The annual Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน) begins on 30th October, and almost 600 films will be shown online, in alphabetical order, until 3rd December. The cream of the crop will then be selected for the 30th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 30) at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya.
This year’s festival runs from 5th to 27th December. Last year’s Marathon also received around 600 submissions, as did the 2024 and 2023 events, and around 400 films were submitted in 2022.
Highlights this year include three films from the Politix strand at Wildtype 2026. 8 (๘) will be shown on 1st November, Letter from Congo (จดหมายจากคองโก) on 8th November, and A Pigeon’s Journey on the Birth of a Nation (ย้ายรัง) on 28th November.
This year’s festival runs from 5th to 27th December. Last year’s Marathon also received around 600 submissions, as did the 2024 and 2023 events, and around 400 films were submitted in 2022.
Highlights this year include three films from the Politix strand at Wildtype 2026. 8 (๘) will be shown on 1st November, Letter from Congo (จดหมายจากคองโก) on 8th November, and A Pigeon’s Journey on the Birth of a Nation (ย้ายรัง) on 28th November.
8
Pattanapong Khongsak’s film 8 combines historical material with modern technology, using generative AI to visualise the past. This hybrid documentary has no narration, so key events are explained using written captions.
Photos of major political milestones — 6th October 1976, the yellow-shirt and red-shirt protests, the ‘Shutdown Bangkok’ campaign, and the 2006 and 2014 coup announcements — are solarised and rendered as 3D images. Pattanapong also uses bright red and blue tinting, as he did in Bad Taste (โอรส).
The AI manipulation makes the familiar images even more impactful, and dramatic reconstructions help to clarify the details. One sequence strays into deepfake territory: a newsreel-style scene of Democracy Monument engulfed by a tsunami, like a silent disaster movie.
The main focus is on the unexplained death or assassination of Rama VIII, the subsequent smear campaign against Pridi Banomyong, and the wrongful conviction of three men for conspiracy to murder. A caption tells us that the men were executed “8 years, 8 months, 8 days since the King’s death” — hence the 8 in the film’s title. (Its subtitle, The Silence of the Goats, is a pun on The Silence of the Lambs.)
Photos of major political milestones — 6th October 1976, the yellow-shirt and red-shirt protests, the ‘Shutdown Bangkok’ campaign, and the 2006 and 2014 coup announcements — are solarised and rendered as 3D images. Pattanapong also uses bright red and blue tinting, as he did in Bad Taste (โอรส).
The AI manipulation makes the familiar images even more impactful, and dramatic reconstructions help to clarify the details. One sequence strays into deepfake territory: a newsreel-style scene of Democracy Monument engulfed by a tsunami, like a silent disaster movie.
The main focus is on the unexplained death or assassination of Rama VIII, the subsequent smear campaign against Pridi Banomyong, and the wrongful conviction of three men for conspiracy to murder. A caption tells us that the men were executed “8 years, 8 months, 8 days since the King’s death” — hence the 8 in the film’s title. (Its subtitle, The Silence of the Goats, is a pun on The Silence of the Lambs.)
Letter from Congo
In Buariyate Eamkamol’s Letter from Congo, a narrator reads a letter from a woman in colonial-era Belgium describing a cruel monarch. The film also features solarised footage of red-shirt protesters travelling from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.
The final image is a statue of King Kawila, a former ruler of Chiang Mai, and the effect is similar to the ending of the short film Re-presentation (ผีมะขาม ไพร่ฟ้า ประชาธิปไตย ในคืนที่ลมพัดหวน) by Chai Chaiyachit and Chisanucha Kongwailap. Letter from Congo was previously shown earlier this year at TCDC Commons in Srinakarin.
The final image is a statue of King Kawila, a former ruler of Chiang Mai, and the effect is similar to the ending of the short film Re-presentation (ผีมะขาม ไพร่ฟ้า ประชาธิปไตย ในคืนที่ลมพัดหวน) by Chai Chaiyachit and Chisanucha Kongwailap. Letter from Congo was previously shown earlier this year at TCDC Commons in Srinakarin.
A Pigeon’s Journey on the Birth of a Nation
A Pigeon’s Journey on the Birth of a Nation is part of Weerapat Sakolvaree’s Oblivion (เลือน) series, the first of which was The Original Texts (บทประพันธ์ดั้งเดิม). A voiceover narrates the circumstances of three key milestones in Thai political history — the 1932 revolution, 14th October 1973, and 6th October 1976 — though they are told as a fable involving wild animals.
A pigeon flies between various Bangkok buildings, as if witnessing the historic events described in the narration. The effect is similar to Panya Zhu’s short film White Bird (นกตัวนั้นยังสบายดีไหม), in which an origami bird is also seen at historically significant locations around Bangkok.
When the pigeon lands on Democracy Monument, the voiceover describes “one October morning” (14th October 1973) when “Mad Dogs” attacked thousands of student protesters. The pigeon then flies to Thammasat University, where “the Wild Tigers came out to hunt.”
A Pigeon’s Journey on the Birth of a Nation was previously shown at The Wayward Travelers, a Weerapat retrospective. It was also shown at the group exhibition Spacing the Inherent (การเว้นระยะห่างโดยธรรมชาติ) at Art4C in Bangkok.
A pigeon flies between various Bangkok buildings, as if witnessing the historic events described in the narration. The effect is similar to Panya Zhu’s short film White Bird (นกตัวนั้นยังสบายดีไหม), in which an origami bird is also seen at historically significant locations around Bangkok.
When the pigeon lands on Democracy Monument, the voiceover describes “one October morning” (14th October 1973) when “Mad Dogs” attacked thousands of student protesters. The pigeon then flies to Thammasat University, where “the Wild Tigers came out to hunt.”
A Pigeon’s Journey on the Birth of a Nation was previously shown at The Wayward Travelers, a Weerapat retrospective. It was also shown at the group exhibition Spacing the Inherent (การเว้นระยะห่างโดยธรรมชาติ) at Art4C in Bangkok.
