People Like Us!

It felt great to mingle with like-minded people.

I just came back from “International Film Festival in Vientiane”. Film Festival in Laos! What!?

Yup. This is really happening. Check out the details here: www.vientianale.org

I didn’t expect much from this, really. I didn’t expect there would be many films made by Lao being submitted for/shown at this ‘festival’. I didn’t expect, even with some films submitted by Lao filmmakers, there would be any good ones. But guess what, there were really some good films and made in and by Lao! [Though there were not many of them. Lots of films shown were about development issues-education, AIDS, people with disabilities, UXO...produced for development projects, rather than made specially for this event]. And two really good ones were made by two filmmakers from Savannakhet (my province!); one of them is from my hometown (Seno!). What really cool was I had a chance to have a long talk with one of them, Mr Nith Lacroix (director of a documentary ‘Pierre-Pierrot’). I wanted to talk to another filmmaker who is from my hometown, Ms Thivon Muonghane (animator), but she was occupied with other thing. Both of them are French-educated.

Savannakhet’s got talent!

I joked with Nith about his next feature film (he is planning to make one) having to have protagonists performed by Savannakhet actors with Savannakhet accent! (Normally, Savannakhet people are always villains in the movies/dramas, because of our dark skins and strong accent; and the government now requires that those who work for national television and radio have to speak with ‘central’ accent, that is Vientiane accent!). Well, if he doesn’t do that, I will.

Having attended two nights of the 3-day event, I started to realize that there are actually many Lao (aspiring) filmmakers around. Two of short-films submitted for a competition with the theme “Laos, a happy country” were made by Lao students, studying at Lao National University’s Mass Media Faculty (the newly-established course!). And many Lao filmmakers are women!

Now, what we really need is space and ‘enabling’ environment.

[I know I should have done something to submit to this festival. I wanted to. I had an idea or two but didn’t manage to materialize them, again. I have promised myself (again!) to produce something while I’m in Aussie. Maybe, I will see my film being seen and talked about at the festival next year.]

A Lao feature film 'Want to be a soldier' premiered at the fest. It was supposed to inspire viewers. But it failed to do so, miserably. Too slow and with too many unnecessary sub-plots!

"Pierre-Pierrot", one of the best documentary shown at the event. Unfortunately, the last part of the doc. was censored! Damnit! [When Pierre who has been living in France was asked if he wanted to return to Laos. He replied that there was nothing to return to...CUT!]


An animated short film by Thivon Muonghane (a lady from my hometown, Seno).




A tee I got from the festival. I had to 'work hard' for this. "Oh I had to travel from Xiengkhouang, about a thousand miles, to be here specially for this event!" I explained while looking at the tee. "For that, I'll give you this t-shirt,'' an organizer responded. [Too bad, it is an L size. So I can't wear.]

We were not so gentle after all.

Here is a story: A Thai guy posted a message on Lao forum. His message went like this " I am X. I am studying at Korat University (Thailand) and would like to visit another province (in Laos or Thailand). If you are interested (?), please call me at xxxxx."

A Lao lady replied:

sawadee ka....
i'm a lao woman interesting thai men, but afraid you going to bring me
to the hell as i have heard some damn thai men did to some lao women.
i hope you are not planing to do as some of your brothers did.


from lady lao

She got the reply later, not from a Thai guy but angry Lao guys (in Lao and English) that went:

To Lao Lady,

it is very sad to know that there is a Lao woman who is so shameless and bad like you.... you shouldn't be born on Lao land... go to the hell... find the thai D*ck to F*ck... you think Lao men are not cabable of being a good husband? go and worship the thai D*Ck.. u r whore.

Oops!

Source (Samakomlao): http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=112399&p=3&topicID=24432704

If you love me, use me.

Love me, please use Kip (referring to Lao money currency).

Very strict! I should have read the rules before I checked in.

You can climb this mountain to the moon. It's in Vang Vieng, Laos.

Warning: Welcome to our restaurant.

Life Instructions

Have fun

Do not hurt people

Strive to be happy

Khoun District and Khoun Community Radio

Please buy a ticket first

This is an admission ticket to visit Khoun district. Photos were shot by me and the ticket itself was 'designed' by me. Nothing's fancy. I just want to take credit for it :)

I'm running out of excuses

No camera.

