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Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Ashes

Doc. expérimental | hdv | couleur | 20:0 | Thaïlande | 2012

The idea, as Weerasethakul himself explained in the introduction, was to shoot something with a new camera that Mubi lend him. The result: an experimental film in the nicest sense of the word; that is, to integrate the camera in the shoot (and with it all the mishaps, ups and downs that it might find/create) instead of shooting against it; that is, trying to hide it and keeping it safe, which is the standard procedure in non-experimental cinema. He therefore joined forces with his new toy avoiding the common threat that looms over every filmmaker that wants to do something other than a purely mechanical film (a film-machine): namely, that his film may become so aesthetically thick that it will be inscrutable. The challenge and virtue of Ashes, as with Mekong Hotel, is to create a welcoming film. This has also been achieved because the colour and the shape of the film is by now familiar turf for us: different brush, same hand. A boy and a dog, a dusty path, youths in the countryside, a bonfire?; all pieces from his well-known scrapbook. In a way it is like a twenty-minute walk in a different corridor of the same cave that he used for his earlier project, called Primitive. Weerasethakul is a better balladeer than poet, and since poetry is almost the unavoidable soul in a film like this (which is anything but prose), that shows. His struggle to master the new tool is often a beautiful and enjoyable one, but he doesn´t win out entirely, and has to rely on a certain narrative, without which the film would eventually sink. And so we are told by the narrator that the first half of this film it´s a dream, a drawn one; film as mental image.

Apichatpong ?Joe? Weerasethakul (born July 16, 1970) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer.He has a degree in Architecture from Khon Kaen University and a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been making films and videos since the early 90s. His feature films include Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the prestigious 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d?Or prize; Tropical Malady, which won a jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival; Blissfully Yours, which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard program at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival; and Syndromes and a Century, which premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival and was the first Thai film to be entered in competition there. Themes reflected in his films include dreams, nature, sexuality (including his own homosexuality), and Western perceptions of Thailand and Asia, and his films display a preference for unconventional narrative structures (like placing titles/credits at the middle of a film). He is one of the few filmmakers in Thailand who have worked outside the strict Thai studio system. In his films, he experiments with certain elements found in the dramatic plot structure of Thai television and radio programs, comics and old films. He finds his inspiration in small towns around the country. In his work, he often uses non-professional actors and improvised dialogue in exploring the shifting boundaries between documentary and fiction.