Documents of disaster

Japan’s twin disasters and Thailand’s own floods come into focus in the second Salaya International Documentary Film Festival next week at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom.
Starting at 4pm on Tuesday, the opener will be “311”, a documentary by veteran director Tatsuya Mori on the aftermath of last year’s earthquake in Japan.
It follows four documentary makers – Yasuoka Takaharu, Watai Takeharu, Matsubayashi Youju and Mori himself – as they travel around the disaster-stricken country. While recording the ruins and misery, Mori was trapped in a moral dilemma – did he have the right to film the suffering? The resulting movie premiered at last year’s Busan International Film Festival.
Mori will also lead workshops along with Nguyen Trinh Thi from the Hanoi Doclab and Urupong Raksasad, director of “Agrarian Utopia”.
Closer to home will be a look at Thailand’s big disaster – “Under/|Water/Dog”, a short by Nuttorn Kungwanklai about controversial volunteer efforts to help dogs stranded by the floods. The 30-minute short will precede Tuesday’s main opening feature, “311”.
This year’s festival introduces the Asean Documentary Competition, with entries from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Burma and Indonesia.
The Director in Focus is Xu Tong, a Chinese documentarian who, according to the Screening China blog, is known for his “confronting vision of China’s lower depths”. Three of his works will be shown: “Wheat Harvest”, covering the sex industry in Beijing; “Fortune Teller”, about a crippled itinerant soothsayer and his deaf, mute, mentally impaired wife, and the sequel to “Fortune Teller”, “Shattered”.
Among the Thai entries in competition is “Wish Us Luck”, the debut feature by twin sisters Wanweaw and Weawwan Hongwiwat, in which they filmed their month-long train journey back to Thailand from London, having adventures along the way in such places as Russia, Mongolia and China.
In the Perspective programme is “The Cheer Ambassadors”, about the first Thai team to participate in the World Cheerleading Championships.
Perspective also includes Nicolas Philibert’s “Nenette”, about the 40-year-old orang-utan at Paris’ Jardins des Plantes zoo. There’s “Aki Ra’s Boys”, about orphaned bomb victims living at Cambodia’s Landmine Museum; “Repatriated”, on the release of North Korean spies who were held in South Korea for 30 years; and “Word is Out”, a recently restored 1977 documentary by the Mariposa Film Group that shattered stereotypes of gays and lesbians in the US.
The closing title on March 25 will be “Golden Slumbers”, a documentary by Davy Chou on the lost movies of Cambodia’s golden age of cinema. It recently screened at the Berlin film festival alongside a selection of the few surviving Khmer classics,
There’s also a seminar on March 26 and 27, “Finding Neverland for Southeast Asian Documentary”, with panels on such topics as project funding, censorship and distribution.

BANGKOK TOO
The Salaya International Documentary Film Festival runs from Tuesday until February 25 at the Sri Salaya Theatre at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom. Screenings begin at 4pm Tuesday through Friday, at noon on March 24 and 1pm on March 25.
Some of the films will be screened again on March 31 and April 1 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
Admission is free. Registration is required for the workshops and seminars.
See the full schedule at www.SalayaDoc.blog.com.