A film festival entitled “Drifting through the long and short of Apichatpong Weerasthakul” is screening his two latest films that were shown in Cannes and 27 short films directed by him at Cinematheque•Passion until January 7, according to a statement by the arthouse’s website.
The event is hosted by Cinematheque•Passion and supported by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC).
The statement said that the festival’s films are only shown at the cinema where they have their Macau and Hong Kong premieres. The festival is also showing Apichatpong’s short film works from the 1990s to now.
The festival started yesterday evening. “Memoria” was the opening film. Memoria is a 2021 internationally co-produced drama fantasy film written, directed and co-produced by Apichatpong. It was selected as the Colombian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. The English-Spanish-language film was shot in Colombia.
The statement underlined that there will be a “Conversation with Apichatpong” event this Saturday at 5 p.m. at Cinematheque•Passion, a live online discussion with Apichatpong in which participants can exchange ideas with him. Participants who will not be able to go to Cinematheque•Passion can sign up for a Zoom meeting session. Those interested may register via link https://rb.gy/n9c4eo.
Operations Manager of Cinematheque•Passion Jenny Ip (葉秋梅) told The Macau Post Daily that they chose Apichatpong and his work as the theme for the festival because they have been striving to promote Southeast Asian film productions since last year. Ip pointed out that previously the cinema’s audience were only able to watch films distributed by Hong Kong and some films from Europe. She stressed that Macau’s cinema buffs can now also watch films from Southeast Asia such as Apichatpong’s work during the ongoing festival.
When asked by reporters about promoting and inviting local universities’ students that major in film studies to collaborate with movie directors, Ip said that they have started to collaborate and work with local universities’ students since last year. Ip underlined that there was a Macau Youth Film Festival this June which welcomed students to participate. Moreover, the local students’ capstone projects are displayed annually at Cinematheque•Passion for more cinemagoers to be able to appreciate their cinematographic products.
According to a separate Cinematheque•Passion’s Facebook statement, Apichatpong (born in 1970 in Bangkok) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer, who has directed features and short films. The statement noted that Apichatpong’s work reveals his viewpoints about his home country’s socio-political issues and expresses the peculiar edge in his heart through the art of movie making, reflecting Thailand’s reality. The statement stressed that Apichatpong is known as the Asian movie master of the new generation and one of the movie directors with individuality and style in both Thai and Asian cinema.
The statement said that Apichatpong has been invited to major film festivals and galleries such as the Venice Film Festival, Frieze Art Fair London and The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Moreover, Apichatpong’s film style is also favoured by international brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and he was invited to make short films for them, the statement added.
Cinematheque • Passion, located in Travessa da Paixão near the Ruins of St Paul’s, is a three-storey multifunctional building featuring a cinema, exhibition hall and film information room, local video storage, as well as a library stocked with journals and books about films.
For enquiries, call 2852 2585 or visit https://www.cinematheque-passion.mo/?locale=en_US
A cinemagoer talks to a staff member of Cinematheque•Passion at the cinema’s lobby yesterday. Photo: Camy Tam
