Sunday, April 15, 2007

Help Joe Out

Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul's new film Syndromes and a Century has been banned in Thailand presently because Apichatpong has not agreed to make the requested cuts to his film (effectively stopping it from being shown). Please read & sign this petition if you care about this issue. Kong Rithdee writes: "The scenes the board found objectionable show a young monk playing a guitar, a group of doctors drinking whisky in a hospital basement, a doctor kissing his girlfriend in a hospital locker room, and two monks playing with a radio-controlled flying saucer."

I haven't seen Syndromes and a Century yet myself (soon, soon), but I have seen Apichatpong's other features, all of which are of the highest quality. I am largely ignorant of the context which has led to the current censorship administration in Thailand, and can only defer to Thai people on the intricacies of the debate (and leading the side to advocate its screening); I simply think it's unfortunate that one of this excellent and innovative artist's works is not shown in his own country.

(Thanks to Jit Phokaew for updates.)

2 comments:

celinejulie said...

Thank you very much for your help, Zach. I feel very grateful to you.

ZC said...

No problem, Jit--thank you for alerting me to this and keeping us updating on the situation in Thailand regarding film!