No computer.

No editing software.

No money.

No time.

No…

These are some of the things that come up when someone asks me why I have not done any video or when I want to do one.

Last week, my Lao friend who aspires to make a short film/feature film called and asked me if I wanted to do a short film if he could get funding for it.

“Is USD10,000 enough for a short film?” he asked.

“Wow! 10,000? Sure!” I responded.

So now, we have MONEY. And with money we can rent a decent video camera and an editing suite, pay for actors…We can shoot our short film on weekends. We can get a newly open coffee shop and telecom companies to sponsor. We can…

“So? Do you have any nice story that we can use for a short film?” my friend asked.

“Hmm…Let me think…Hmmm…How about…Hmm…Let’s talk about it later,” I proposed.

Since when only girls are allowed to be vulnerable and sensitive?

During our 'conversation' via Windows Live Messenger, my friend in Japan who just got married recently dropped the news about our friend being engaged.

My friend: Do you know our friend SK just got engaged last December in Cambodia?

Me: No way! He never told us or me about this!!

My friend: Well, he didn’t tell me either. I just found out about this recently from his fiancée when she added me in her Facebook. She’s really cute. You can find her in my Facebook. You should check her out. You’ll like her.

Me: Nah. Forget about it. If our friend didn’t want to tell us about his engagement, let’s leave it like that.

My friend: Gosh, you sound upset.

Me: Not upset…just a little bit disappointed.

My friend: Right. Come on. It’s just an engagement.

Me: Yeah right. It’s JUST an engagement. Later on it’ll be JUST a wedding. We were good friends when we’re in Singapore, you know. When you are happy, you should tell your friends about it, shouldn’t you? If you didn’t tell me about your wedding, I would be very disappointed, too.

My friend: You know I would never do that, of course. Gosh, you really sound upset. If you were a girl, I would think you were in love with SK. You are so SENSITIVE!

Me: Guys don’t do THAT (being upset by not being informed about certain things by their friends)??

My friend: No! Only girls do THAT.

Me:...

You know my secrete. I have to kill you.

Remember the first time you wanted to buy a pack of condoms at a drug store or 7 eleven? A pornography mag?

I had been eying on that 'Playboy: Playmate' DVD collect from a Chinese store for the past few days. It was priced at 570.000 LAK (about US67). Today I came in again to check. There were few customers browsing through well-organized DVD collections. So I waited until no other customer was left in the store. I wanted to buy that 'Playmate' discreetly, you know, taking it to the counter, making a payment and leaving, and with no question asked. The problem was it's rather expensive. So I took it to a sale person, a Chinese middle-aged lady, sitting at a counter and asked if she could lower the price. She said she could not do that; she needed to ask her boss first. At that very moment I started to panic. An embarrassing story I heard once appeared in my head. I remember the story about someone wanting to buy a porn mag from a store and a sale man just asked his boss loudly,"How much does this porn mag cost?" and everyone in the store was staring at that mag and then him, a potential buyer, a 'pervert' one. Luckily for my case, she just walked to her boss - who was playing 'Mahjong' with her friends. A moment later, her boss came to the counter, used a calculator to do some maths before showing it to me. It showed 525.000 on its screen. "Could you go lower than that?" I whispered. "Sorry. That's the lowest I could go," she insisted. Not wanting to prolong a situation any further, I decided to take it. She put the DVD into a thin and clear plastic bag.

"Could I have another plastic bag, please?" I requested. I then quickly walked out.

While waiting to cross the road, someone shouted, "Brother Xai, what are you doing here?" It's my junior. It's a she.

"Err...I'm here to use the Internet. What about you?" I asked while hiding my plastic bag at my back.

"I'm meeting my friend for dinner. Would you like to join us?" she invited.

"I'm afraid I can't. I have to use the Net for my work," I declined politely.

"The Internet cafe is that way. Bye!"

"See you!"

I had no choice but to walk to the Internet cafe and used it.

Now It's time I went back to my guesthouse.

You will like them too.

I just watched 'The Fall' and 'The Onion Movie', thanks to cheap and pirated DVDs, and liked them a lot. You should check them out. If I make a film I want mine to look and feel like 'The Fall' and be funny like 'The Onion Movie'.