A unique film event will take place in a most spectacular location from March 9 to 13. "Film on the Rocks Yao Noi" is an inaugural gathering of art and film people at Six Senses, a luxurious resort on Yao Noi Island in Phangnga Bay.
What will happen on that island off the coast, 20 minutes by speedboat from Phuket, is three nights of film screenings _ some of them will be projected, ambitiously, on the limestone outcrops that rise out of the waters of the Andaman Sea _ plus meetings, art installations and workshops. Short films made by local students will be shown alongside a classic repertoire and a selection of experimental works, from a D.W. Griffith film to Andy Warhol's Kiss and Indonesian quirky shorts from the past decade.
These films are being curated by personalities no less exciting than British actress Tilda Swinton and Thai film-maker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who have agreed to become the creative engines behind the event.
The origin of "Film on the Rocks", headlined "Primordial" for its first edition, is a process that combines various facets of film activities and the attempt to marry the thrilling location of Six Senses to the world of artistic films. The co-founders of the event are Nat Sarasas and Chomwan Weeraworawit, who invited Apichatpong and later Swinton to join them in putting together the event.
At the moment, confirmed guests who will arrive on the island next weekend, besides Swinton, include film-makers, artists, curators, critics and film festival top-ranks such as Chloe Sevigny, Gregg Araki, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tsai Ming-liang, Lucrecia Martel, Ananda Everingham, Museum of Modern Art curator Joshua Siegel, Cannes Film Festival's head of film department Christian Jeune, producer Simon Field, and many more.
"To create an alternative platform on an island that is far away seems to defeat the object," says the event's manifesto. "We want to change this preconception. We know that to 'contribute' to the community and leave after our task is done is a colonial and dated notion. What we want to do is support and collaborate."
One way of showing commitment is by the organisers establishing the Film on the Rocks Yao Noi Foundation, with the objectives of promoting film and visual arts, setting up an artist residency on the island, and working with the Thai Film Archive and Thai Film Foundation on film education. Late last year, the artist residency project took off when Six Senses hosted Argentine film-maker Lucrecia Martel, who recruited students on the island to work in her short film _ Martel is one of the most visionary film-makers at work today. Meanwhile, the Thai Film Foundation and Thai Film Archive will next week hold a workshop for young people on Yao Noi Island and train them in the basic craft of storytelling through film. This partnership will also result in the screening of rare, old Thai cinema at the event.
A group of young Thai film-makers and artists have also been selected to take part in the event next week, where they'll show their films and unveil installation pieces commissioned by the organisers.
Apichatpong and Swinton have also asked guests to bring what they call a "Message in a Bottle", films that they especially cherish and wish to share with other participants. The result looks like a feast of obscure, unusual, exciting and celebrated works heavy on experimental edge and film-history perspectives (most are shown on film print, not DVD). For instance, screenings will include films by Bruce Baillie, Norman McLaren, Nancy Andrews, plus old films, from D.W. Griffith's The Unchanging Sea to the 1924 Peter Pan by Herbert Brenon.
