Thai Fest Sputters

[sabaijai]

Thai fest sputters

BANGKOK -- Programmed by North Americans, heavily attended by expatriates and financed by the Thai taxpayer, the Bangkok Film Festival is a wealthy event lurching along on only a couple of cylinders.

Fest, in its fourth frame, has relocated to sumptuous quarters in the brand-new Siam Paragon shopping and leisure complex.

But all the architectural grandeur cannot provide a patch big enough to cover the litany of problems. These ranged from guests' air tickets that never arrived, through a moribund film market to a ticketing system that regularly suggests screenings are sold out when they are less than half full.

At one point, the fest's two foreign praiseries became so exasperated with the ticket logjam that they dumped a bundle of tickets on a table and told journos and other guests to help themselves.

Hot potato

On top of the logistical nightmares are more political problems. Festival largely overcame a threatened boycott by the local National Film Federation of Thailand (FNFAT) and the largest local distrib, which since resigned from the federation. It lost only four films as a result of the strife. But the protests raised legitimate questions about the source of the festival's coin, whether the event is relevant to the local industry or is merely a shop window for Thai tourism.

Thai fest sputters

Bangkok's exec director Craig Prater does not deny the difficulties. "For every one of the problems you raise, I can give you 10 more," he says. "The ticket situation is actually worse than last year. That comes with using a complex that opened only four days before the festival."

Prater suggests his hands are tied. "You can't have an international festival that works with only one airline. Hotels need to be reserved years in advance. But that is just not the Thai way."

The Bangkok fest's wealth and its disbursement are regular sources of criticism. The fest's annual budget, estimated at several million dollars, is enough to fund a substantial chunk of the Thai movie industry's annual output.

The market was low on A-list buyers and sellers. And although not terribly relevant to the Asian film biz, media and festgoers nonetheless turned to see names like Oliver Stone, Terry Gilliam, Christopher Lee and Catherine Deneuve on panels.

The problem with FNFAT was sparked by disagreement over how to divvy up the Tourism Authority of Thailand's direct support for the film industry, coin which many think should come from the culture or industry ministry instead.

Dispute evolved into a row over who should pick the Thai movies -- the federation or the fest -- and whether they should be cordoned off in a Thai ghetto.

Fest ended up choosing, and programmed 19 local films across several different sections. Jennifer Stark's programming team complemented those with a safe and sound spread of international arthouse pics which have won acclaim at other fests. But the logistical horrors and industry infighting meant movies came second.

Source: Variety, Mon., Feb. 27, 2006, Weekly

[thaipro_pattaya]

A waste of hard working tax payers money. Some things never change

[OldAsiaHand]

The worst part was the utter indifference of the Thais with whom I dealt to the mess they were making of everything they touched. On the whole, their attitude seemed to be that organization was a western concept and therefore it had nothing to do with a film festival in Thailand.

Just one more example of why this will always be a third-rate, third world country.

[skylar]

That's it - go for the jugular.

[the gent]

True, nevertheless. Incompetence could be their national motto.

The movers and shakers of Bangkok are not driven by anything very much except the prospect of acquiring money or flaunting the fact that they have more of it than the next pretentious dilletante.

The film festival is yet another vehicle for that pretence and has nothing to do with the celebration of art for its own sake. Indeed, the very notion is utterly alien to the crew behind this latest debacle.

Anyway, culturally speaking Bangkok is a desert so how could anything grow? The sad truth is, there is simply no demand for the international arts which probably explains why these spurious festivals usually fail. You don't buy culture off the shelf, something the hi-so brigade cannot comprehend it seems