Borders Crossing Bodies

แมวสามสี The Story
นฆ ปักษานาวิน Nil Paksnavin, Thailand 2011, 5 min.

พิมานอากาศ Celestial Space
อุกฤษณ์ สงวนให้ Ukrit Sa-nguanhai, Thailand 2012, 30 min.

พลอย Ploy
ประพัทธ์ จิวะรังสรรค์ Prapat Jiwarangsan, Thailand/Singapore 2020, 50 min.

The Story depicts a close-up of a face voicing questions on sexual illiberalism and Buddhist-Muslim coexistence in the south of Thailand. Celestial Body is a beautifully raw and intimate portrait of a relationship that unfolds in consecutive conversations occurring between a young couple as they lie on a makeshift bed under a pink mosquito net. Ploy is an ambitious archive-based speculative documentary that chronicles migration from Thailand to Singapore and encounters with a justice system designed to dehumanize bodies who don’t fit the moral template of a modern nation state, targeting sex workers in particular. These three works remind us how capitalist understandings of laboring bodies undermine all manner of human nuances.

Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn is a Bangkok-based film scholar, film curator, and producer, who holds a PhD in Film Studies from Queen Mary, University of London. His interests lie in the cinematic possibility of decentering human-centric perspectives. He has produced many of Prapat Jiwarangsan’s short films with a focus on migrant and political exilant perspectives.