21 December 2024

Save it with Our Eyes


Save it with Our Eyes Save it with Our Eyes

Twenty short films will be shown this evening at the Ready for the Weekend coffee shop in Khon Kaen, as part of the ‘save micro cinema’ campaign. The Save It with Our Eyes programme includes Vichart Somkaew’s The Letter from Silence (จดหมายจากความเงียบ) and Chaweng Chaiyawan’s Please... See Us (หว่างีมอละ).

The campaign began earlier this week, after Bangkok’s boutique Doc Club and Pub cinema announced that it could no longer screen films. On 20th June, Doc Club began showing Sarawut Intaraprom’s Pup (สุนัข และ เจ้านาย), which was rated ‘20’, and three staff from the Ministry of Culture were on site to ensure that audience IDs were being checked. They discovered that the venue had never applied for a cinema licence, and advised that it could continue to operate during the application process.

However, Doc Club’s licence application was ultimately rejected, as its location, the Woof Pack building, does not have sufficient access. (The cinema can only be reached via narrow staircases.) In a statement posted on social media on 16th December, Doc Club explained (perhaps naively) that they had not realised that a cinema licence was necessary, and that they were attempting to find a more suitable location.

The Letter from Silence was previously screened as part of The 28th Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 28) and the Short Film Marathon 28 (หนังสั้นมาราธอน 28). Please... See Us was shown at Maejo University in Chiang Mai earlier this year, at Chiang Mai University, and at a Chaweng retrospective in Phattalung. It had an outdoor screening in Chiang Mai last year. It has been screened twice at Doc Club, in 2021 and 2023. It was shown in Phayao as part of Wildtype 2021, and in Salaya at the 25th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 25).

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