"Shorts," a short film about a young copywriter/production designer
who seems to have gone crazy, will compete in the 12th Thai Short
Film and Video Festival, which will run from August 29 to September
14 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Pathumwan Junction.
Seymour Barros Sanchez's "mockumentary" will vie for the award in the
festival's R.D. Pestonji International Short Competition section,
which will be shown on September 6. The other finalists are Asaf
Saban's "Mapping" (Israel), Marie Helene-Panisset's "On Pretty Happy
Dame" (Canada), Tubmi Koukou's "Place" (Japan), Wong Jong-shik's "Watermelon Chicken" (South Korea), Vicent Burgevin's and
Franck Lebon's "Edwards in Wonderland" (France), Emanuela
Rossi's "Clara's Child" (Italy), Jystyna Nowak's "Dragonfly"
(Poland), Karl Tebbe's "Karaoke Show" (Germany), Thomas
Adamicka's "The Limits" (Germany), Conor Ferguson's "The Wednesday"
(Ireland), and Anders Skog's "Tag!" (Sweden). The award is named in
honor of R.D. Pestonji, regarded as the father of contemporary Thai
film.
Two other Filipino films, Raya Martin's "Childhood in the Philippines
Islands, undated" (Infancia en las Islas de Filipinas, sin fecha) and
Marlon Fuentes' "Bontoc Eulogy," will be screened as part of the S-Express Philippines program on September 10. S-Express is a
traveling short film program of some of the region's most outstanding
and notable independent filmmakers to be presented by the respective
curators from each country.
Film festival project coordinator Sanchai Chotirosseranee, also an S-Express Thailand programmer, revealed that "the tougher short
competition program (was) selected from more than 400 shorts from
around the world." The jury for this section are Ekachai
Uekrongtham, director of "Beautiful Boxer" (Panorama in Berlinale
2003) and "Pleasure Factory" (premiere at Un Certain Regard 2007),
and Prawich Tangeaksorn, a noted Thai film critic and lecturer.
The festival will also offer special short programs which have never
been shown or premiered in Thailand. Exclusively granted the green
light, this year's festival proudly presents the best selection from
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, the world's biggest film
festival of its kind, to be attended by French programmer Roger
Gonin, the Queer Shorts program which selects international shorts to
celebrate the variety and fluidity of human sexuality, the Airplay
program portraying the behind-the-scene of the à la mode music video
from popular British singers and bands, and award-winning Thai shorts
arraying in the international film festival circuit during the recent
years. Martin Thau of the Munich Film and Television Academy will
also conduct a special screenwriting workshop from August 23 to 27.
"Shorts" stars commercial model Peejay Lanot, Nora Ruth Aquino,
Jhovannie Santos, John Emmanuel Bautista, and Andy Del Rosario, with
cameo appearances by award-winning actress Gina Pareño, directors
Jeffrey Jeturian and Sockie Fernandez, University of Makati Center
for Performing and Digital Arts executive director Mary Acel German,
former Yes FM DJ Edu Mansanas/Jobert Monteras and DZXL/UNTV/Bantay
OFW host Marvin Javier.
The short film earlier won third prize in the Viva – Pinoy Box Office
(PBO) Digitales 2 short film competition and will also compete in the
Bite the Mango Film Festival from September 19 to 25 at the National
Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
Sanchez is an advocacy filmmaker, a freelance writer, and a mass
communication professor.
