unthaitled x KAUM Film+++festival 2023: Wandering Salon

unthaitled x KAUM Film+++festival 2023: Wandering Salon is a collaborative project by the collectives unthaitled, Soydivision and various curators that spans film screenings, performances, workshops, talks and a range of other activities. It departs from the conceptual space of the salon, a room in a house where guests – friends and strangers alike – are welcomed and entertained. Existing in households across Southeast Asia, these salons (ห้องโถงเคลื่อนที่, Salon dạo, Salon Keliling) are temporary, communal spaces of encounter that foster conversation and new forms of togetherness and solidarity.

The film program - a journey across time, with films both from the past and present - features a collectively curated selection of short and feature length films from the region as well as by diasporic filmmakers. It pivots around complex and interrelated theme clusters such as origin mythologies, love stories, urbanization and homemaking, future engineering, colonial extractivism and familial ties. The films are conceived of as conversation openers rather than finished statements from a terrain of fixed opinions, while the accompanying program of performances, talks and workshops aims to foster an ongoing process of encounter and exchange between predominantly Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese diaspora communities in Berlin.

The program takes place in the months of May, July and October at various locations across Berlin including Sinema Transtopia, Uferstudios, and other independent community spaces.

For more infos please go to unthaitled and Soydivision

Hai Nam Nguyen is an independent curator and researcher focussing on oral histories and contemporary Vietnamese arts and photography. He currently researches the oral history archive of Vietnamese migrants and contract workers in the former GDR, especially in the city Halle an der Salle.

Gugi Gumilang engages in developing and distributing (mostly documentary) film projects from Southeast Asia. He is currently the Executive Director of In-Docs, the non-profit organization behind Docs by the Sea, Good Pitch Indonesia and VitaminDocs. Alongside this he also serves as an Executive Board Member of Documentary Association of Europe (DAE).

Phuong Phan is an independent art historian and curator with focus on socialism, propaganda and contemporary arts. She is a part of the upcoming “Vietnam In Motion” publication and curates different exhibitions on Vietnamese diaspora.

Lisabona Rahman is a film historian and archivist who works with international film archives concerning heritage, preservation and knowledge sharing activities related to celluloid. She curated programmes for various film festivals and works on databases of Indonesian film history.

Sarnt Utamachote is a curator and filmmaker whose works focus on Southeast Asian diasporas in divided Germany (BRD-GDR) and queer mental health in Berlin. They curate and select films for different festivals and cinemas across Germany.

Rosalia Namsai Engchuan is an artist, filmmaker and anthropologist who is interested in ecology of knowledge, grass-root artist-led activism in Southeast Asia and issues of Thai/Asian diaspora in Germany.

Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds