Bangkok Experimental Film Festival/Film Space
Chiang Mai movies update, Sunday, July 20
by Thomas Ohlson
Experimental Film Festival 2nd weekend; Film Space mixed up the schedule
Sure enough, Film Space did not follow its schedule last night. Although it did present all three promised programs, it started at 6:15 pm instead of 6:00, and started with the 8 pm program, the BEFF program Track Changes. Then it showed One Dot Zero Program 3. Then, at about 8:20 pm, without a break, it showed One Dot Zero Program 2.
In my message yesterday I did warn, “this is subject to last minute changes!”
They promise that next Saturday night, when they share the space once again with the Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, the evening will start at 7 pm, as usual, with the 75-minute BEFF program Learned Behaviour coming first, followed by One Dot Zero Program 4.
Tonight there is one showing, the BEFF program Daily Rounds at 7 pm.
But, of course, even this is subject to change!
The Film Space viewing room is on the 2nd floor of the Chiang Mai University Media Arts and Design building, which is to the right and in the back of the CMU Art Museum, across from the ballet school.
Admission is free to all BEFF screenings.
Tonight’s schedule:
7:00 pm – BEFF Program: Daily Rounds – An 85-minute program of new Thai works “devoted to the cycles of everyday life. Experimental films that reveal what is extraordinary about the ordinary, what is timeless about the everyday.”
Detailed listing of Daily Rounds
1. Chalermrat Gaweewattana (TH): A century of love, 14.25 mins, 2007. My friend Wise Kwai, a Bangkok journalist, says it’s a simple portrait of the filmmaker's grandparents, setting up a camera and watching them go through their daily routine of taking meals, sitting, napping, and puttering around the house and garden.
2. Tanatchai Bandasak (TH): Endless Rhyme, 26.36 mins, 2008.
3. Anocha Suwichakornpong (TH): Black Mirror, 3.00 mins, 2008. Wise Kwai: Puzzling, with a hypnotic soundtrack of guitar and moaning voice, with shots of a road at night and an esophageal tube.
4. Watchathanapoom Laisuwannachai (TH): Golden Mountain, 10.30 mins, 2008. Wise Kwai: I liked Golden Mountain, which ends awash in the sound of brass bells. I can't tell much more about it than that, except for some chicken being cut up with a cleaver.
5. Chai Chaiyachit (TH): National Anthem, 27.00 mins, 2008. Wise Kwai: National Anthem is provocative – it’s silent shots of people in parks doing aerobics, with the sound kicking in as the 6 o'clock hour rolls around – time to play the Royal Anthem, at which point, the aerobics leader calls a "time out" by forming a "T" with her hands. The rest of the 27-minute short is devoted to a couple of guys and their political rant, talking about how Samak will be elected (he was) and Thaksin will return (he has).
