Press Room
Wednesday 17th September 2008 | UAFF
Thai Weekend at the 2008 US-ASEAN Film Festival
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Washington, DC
The US-ASEAN Creative Project and the Royal Thai Embassy are proud to present a weekend of award-winning Thai cinema at the Fifth Annual US-ASEAN Film Festival.
Starting the weekend will be the tale of a small coastal town community whose psyche was changed forever as a result of the 2004 tsunami. "Wonderful Town" is Bangkok-born, US-educated Aditya Assarat's debut feature-length film after winning awards and accolades in the international film festival circuit for his shorts.
Chronicling the story between an architect from Bangkok working on a resort project in the once-thriving community and a hotel proprietor, the film has won the hearts of many film chritics and festival goers. When it premiered at the 2007 Pusan International Film Festival, "Wonderful Town" won the event's top prize, the New Currents Award. Earlier this year it also nabbed the Tiger Award for best film at the 2008 International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Jury prize at the Deauville Asian Film Festival in France.
On Sunday afternoon, we will screen an exciting shorts program by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, arguably Thailand's most celebrated filmmaker in the international film festival circuit. Most people may know Weerasethakul from his award-winning feature films such as "Blissfully Yours" (Un Certain Regard at 2002 Cannes) or the most recent semi-autobiographical "Syndromes and a Century" (screened at last year's US-ASEAN Film Festival), but his extensive list of short films are just as interesting and beautiful to watch. The shorts program will feature eleven of his short works, giving us a glimpse of the director's ingenuity and brilliance in the art of cinema.
This is the fifth installment of the US-ASEAN Film Festival. It opened with a Singaporean feature "Gone Shopping" on September 12, 2008 and it will run for a month until October 12, 2008 when the award-winning Vietnamese film "The White Silk Dress" will close the festival. The GRACE Heritage Foundation through their US-ASEAN Creative Project partnered with the Smithsonian Institute's Freer and Sackler Galleries to bring new, exciting, quality films from the dynamic region of Southeast Asia - often touted as the up and coming region in international cinema.
ASEAN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an economic and political grouping of the ten countries of Southeast Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
The US-ASEAN Film Festival is proudly sponsored by the Embassy of Indonesia, the Embassy of Singapore, the Royal Embassy of Thailand, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the Washington Post.
This weekend of Thai cinema is brought to you by the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington, DC.
Contact information
Website: http://usaseancreativeproject.org/uaff/
Contact person: Karina Lee Sudyatmiko or Luwito Tardia
E-mail: info@thegraceheritage.org
Telephone: (202) 262-3775
About ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is comprised of ten countries in Southeast Asia, the region straddling continental Asia and Australia and bordering both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Diversity is a part of life for ASEAN's 575 million citizen who are more likely than not multi-lingual, living in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious community. ASEAN members are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Timor Leste, the only non-ASEAN member in Southeast Asia is a candidate for membership.
About UACP
US-ASEAN Creative Project (UACP) is the arm of GH Foundation to carry out its mission in promoting Southeast Asian culture and heritage. Since 2002, GH Foundation has organized various events in arts, entertainment, literature, and sports to raise awareness of the diverse cultures and traditions of Southeast Asia. Its flagship event, the US-ASEAN Film Festival, has been running annually since 2003. It was the first film festival to celebrate films from the region.
Contact Information
US-ASEAN Creative Project by GH Foundation
1701 16th Street NW Suite 218
Washington, DC 20009
USA
+1 (202) 262-3775
info@thegraceheritage.org
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