The Films Of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Delving into Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films, this book uncovers a plethora of conceptual paradigms. Apichatpong's films frequently utilize rural Thailand as a backdrop, showcasing daily life, interactions, rituals, and customs, all infused with a Southeast Asian essence. This utilization of local imagery provides a national quality to his works, allowing a global audience to explore both urban and rural aspects of Thai society, along with discourses on history, culture, politics, and practices. Beyond the surface, the films also address universal and intricate themes, transcending cultural boundaries. The book delves into a range of lesser-explored aspects regarding the films and filmmaking of Apichatpong, developing fresh perspectives on the representation of nonhumans, hybrid forms, transmedia plot, technique, production among others. With meticulous analyses of his key works this interdisciplinary study unveils the threads that bind Apichatpong’s creative practice, innovative techniques, and philosophical insights. An essential read for cinephiles, scholars, and seekers of cinematic depth, this book uncovers the vibrant tapestry of meaning within Apichatpong’s enigmatic film-worlds.

Environmentalism and ecology are areas of rapid growth in academia and society at large. Screening Nature is the first comprehensive work that groups together the wide range of concerns in the field of cinema and the environment, and what could be termed “posthuman cinema.” It comprises key readings that highlight the centrality of nature and nonhuman animals to the cinematic medium, and to the language and institution of film. The book offers a fresh and timely intervention into contemporary film theory through a focus on the nonhuman environment as principal register in many filmic texts. Screening Nature offers an extensive resource for teachers, undergraduate students, and more advanced scholars on the intersections between the natural world and the worlds of film. It emphasizes the cross-cultural and geographically diverse relevance of the topic of cinema ecology.

Thai filmmaker Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul is widely praised as a central figure in contemporary cinema. Trained in the United States as a visual artist, Weerasethakul stunned the film world with five innovative and dreamlike features made since 2000, including such award-winning films as Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, and Syndromes and a Century. James Quandt, one of the foremost film critics and curators working in North America today, has edited the first English-language book on Weerasethakul. Along with his essays, contributors include Benedict Anderson, Tony Rayns, Kong Rithdee, and the British actress Tilda Swinton.

Offering a fresh perspective on the work of internationally acclaimed filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul (born 1970), the Apitchapong Weerasethakul Sourcebook moves between scientific documents and personal documentary, interviews and epistolary dialogue, the cinematic and the poetic. In its multimodal approach the Sourcebook reflects Weerasethakul's artistic practice in which he portrays the everyday alongside supernatural elements while suggesting a distortion between fact and folklore, history and storytelling. Weerasethakul's personal writings and interviews, much of which is translated here for the first time, draw out his deep commitment to stories often excluded in history in and out of Thailand: voices of the poor and the ill, marginalized beings and those silenced and censored for personal and political reasons. The Sourcebook includes materials on such topics as implanted memories in mice, caves in Laos left over from the Indochina wars, new methods for listening underwater and meditations on light and darkness, plus interviews between Weerasethakul and leading art historians as well as texts drawn from his personal library. The Sourcebook invites readers into Weerasethakul's intimate exploration of his influences--in his words, "like [a] stream of consciousness, suffocated by the data."

Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, renowned Thai film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (born 1970) has directed several acclaimed features and dozens of short films, including Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Palme d'Or prize at Cannes; Tropical Malady, winner of a 2004 Cannes jury prize; and Syndromes and a Century, which premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival. Themes in Weerasethakul's films include dreams, nature, sexuality and Western perceptions of Thailand and Asia; the director also shows a preference for unconventional narrative structures, like placing titles/credits at the middle of a film, and for working with those who have no previous experience of acting. For Tomorrow For Tonight features new work exploring the theme of night through video, photographs and installation.

The rise of independent cinema in Southeast Asia, following the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers there, is among the most significant recent developments in global cinema. The advent of affordable and easy access to digital technology has empowered startling new voices from a part of the world rarely heard or seen in international film circles. The appearance of fresh, sharply alternative, and often very personal voices has had a tremendous impact on local film production. This book documents these developments as a genuine outcome of the democratization and liberalization of film production. Contributions from respected scholars, interviews with filmmakers, personal accounts and primary sources by important directors and screenwriters collectively provide readers with a lively account of dynamic film developments in Southeast Asia. Interviewees include Lav Diaz, Amir Muhammad, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Eric Khoo, Nia Dinata and others. Tilman Baumgärtel taught film and media studies in Germany, Austria and the Philippines before joining Royal University of Phnom Penh in 2009. He has curated international film series and art exhibitions, and has also published books on independent cinema, Internet art, computer games and the German director Harun Farocki. His blog can be found at http://southeastasiancinema.wordpress.com

Nice Guys Don't Work in Hollywood is a fast-paced view of Harrington's journey through the kaleidoscope of the movie business, acting alternatively as personal memoir and cultural history from a veteran of thee entertainment business. In addition, Harrington was living as a gay man in Hollywood and the book gives a rare peek into the hidden world of what was then an elite subculture. Starting in 1940s avant-garde heyday, harrington made several deeply intuitive and evocative films. Against all odds, he then became a Hollywood insider.