For the second time, Salaya International Documentary Film Festival will treat doc-heads to a rich diversity of real-life stories from across Asia. Hosted by the Thai Film Archive, the festival represents a growing significance of documentary films as a means of expression and a channel for report and reflection, a marriage between storytelling ambition and journalistic functionality.
311, a documentary about last year’s tsunami by Tatsuya Mori.
The festival runs March 20-25 at the auditorium of the film archive in Salaya (it's not central, but it's not that inconvenient either). Most of the films are from Asia, and the subjects range from Japan's tsunami of last year to a document of Thailand's flood, from a treasure trove of old Khmer movies to the harsh life of modern China.
All screenings are free of charge. For programme and details, go to salayadoc.blog.com/schedule/.
Below are some highlights of the upcoming festival.
Salaya International Documentary Film Festival runs from Mar 20 to 25.
OPENING FILMS: UNDER/WATER/DOG AND 311
The two opening films will screen at 4pm on March 20. Under/Water/Dog, directed by Nuttorn Kangwanklai, follows a volunteer who went out to rescue stranded dogs during last November's flood. Tatsuya Mori's 311 is, as the name suggests, an account of film-makers who went into the tsunami-ravaged area two weeks after the devastating tragedy of March 3, 2011. Mori is one of the best-known documentary film-makers whose works include an embedded report from the Aum Shinri Kyo headquarters.
FILMS OF XU TONG
The festival curates three films by Chinese film-maker Xu Tong, who documents the marginal life in big Chinese cities. Real and sometimes harrowing, Suan Ming (Fortune Teller) tells the story of the eponymous man who reads the future for prostitutes and facing sporadic police crackdowns. Wheat Harvest tells the story of a woman who returns to her farm house to find her father seriously sick. Lao tang tou (Shattered) tells the story of an old man and his daughter during a brutal winter.
THE CHEER AMBASSADOR
This lively film, by Luke Cassidy-Dorion, follows the near-impossible journey of a group of self-trained Thai cheerleaders who defy the odds and go on to win prizes at international cheerleading competitions. Screening on March 25 at 1pm.
REPATRIATION
This film by Kim Dong-won is from 2003, but its relevance hardly diminishes given the amount of coverage we've seen of North Korea. It follows two North Korean men who were imprisoned for 30 years for being spies and who, upon release, try to return to the mainstream society while joining the repatriation campaign to return to North Korea. Screening on March 25 at 3pm.
WORD IS OUT
This restored version of a 1978 film presents a mosaic of interviews with 26 gay and lesbian individuals who describe their experiences coming out, falling in and out of love, and struggling against prejudice and discriminatory laws. These interviewees _ who range in age from 18 to 77, and in type from bee-hived housewife to sultry drag queen _ include poets, political activists, civil rights leaders and film-makers. Screening on March 24 at 6pm.
CLOSING FILM: GOLDEN SLUMBERS
Directed by French-Cambodian Davy Chou, Golden Slumbers revisits the golden age of Cambodian cinema through reminiscences, memories, conjectures, and interviews with some of the most important figures in Khmer movies. Screening on March 25 at 6pm.
