Phuket Film Festival

[Valentine]

I was at a presentation last night given by the organizer of the upcoming Phuket Film Festival & he stated the TAT is giving absolutely zero support for this event yet in the past they gave 39,000,000 Baht to corruption tainted Bangkok Film Festival & 19,000,000 to the World Comedy Festival (I wonder how many of you heard about this one). Given the current economic situation & the fact tourism is down across the board I wonder why TAT is not supporting an event that has the potential to grow & draw a different set of tourists or do their vested interests lie elsewhere?

Edited May 15, 2010 by Valentine

[gotlost]

You have not greased the correct palms.

[BarryM]

Their vested interests lie elsewhere.

[edinphuket]

They have their own agenda. Last year's Roy music fest in Karon was paid reportedly by TAT at 22 million baht and was attended almost exclusively by locals. It is on again this year in June and it will be interesting to see the budget and how many "tourists" it attracts. Other music festivals such as the blues festival at Hilton that is a legitimate tourist attraction gets no support from the TAT either.

[Benjie]

Is this the same Phuket film festival that keeps getting cancelled? Cant think why they wouldnt be throwing money at it.

[losworld]

Is this the same Phuket film festival that keeps getting cancelled? Cant think why they wouldnt be throwing money at it.

Yes I think this festival has been off and on.

One must remember the Bangkok Film Festival that was run by an opportunist from Beverly Hills who was charged in the US for ripping off the Thai people by receiving ridiculous amounts for the festival and pocketing most of it. Yeah they should rush out and support another festival run by a foreigner and throw big bucks at it. NOT!!!

Make the festival able to stand on its own two feet then maybe consider it. But best to stay out of these types of things and let the free market decide.

[LivinLOS]

One must remember the Bangkok Film Festival that was run by an opportunist from Beverly Hills who was charged in the US for ripping off the Thai people by receiving ridiculous amounts for the festival and pocketing most of it. Yeah they should rush out and support another festival run by a foreigner and throw big bucks at it. NOT!!!

If you mean.. paying the woman from the TAT huge bribes.. then yes he really ripped them off.. by paying them huge amounts of money !!

Ohh those nasty farangs ripping off those decent honest Thais again !!

[Valentine]

I don't think the organizer of the Phuket Film Festival was actually asking for a direct cash handout, he was lamenting the fact TAT were unwilling to spend any funds promoting the festival which in turn may have persuaded more tourists to come in these lean times.

[afx]

I don't think the organizer of the Phuket Film Festival was actually asking for a direct cash handout, he was lamenting the fact TAT were unwilling to spend any funds promoting the festival which in turn may have persuaded more tourists to come in these lean times.

Very inept decision by the TAT in my view.

Obviously they haven't heard of playing to their strengths. "Syndromes and a Century" (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) was voted the most important film of the last 10 years by below organisation, (and the quality of other films on the list was immense).

"TIFF Cinematheque presents The Best of the Decade: An Alternative View, a curated series based on a poll conducted by TIFF Cinematheque’s Senior Programmer James Quandt. An esteemed panel of over sixty film curators, historians, archivists and programmers from festivals, cinematheques and similar organizations around the world participated and were asked to pick the films they thought were the most important of the past decade".

Apichatpong Weerasethakul has also just won the Palm d'Or at Cannes for his latest film "Uncle Boonmee" beating 19 other films to the award.