The Buzz on the screen

SIX MONTHS HAVE passed since the launch at the Rotterdam Film Festival of new Thai venture Mosquito Films Distribution, but it was only last week that four of its seven founders got around to giving journalists and cinephiles the buzz on Mosquito and that, they admit, was simply because they were presenting one of their films, “Letters from the South” at the celebrations marking House cinema’s 10th anniversary.
Award-winning filmmaker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul joined forces with fellow filmmakers Pimpaka Towira, Aditya Assarat, Soros Sukhum, Anocha Suwichakornpong, Lee Chatametikool and Sompot Chidgasornpongse to set up Mosquito with the aim of increasing recognition of Thai independent films in the international arena.
In addition to Thai films, Mosquito also picks up projects from other Southeast Asian filmmakers to distribute to the world market. The company, which gets its name from the pesky insects, has already earned itself a reputation in the industry as the force to contact when looking for indie films from this part of the world.
A package of four films has already been prepared. They are Lee’s “Concrete Clouds” co-produced by Apichatpong , “The Songs of Rice,” directed by Uruphong Raksasad and produced by Pimpaka, “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy,” directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit and produced by Aditya, and the omnibus on Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, “Letters from the South,” co-directed by Aditya, Tsai Ming-liang, Tan Chui Mui, Royston Tan, Midi Z and Sun Koh.
Unlike studio releases that have clearly defined channels for both the local and international markets, independent films tend to attract fewer viewers when released on the regular theatre circuit.
The filmmakers have to organise their own distribution or sometimes go through a distribution company that contacts the world’s buyers for release of the films through various channels, from art house cinema to cable TV and from Internet release to video on demand.
And while revenue is never as high as box-office takings for mainstream movies, international sales as well as film festival section can boost income.
Lee says that running Mosquito as their own distribution company helps decrease the expenses and increases income for the filmmakers and does so faster than if they went through commercial channels.
Income from films distributed by an international film distributor, he explains, only finds their way to the filmmakers once when the company has sold them. Even then, the sum is only part of the whole as the company deducts its operational costs ranging from publicity materials, film storage cost and, in some cases, running the booth at a film market.
 While Mosquito also factors in an operational fee, it keeps the costs down and takes a lower cut. Profit-sharing is set at 70 per cent for filmmakers and 30 per cent for the company.
“I think it’s a satisfactory percentage,” says Anocha.
Aditya adds that the group decided to launch the project at the Rotterdam Film Festival because Thai indie films have traditionally received a warm welcome there.
“The world now knows that if they are looking for independent films from Thailand and Southeast Asia, they can come to us,” says Aditya.
All the seven founders have their own production companies and methods of distribution but Mosquito provides them with a new opportunity though there is no guarantee that Mosquito will distribute all their films
Each project is voted on through a secret ballot before being accepted for distribution and this regulation also applies to the founder’s own movies. Criteria include the potential of the film for screening on the film festival circuit and its suitability for the international indie market.
“We have experience in film festivals so we know what movies have potential or will sell. If work is needed to make a film more suitable for the potential clients, then we will do that before we start distributing,” Pimpaka says.
The first project on which Mosquito is working is “W”, the thesis film of Chonlasit Upagnikhit. A graduate of Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Information Technology, the 24-year-old filmmaker won the Best Editing prizes from the Subhanahongsa and Critics awards for his work on “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy”.
His thesis film runs for three hours and Aditya has stepped in as producer.
“I like the movie and think it is right for the film festival circuit but it was made for a thesis project not for general release. It needs polishing before we can submit it,” he says.
Aditya is currently working to make it shorter, explaining that in his experience festival-goers tend to loss interest if the movie is too long.
So far the Mosquito folks have only worked with Thai movies but hope to soon expand to the region. Likewise, the focus has been mainly on the international market but they will release Lee’s “Concrete Clounds” in local cinemas in September.
Pimpaka, who has experience in distributing independent films to local cinemas, notes that domestic releases are not a priority as there’s no profit to be made
“A regular theatre release is of little benefit to small films. What we want to see are cinematheques supported by the public sector where alternative movies can be screened over a longer period and attract larger viewer numbers,” she says.
Mosquito is also up against the advances in technology that have drastically changed consumer behaviour, with more film fans choosing to get their dose of film on TV cable channels, on their computer screens and on their smartphones.
“Watching movies at the cinema is a dying trend. I firmly believe that movies will last forever, but what we have to do is to find the way to make them survive,” she says.
In the meantime, Mosquito is focusing its attention on smaller markets by screening films in university libraries or packaging their movies and presenting curated film programmes for festival and museum exhibitions with an interest in Southeast Asian cinema.
And while they don’t pretend to have earned much during their six months of operation, they have at least made a modest profit and are ready to move on the next phase by selecting new films to distribute.
Pimpaka says the best returns come from selling to cable stations like the Sundance Channel and the screening fees from film festivals, which pay the filmmaker somewhere from Bt10,000 to Bt40,000.
 “The screening fee we get once the film is selected for festivals is good income for Mosquito. If we can go to one film festival a month, the fee can cover the company’s expenses,” she says.
 On the Web:
MosquitoFilmsDistribution.com