dolorosa (Philippines)
• P-047 (Thailand)
• Red Scarf (Laos)
• Rising Sun on the Horizon (Myanmar)
• Scent of Burning Grass (Vietnam)
• Tangwong (Thailand)
• Thy Womb (Philippines)
• What is it about Rina? (Brunei)
• What isn't There (Philippines)
• What They Don't Talk About When They Talk About Love (Indonesia)

In addition to these feature films, LPFF will also have multiple short film programs, including all 21 Southeast Asian documentary films from DocNet's first ChopShots collection.

The six short films from LPFF's "Our Lives on Film" Documentary Filmmaking Workshop will be featured, as well.

There will be panel discussions, Q-and-As, a concert, and dance and puppetry performances to entertain visitors during the festival.

Several exhibitions will be on display at the LPFF Visitor Center, including the best designs from the festival's movie poster competition (accepting entries until October 15), and an update on the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project.

Coca-Cola, Heineken, Chillax Productions, Khiri Travel, Lane Xang Minerals, and the US Embassy are all major sponsors of this year's festival.

Currently, a crowdsourcing campaign is underway to provide LPFF with mobile screening equipment via CineFund.

For further information on the festival, visit www.lpfilmfest.org (currently under renovation), or stay up to date at Facebook.com/lpfilmfest.

To book discounted tours and travel arrangements to attend the festival, e-mail Khiri Travel, LPFF's Official Travel Partner, at sales.laos@khiri.com.

The Guardians takes top prize in 9FilmFest

A scene from The Guardian.

The Style by Toyota 9FilmFest was held over the weekend of September 21-22 at Bangkok's Paragon Cineplex, showing the latest crop of nine-minute films made especially for the festival. Each film had to incorporate this year's "9 signature item", which was "waterway".

Top prize was a brand-new Toyota Vios, which went to The Guardians, a drama about a river village's "crazy man", who is in mourning over the drowning of his young son. He's determined to learn to swim. It also won best actor. A winner of several other awards was Lie, the tale of a middle-aged man who poses on the Internet as a handsome pop singer.

Here's the winners:

• Screenwriter – Lie, Narongchai Parthumsuwan
• Costume design – The Great River, Steven Rouse
• Leadership Award – Distortion, Thana Chairatanasil
• Best editor – Teppanyaki Kamakazi, Jeremy Zag and Raymond Lewin
• Best producer – Clueless?, Byron Bishop, Sahajak Boonthanakit and Peter Alan Lloyd
• Special jury prize – Lie, Narongchai Parthumsuwan
• Best actor – The Guardians, Supachai Gertsuwan
• Best actress – Clueless?, Joy Villanueva
• Best cinematography – Bangkruai Pradesh, Pathara Buranadilok
• Best director – Clock Blocked, Robert Peters
• Best creativity – The Cream, Naruphon Punphairoj and Satit Ngerntong
• Best film – The Guardians, Disspong Sampattavanich

Prizes were handed out by jury that included Prachya Pinkaew, MR Chalermchatri "Adam" Yukol, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit (Golf), Ananda Everingham, "Pop" Areeya Sirisopa adn "Ted" Yuthana Boon-orm, with other celebrities in attendance including "Poo" Vithaya Pansringarm, Jill Roger and Cindy Bishop.

Thailand puts up Countdown for Oscars

The psychological thriller Countdown (เคาท์ดาวน์) is Thailand's submission to the 86th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya and produced by the GTH studio, Countdown is about a trio of young Thai hipsters in New York who are trapped in their apartment and terrorized on New Year's Eve by an unhinged drug dealer named Jesus.

The film has been a hit on the festival circuit and won awards at home, particularly for actor David Assavanond as the goateed pusher.

Countdown is perhaps a surprising choice for Thailand's Oscar submission, but then perhaps not with GTH chief executive Visute Poolvoralucks currently heading the industry's Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand, which handles the Academy Award pick.

Water-cooler talk had it that the mega-hit horror comedy Pee Mak Phrakanong, also a GTH film, might be submitted. Another contender among pundits was the indie teenage drama Tang Wong, a current critical favorite that touches on Thai traditional dance – an element that made it seem like a shoe-in for the Thai Oscar pick.

But in the end, it was Countdown, which was released in Thai cinemas last December. It's GTH's third submission, following the The Tin Mine (มหา’ลัย เหมืองแร่) in 2005 and Best of Times (ความจำสั้น แต่รักฉันยาว) in 2009.

Thailand's pick joins several other Southeast Asian entries, including a handful of films from countries outside the region.

Australia is submitting The Rocket, a Lao-Isaan family drama directed by Kim Mordaunt that was filmed partly in Laos and partly in Thailand and features a mostly Thai cast.

Three Tagalog films are in the running. The Philippines has submitted Hannah Espia's Israel-set immigration drama Transit, which also is in Hebrew. Singapore's pick is Anthony Chen's family drama Ilo Ilo, which also has Mandarin, Hokkien and hopefully not too much English. And the U.K. is submitting Sean Ellis' crime drama Metro Manila.

Vietnam had intended to submit the historical drama Thien Menh Anh Hung (Blood Letter), but withdrew because it wasn't released during the qualifying timeframe of October 2012 to September 30 of this year.

(Via Jediyuth)