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Bangkok film festival struggles to find its identity
2006-03-01
With A-list stars, a royal awards ceremony and more than 100 directors flown in from around the world, Bangkok's fourth international film festival presented a glossy veneer of success. But having neatly swept controversy under the red carpet during the 11-day event, organisers have been warned they face a lot of work to fulfill their dream of making Bangkok the centre of Asia's film industry. A boycott by the Thai film industry federation, which pulled several films including Oscar-favourite "Brokeback Mountain" from the event's line-up, and grumblings in dark corners of the festival's newly-built venue suggest the organisers may need more than celebrity pulling power to prosper. "It feels like a cookie-cutter kind of festival," Singaporean film critic Felix Cheung told AFP. "It doesn't feel like a Thai festival." Hollywood actors Christopher Lee and Willem Defoe, directors Terry Gilliam and Oliver Stone, and French screen icon Catherine Deneuve headed the mostly international cast of stars at the event. "There are stars here, but most of them aren't here for any real purpose," said another film critic, one of many flown in from the West courtesy of a large festival budget allocated by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. "There's a danger all this glitter could turn to dust. The festival needs to be more organic if it is to establish itself," he added. Tourism authority governor Juthamas Siriwan said at the opening of the big-budget festival that it was hoped the Thai capital could be established as the centre of the industry in Asia. The authority started the festival in 2003 with the aim of attracting more visitors to the kingdom. It hired a company in Palm Springs, California, as organisers, sparking a rift with some local filmmakers. The dispute came to a head days before this year's festival opened, with Thailand's film industry group urging a boycott complaining that it had not been adequately consulted. Major film production companies quit the National Film Associations of Thailand in protest at the boycott, while Somsak Techarattanaprasert resigned as president, citing the conflict. Somsak's studio Sahamongkol then tried to pull films it held Thai distribution rights to from the festival line-up, including "Water" by Indian-born director Deepa Mehta, the event's organisers told AFP. But Mehta argued she was legally entitled to show the movie there and insisted it be screened, a decision that reaped rewards when the jury awarded it the top prize of best international film. "It's a filmmaker's prerogative to show their film where they want." Mehta told AFP. Thai distributors did, however, pull "Brokeback Mountain", "Constant Gardener" and Hong Kong director Peter Chan's "Perhaps Love" from the line-up, according to programming director Jennifer Stark. "There's not a dearth of excellent films out there. We can replace them," Stark told AFP. "Our group doesn't get caught up in local politics," added festival director Craig Prater, shrugging off the protest. He said there was no need for a separate Thai panorama, or domestic film section, at this year's event because several domestic films were good enough to compete in the main competitions. "One of our jobs is to promote the Thai film-maker," he said. The film association's secretary Chaiwat Thaweewongsangthong, now acting president, said 13 films were pulled from the event, but conceded the impact had been small. "We won't continue the boycott (next year) as nobody would benefit from such move," he told AFP. Prater acknowledged some glitches in the organisation but was upbeat about the event's progress. "We've grown extremely fast in a short time. Film festivals usually take eight to 10 years before people regard it as credible. The problem will be handling that growth," he said. Prater blamed operational glitches on the fact that the venue was not even completed before the festival opened. "We have had some ticketing problems, some projection problems, but for a film festival to come into a new building is pretty rough," he said. One major complaint from domestic festival-goers was that none of the films were subtitled in Thai, meaning some screenings played to small audiences. Prater said it would be costly to subtitle all of the 160 films at the festival, but would seek corporate sponsors to pay for it in future. Prater predicted a bright future for the Bangkok Film Market, a movie trade fair held simultaneously in the same venue, even though industry media said business had been slow and some branded it a flop. The festival, which handed out 15 Golden Kinnaree Awards, but several key winners such as best actress Felicity Huffman of 'Desperate Housewives" fame was absent from the ceremony. Bangkok's festival overlapped with the more prestigious gathering in Berlin and it also fell in the busy pre-Oscar season, throwing up an extra barrier to attracting in vogue stars to Asia. Prater said the event would remain in February and that in time it would become one of the most important events to come on the industry calendar. Not everyone, including the sceptical Western film critic, agreed. "The motto seems to be 'if we build it, they will come', but in the fickle film industry, that's not always the way," he said. "There's a lot of work to be done."
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