SPECIFICATIONS

English Title : Home Video (Made in Thai Town)
Running Time: 21 minutes
Genre: Experimental Documentary
Audio: Sound
Language: Thai
Subtitles: English
Format: DV
Year: 2010

 

 

CAST & CREW

Director: Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Appearances : Pravat Pongstien, Tanthai Pongstien, Vutichai Pattarateranon, Patayakorn Romsuk, Ki Jin Kim

 

 

SYNOPSIS

 

'Home Video (Made in Thai Town)' is about the act of recording and its product as a cultural medium. The film explores the relationship between deteriorating records and the disappearance of societal and personal memories.

 

 

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

The idea of the film came from the discovery of a VHS tape of a Thai game show called 'The Biggest Fan'. I found it in a Thai video shop, located in Thai Town, Los Angeles, California. The tape was significant to me because I was one of the five contestants appearing on the show, and later won the competition.

 

That episode was about 'Walt Disney'. I wanted to be an animator at the time, and dreamed of coming to the US to study animation. Ten years have passed since that episode aired, and now I'm studying at my dream school, CalArts. The video’s content connects my childhood dream with the new one in the present. My focus has now changed from animation to documentaries and filmmaking in general.

 

Thai people here come to the shop to rent Thai films, TV series, game shows, talk shows, etc. It’s the place where they can reconnect with their root, to feel at home (Thailand) in a new home (USA). The shop is still using VHS format, which was once a standard system. But changes are coming. DVD and HD are coming. Old tapes are re-recorded over or discarded just like old memories. This film is my ‘home video’, documenting new memories from a new home, while recollecting old and familiar ones before they fade away.

 

 

SELECTED SCREENINGS

2017 Lychee One, London, UK
2016 ‘Are We There Yet?’, DAM’N Cine Club, Bangkok, Thailand
2012 'Thai Video Arts Screening' program, Osage Gallery, China
2010 Bijou Theatre, California Institute of the Arts, California, USA