RIP Wayne Guest

[Lite Beer]

Message of triumph: Tsunami documentary to be screened in Phuket

Alasdair Forbes

PHUKET: Among the many events being staged on the island and in Phang Nga to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Asian Tsunami on December 26, are a number of personal efforts to create memorials.

One of these will be the screening of a documentary, Silent Waters, produced by Englishman Mike Thomas.

Mike, who was in Bangkok at the time the wave hit, was one of the thousands who came down to help out in the aftermath. The experience has stayed with him ever since and earlier this year he returned to start looking for suitable stories to power a documentary.

He found nothing compelling in Phuket but further north, on the out-of-the-way island of Koh Phra Tong he stumbled across people and stories that he felt would be riveting to viewers – stories that illustrate a totally different attitude to life, an attitude that was strengthened by the tsunami.

Koh Phra Tong is almost flat apart from a couple of small hills, and is only a couple of metres above high tide. The tsunami waves washed straight across it. The only protection came from mangrove forests that took the power out of the waves. The population then was about 1,400. Now only 300 live there.

Mike explains that the documentary, now complete, “is much more than a story about the tsunami”.

It follows the recovery after the tsunami through the words of the islanders who still live very simple lives.

“They are content and fulfilled. They’re not stupid. They know that on the mainland children spend their time on their smart phones or tablets. On the island, the kids play together in the village.”

The islanders don’t want the mainland lifestyle.

“There’s no electricity apart from some generators. They know that when mains power arrives the developers will follow.”

That’s something most of the people on Koh Phra Tong view with distaste and trepidation. “They are fiercely protective of their island.”

The documentary, which took four months to complete, also looks at the use, misuse and waste of relief funds after the tsunami, with Christian missionaries trying to collect souls and other charities providing aid that was not needed or was inappropriate, mostly because they assumed they knew best and never asked what the locals wanted or needed.

It is also a message of triumph for local values, and for local initiatives that thrive until today.

“Messages are important for me,” Mike explains. “What happened, and the aid organisations wasting resources – we all have a lot to learn.”

The documentary will be screened in the UK on December 26 on the Community Channel, and will also be accessible via the BBC’s iChannel, Mike says.

In Phuket the screening will be at CC’s Hideaway in Kata, starting at about 7:30. Unique to the occasion will be the presence of one of the islanders, Toom, who is heavily involved in conservation and the preservation of the local way of life.

Toom, says Mike, is a natural leader. “He is only 22 or 23 but he has the wisdom of someone three times that age.”

The film will also be screened on the 28th on Koh Phra Tong; most of the people there have not seen it yet.

Admission to the screening in Kata will cost B100. Anyone wanting to attend is asked to register here so the hotel will have an idea of the numbers they will need to cater to.

Http://www.silentwatersthemovie.com/events/boxing-day-screening/

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/message-of-triumph-tsunami-documentary-to-be-screened-in-phuket-50100.php

-- Phuket News 2014-12-13