Internationally recognized for his work in experimental and narrative cinema such as Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), Blissfully Yours (2002), Tropical Malady (2004) and Syndromes and A Century (2006), Apichatpong Weerasethakul presents his first solo exhibition in the United States. Weerasethakul's films explore perception, impermanence and the imaginary, cultivating fanciful potential within the mundane. His abstract interchanges interrogate conventions of cinematic narrative while exploring desire, reality and a kind of melancholy perhaps peculiar to our times.

Weerasethakul's exhibition at REDCAT features a newly commissioned video installation that expands upon characters developed in his previous feature films, shorts and video installations through comedy. Born in Bangkok in 1970, Weerasethakul holds a degree in architecture from Khon Kaen University and an MFA in filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has worked outside the Thai studio system for a decade and, since 1999, has actively promoted and distributed experimental and independent films through his company Kick the Machine.

In anticipation of the Los Angeles Film Festival premiere of Syndromes and a Century, REDCAT will present a selection of Weerasethakul's films. Screenings include Mysterious Object at Noon, Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, and Worldly Desires and other shorts selected by the artist.

Weerasethakul has exhibited and screened his films widely and has been presented numerous awards for his art projects and feature films including the Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival, 2002; the Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival, 2004; Age d'or Prize, Cine de'couvertes, 2004; and Grand Prize, Tokyo Filmex, 2004. In 2005, he received the Silpatorn Award from Thailand Ministry of Culture's Office of Contemporary Arts.

Related screenings:
Mon, June 4: Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
Wed, June 6: Blissfully Yours (2002)
Fri, June 8: Recent short works:
  Anthem (2006, 35mm, 5 min.)
  FAITH (2006, video, 11 min.)
  Ghost of Asia (2005, video, 8:30 min.)
  Worldly Desires (2005, video, 40 min.)
  Luminous People (2007, video, 15:22 min.)
Sat, June 9: Tropical Malady (2004)

Artist's residency support provided by Asian Cultural Council. Additional suppport from R23.

Read the press release

Detailed Program:

Mysterious Object at Noon
One of the first independently made films in Thai cinema, Mysterious Object at Noon is part fiction, part documentary, and part pseudo-documentary. Shot without a conventional script, the crew travels across Thailand, documenting the lives of people they encounter along the way. Using a method loosely based on the surrealist tradition of the exquisite corpse, the crew moves from town to town, asking each collaborator to build upon an ongoing story.

Blissfully Yours
In recent years, there has been a nationwide crackdown on Burmese immigrants illegally living and working in Thailand. The fate of the film's main character, a Burmese refugee, is inexplicably linked to the lives of two Thai women living in a small border town. Although all seems peaceful on the surface, the boredom, hidden emotional conflicts, and communicative differences spawn psychological tensions between the protagonists. The film details their mundane activities on a typical lazy afternoon. Caught somewhere between two flawed political systems, they choose to remain blissfully ignorant.

The Anthem
In the tradition of the royal anthem that plays before every film screening to honor of the King, The Anthem celebrates filmmaking and the collective viewing experience. Weerasethakul's cinematic ceremony blesses the coming feature and, through an onscreen ritual and music, helps to clear the minds of its audience.

FAITH
In this two-channel video, Weerasethakul employs the utopic promise of science fiction to ponder the impermanence of love and youth. Floating above earth in separate space ships, the two protagonists are suspended in time, eternally perfect, eternally longing.

Ghost of Asia
Conceived in the wake of the tragic 2005 tsunami, Ghost of Asia is a film that celebrates life and its pleasures. Weerasethakul, in collaboration with Christelle Lheureux, imagines a ghost who still lives and wanders along the seashore. To make the film, they invite children from nearby communities to direct the actor who plays the ghost. In the midst of such loss, filmmaking becomes an exercise in possibility and hope.

Worldly Desires
For Worldly Desires, Weerasethakul invites a friend to shoot a story of forbidden love, while he records the memorable moments in between takes. The film, "...dedicated to the memories of filmmaking in the jungle during the year[s] 2001-2005," attempts to capture and contemplate the mystical draw of the jungle.

Luminous People
In this film, Weerasethakul commemorates the presence of the dead and the decaying memories of the living. The crew travels to a small town near the Mekong River and invites villagers to join in the filmmaking. On screen, a group of people sets out onto the river to cast away the ashes of their loved one. As the white dust dissolves in the muddy water, so do the limits between life, memory, and that which follows.

Tropical Malady
"Winner of the Prix du Jury in Cannes, Apichatpong's "memoir of love and darkness" is actually two films in one. [In] the first… young soldier Keng meets country boy Tong and a playful friendship soon intensifies into a love so strong that it threatens to overwhelm them… In the second film, the quest of a young soldier tracking a shape-shifting man-beast in the dense rainforest becomes increasingly hallucinatory, and the roles of hunter and hunted become blurred..." --Tony Rayns



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