SPECIFICATIONS

English Title : To Infinity And Beyond
Original Title: Loy Fah

Running Time: 11 minutes
Genre: Experimental Documentary
Audio: Silent / Sound
Language: Thai
Subtitles: English
Format: DV
Year: 2004

 

 

CAST & CREW

Director: Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Camera: Nitipong Thinthupthai
Co-Writer: Panu Trivej

 

 

SYNOPSIS

 

'To infinity and beyond' combines documented footage with fictional narratives. The film consists of two parts made up of the same footage but narrated from two different, yet related, perspectives. The footage captures the activities of villagers in a Thai ceremonial tradition called 'Boon Bung Fai'. The objective of the ceremony, though quite forgotten, is to worship the sky and beg for the rain. The film explores juxtaposition between documentary and fiction; silence and sound; folk tale and modern-day news reporting, as well as relationships between man and nature, earth and sky ,dream and reality, east and west, and most importantly, the past and the present that will lead us to the future.

 

 

SELECTED SCREENINGS

2020 'Director in Focus' New Narratives Film Festival, Taipei, Taiwan
2017 Lychee One, London, UK
2016 ‘Are We There Yet?’, DAM’N Cine Club, Bangkok, Thailand
2009 'Six Degrees of Separation', Bangkok, Thailand

2008 Selected in Asian Film Archive (www.asianfilmarchive.org)

2008 Southeast Asian Digital Cinema, Singapore

2006 Digital Film Show Case at Siam Paragon, Thailand

2005 The Style Film Fest , Thailand

2005 The 3rd World Film of Bangkok, Thailand

2005 Digital Barcelona Film Festival, Spain

2005 The 34th International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Tiger Cub competition)

2004 The 8th Thai Short Film and Video Festival, Bangkok, Thailand (in competition)

 

 

SELECTED REVIEWS

"An original film, to put it mildly. - A film that is both simple and secretive. Outside in a field, people look up at the sky. The film maker initially doesn't reveal what they are looking at. He also leaves out the sound at first. A text tells the story of Laika, the dog that was shot into space by the Russians in the 1950s. In a second chapter, the images are effectively repeated. Then there is sound, and we learn what the people are looking at, but the way the viewer looks has already changed."

-The 34th International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Netherlands

 

"'To Infinity and Beyond' deals with space travel, and how people are obsessed with facts, but at the same time do not know certain important facts which would fully change what they know. It uses an interesting style of subtitles scrolling across the top of the screen reporting facts to do with space travel, while images of Thai people gathered and looking up at the sky go on below. It is as if they are obsessed with this topic physically appearing overhead, yet cannot come to any definite conclusions, and are content to just keep on pondering."

-Asian Film Archive