A man returns home from work in Malaysia after Covid-19 struck, then gets lost in a bureaucratic labyrinth trying to get government handouts. Another woman finds a job at a factory, but the rules require her to compromise her faith. In Yala, a skater boy sets out in search of a friendly park where he can enjoy his ride. A hijab-wearing K-pop fanatic is getting married to a man who has just converted to Islam. And in a Pattani family, a young man watches his mother being possessed by a spirit, possibly a black-magic attack from his business rival.
Love, loss, job, ghosts, Covid and the vagaries of wind and fate -- these are some of the stories told by participants in Deep South Young Filmmaker II, the second edition of a short film project that works with young people from the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the 11 films in the programme will make their debut at the auditorium of Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, on Sept 3 and 4. The screenings are a part of the weekend art and design event "Pattani Decoded", held in various venues in the southern province this weekend.
Funded by the Thai Media Fund, Deep South Young Filmmaker has been conceived and run by Pimpaka Towira. Apparently, the idea of working with young adults from the region, sometimes known as "the conflict area", is to give them a stage to air their views while also countering a stereotype associated with the Deep South.
"These films show young people's desire to change the narrative," says Pimpaka, a film director, producer and mentor. "True, the unrest has gone on for more than 18 years, but the image of the Deep South as a region rife with daily bombings and violence is simply wrong. The impression of danger and fear felt by outsiders has cast a veil that shrouds the on-ground reality of the region, and some people still regard the Deep South as 'abnormal'. That is simply untrue."
There are 11 teams of filmmakers, from high-school students to fresh graduates, Buddhist and Muslim. Many of them hadn't touched a video camera before joining. To prepare them for their 20-minute short films, Pimpaka invited a dozen professionals with top credentials, from screenwriters and directors to cameramen and editors, to take turns going to Pattani to workshop with the participants -- even with interruptions caused by Covid-19. Story ideas were pitched, developed and polished by mentors, but they remain the stories told through the eyes of people who have grown up in the specific milieu of the far South, where military checkpoints are as ubiquitous as 7-Elevens.
"In the first edition of the project, we saw some films that touched on the security situation -- films about checkpoints or the military," says Pimpaka. "It's interesting that there's none of that in the second edition. Young people here have other problems too, just like young people everywhere."
In the short film Downstairs, for example, a young man is forced to return home from Malaysia after the border is closed due to Covid-19 -- this setup alone portrays a little-known phenomenon of young Thai Muslim men who prefer to find work south of the border, instead of making their way up to Bangkok. In Sepatak Melangkah, a group of silat novices trek deep into the mountains to train with a great master; the film borrows the familiar contour of martial-arts-heroes-in-the-making story. In Hijab, a woman confronts the to-wear-or-not-wear question, but not on the way we might imagine. And in Roti, a group of high school friends giggle and bicker, then their friendship undergoes a big test -- any group of girl friends will totally relate with the characters' anxiety.
"These films bear witness to the reality experienced by young people in the Deep South whose dreams, hopes and aspirations are not different from young people elsewhere in the country," Pimpaka says.
The 11 films in Deep South Young Filmmaker II will be screened on Sept 3 and 4 at the auditorium of the Faculty of Applied Art, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus. There will be a screening in Bangkok later on. For more information, go to Facebook.com: DS Young Filmmaker.
