Film of the Week

Curated by Selma Shaban

Tongpan (1977)

Docu-drama | 1h 2m

A landmark film shot after the October 14, 1973 student uprising and finished after the October 6, 1976 massacre at Thammasat University, Tongpan is a social-realist docu-drama that looks at the hardship of Northeastern villagers and the uncertainties that arise after a plan to build Pha Mong Dam in the area. The narrative intercuts between documentary-like portrayal of rural existence as Tongpan and his family struggle to make ends meet and a scene in a seminar room in which academics and government representatives argue about the benefits of the proposed dam. 

Director: Paijong Laisakul, Surachai Jantimatorn, Euthana Mukdasanit, Rassamee Paoluengthong
Production Company: Isan Film 
Producer: Mike Morrow 
Script : Khamsing Srinawk, Wittayakorn Chiengkul, Paijong Laisakul
Director of Photography : Frank Green
Editor : Paijong Laisakul
Music : Surachai Jantimatorn
Cast : Ong-art Maneewan, Pomhom Pilasombat, Ruangyos Chandrakiri, Surachai Jantimatorn, Saneh Chamarik, Sulak Sivaraksa, Khamsing Srinawk, Paijong Laisakul, Peter F. Bell

Homage by Assassination (1992)

Experimental | 27m

This short by Elia Suleiman forms the fifth part of the collective film titled Gulf War, What Next? It follows a Palestinian man reflecting on the war in the Persian Gulf and on the media coverage surrounding it. The man is the filmmaker himself, cloistered in his claustrophobic studio in New York as Nazareth, his native city, and is threatened by the Iraqi Scud missiles launched against Israeli cities, during the Iraqi-Persian War. The diaristic film traces the routines of Suleiman's day: he ties his bootlaces, boils milk on the stove, observes from the window a couple's quarrel in the street, weighs himself repeatedly on the scale, goes to the bathroom, makes phone calls and works on editing his film.

Writer & Director: Elia Suleiman
Editor: Robert Hein
Director of Photography: Juan Cristobal Cobo
Production Designer: Hans Ter Elst