Revealed the four winning concepts for the Mekong Region Netflix x Purin Pictures Short Film Camp on Tuesday.
The winning entries included “Termite Life” from Thailand, “Pony” from Thailand, “The Witness” from Laos, and “Sad Diva Lands on the Moon” from Myanmar.
Twelve teams of directors and producers participated in the 10-day workshop, which was held for the second time this year. There were six Thai teams, four Myanmar teams, two Cambodian teams, and one Laotian team.
Netflix’s Creative Equity Fund financed the workshop by financing India’s “Take 10” activity. The Southeast Asian camp was sponsored by Purin Pictures, a charity financed by the Purin Foundation that also provides money to Southeast Asian filmmakers.
The recommended films included everything from family drama and LGBTQ themes to political repression and the erasure of identity.
The competitors had to pitch their short film proposals live while being taught by experienced filmmakers from the Mekong Region. The four winning short films receive grants and post-production help to complete their projects.
Despite the fact that the genres and techniques vary, each of the four winning films shows a director coming into their own. Co-founder of Purin Pictures, Aditya Assarat, stated, “We choose and invest in young talents with the hope that they would one day become leaders in the home country’s film and content sectors.
Home Chemamah will helm “Ponay or You Are Not F***king Welcome,” which Kardpol Nitipisanon will produce. In it, a non-binary person leaves their deeply religious birthplace in southern Thailand but is forced to return because of the military draught.
In the film “The Witness,” directed by Mitpasa Sitthihukpanya and produced by Konghan Phiennachit, a fortune-teller is jailed when a woman kills someone because of his predictions.
The film “Termite Life,” which will be produced and directed by Chonchanok Thanatteepwong, tells the story of an extraordinary family reunion.
In the upcoming movie “Sad Diva Lands on the Moon,” which is made by Vicky Nway and directed by Moe Myat May Zarchi, a girl living under a repressive government is given a chance to freely express her imaginative brilliance.
Chonchanok Thanatteepwong, a Thai native from Bangkok, remarked, “In my country, we have art and movies, but we don’t give these things enough attention. Although the genres and technical aspects of the four winning films differ, you can still see a director expressing themselves in each of them.
