THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Screen time with Tilda

Screen time with Tilda

British actress Tilda Swinton joins Thai filmmakers for the Film on the Rock Yao Noi Film Festival

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has begun working on his Hollywood film with British actress Tilda Swinton, but this weekend they’re watching movies together at the new Film on the Rock Yao Noi Film Festival.
Nat Sarasas of the Six Senses Yao Noi Resort and his friend Chomwan Weerarorawit launched the Film On the Rock Foundation last year to promote cinema and art, and then recruited Apichatpong for the team.
Apichatpong in turn invited Swinton to help. She and her daughter and friends hosted a film festival in Scotland in 2008 with a similar ambition – to bolster the spirit of the moviemaking community there.
The Film on the Rock fest is the same idea, Swinton told the press in Bangkok on Tuesday. “Like planting a garden, we’ll grow the seeds and empower the community, and hopefully create a new kind of cinema,” she said.
While the festival is centred on the resort, workshops for island students have been arranged with the Thai Film Foundation and Film Archive. “We also want to share with the community by collaborating with students and screening films in their library,” Apichatpong explained.
Dozens of young independent Thai filmmakers joined a “Laboratory” project at the resort in December, comparing notes with Apichatpong, artist Rirkrit Tiravanija and architect Ole Cheeren.
Argentinine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel had a month-long residency there as well. She delved into the island’s Muslim culture and rubber cultivation in footage with which local students assisted. The resulting movie will be screened at the festival.
Rirkrit has created an installation for the festival called “no fire no ask” in collaboration with musician Arto Linday, and a video called “The inVisible world”. Ole Cheeren returns with a design for a floating “Archipelago Cinema” inspired by the local lobster traps.
Patchaya Phinthong will create an installation called “Friends of Petch” at the home of farmer Lung Bao, who lives a simple, sustainable lifestyle.
And another alumnus of the Laboratory, Nontawat Numbenchapol, will be back with the installation “Aurora Primary”, inspired by a fish trap called a sai.

 NO TICKETS
With admission by invitation only, the Yao Noi Film Festival continues today through Tuesday at the Six Senses Yao Noi Resort off Phuket.
Find out more at www.FilmOnTheRockYaoNoi.com
 
 

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