Fah Thai Magazine Jul-Aug 2018

ANOCHA SUWICHAKORNPONG
Words Srinit Suwannasak
Photos Wichit Kongsiangsung
Constant
Film
With the success of her movies, filmmaker
Anocha Suwichakornpong explains how
personal travel largely defines and blends
seamlessly into her film settings.
Although Anocha
Suwichakornpong
does not consider
herself an
experienced traveller,
traces of her journeys have
influenced her personality
and her works, often
in unconscious ways.
The up-and-coming,
award-winning Thai film
maker says her cinematic
portrayal of Thailand
incorporates the many
voices and perspectives
she gained while studying
and travelling in Europe,
America, and Asia.
Anocha started her journey
with her short film Graceland
(2006), the first Thai film selected
for Cinéfondation, Cannes Film
Festival. Her first feature-length
film The Mundane History (2009)
premiered at Busan International
Festival, subsequently winning the
Tiger Award at the International
Film Festival Rotterdam (2010).
And her latest work, By the Time it
Gets Dark, has gained international
recognition after its premiere at the
Locarno Festival.
Anocha’s stories of journeys
are not only about going from one
film festival to another, but it’s
about gaining different voices at
several stages in her life — from
her hometown, Chon Buri, to
Eastbourne, Dorking, London,
New York, and Bangkok.
This Page
With family in
a ryokan hotel in
Kinosaki
Bottom
Nan, a province
known for its
natural beauty, is
the main location in
the film By the Time
It Gets Dark.
“Travelling works on me in the
way that forces me to see different
perspectives because it makes me
meet a lot of different people. It
helps unlock us from being trapped
in certain norms and values. For
example, we might have believed
that Thai rice is the best in the
world but when I met a friend from
Ecuador, she told me that Thai rice
is ‘good.’ Actually in Ecuador, they
eat a different kind of rice and Thai
rice is not preferable. Chilli varieties
that we think only exists in Thailand
can be found in other countries too.
These seemingly small things taught
me about differences and not to be a
nationalist,” Anocha explained.
Such perspectives led to images
of Thailand in Anocha’s films
portrayed with different voices. “The
subject of my films is Thailand,”
Anocha explained on why she left
New York after graduating from
Columbia University. “As big cities,
New York and Bangkok have
something in common, but at the
same time they’re very different.
In New York, you can do anything
and nobody cares, while in Bangkok
people seem to be interested in other
people. But I chose Bangkok because
the stories I want to tell are here.”
Back in the early 90s, Anocha
travelled alone for the first time
to Eastbourne, a small town in the
UK. “I’m not sure if it can be called
travelling alone because it’s with a
group of Thai students who went
for summer school. Anyway, it’s the
first time that I didn’t travel with my
family,” Anocha recalled. However,
this trip seemed to be just a prelude
of her journey. A big change came
to the 8th grade girl was when her
parents sent her to a boarding school
in Dorking. “It’s a countryside that’s
very quiet. There’s nothing there
except a small shop that is also a
post office. If we want something
we have to go to this shop, but if we
want more we had to go to London.
Luckily, it’s not far.”
Despite living in a small town
like Dorking, it’s the starting point
of her Europe exploration when
she went backpacking with her two
older sisters. “It’s before the EU, so
it’s not as easy as these days. And
because we were still very young,
so we had to be very careful about
budget and be very selective about
the things we did. I think this is the
big difference of travelling when
you were young and when you are a
grownup. Travelling when you were
young is more like an adventure.
We took the train and stayed in the
youth hostels which we’ve never
experienced before. One night we
stayed in a youth hostel in Paris that
had four beds. While the three of us
were sleeping, a person came in the
middle of the night for the bed.” I
was quite surprised because I thought
that the whole room was ours.”
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