We take a look at the short films presented at the ASEAN Competition of the 6th Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival, which will take place from September 3rd – 6th (2020), in Bangkok, Thailand.

About the festival:
The Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival 2020, organized by Thailand’s Ministry of Culture, aims to stimulate the economy through the film and video industry, and to lift the morale and spirits of professionals in the Thai filmmaking sector, as well as their Southeast Asian counterparts. The festival represents cooperation among ASEAN members in an effort to revive and drive forward the film industry of the region. This year, in addition to film screenings, they have launched two activities which invited filmmakers to submit their short films and feature-length projects: ASEAN Short Film Competition and SEAPITCH (Southeast Asian Project Pitch).

A Fallen Fruit by Amit Dubey – Cambodia | 2020 – 13 minutes

A cricket farmer’s son faces the arrival of new members in the family.

Trailer:

Andrew by Koo Chia Meng – Singapore | 2020 – 18 minutes

A man contemplates the prospect of fatherhood and marriage while mourning the passing of a childhood friend. As life goes on, some bonds become increasingly hard to let go.

Cobalt Blue by Aung Phyoe – Myanmar | 2019 – 27 minutes

The film takes place in 1998 Yangon one evening at the government housing apartment by the railroad where a boy and his mother wait for the return of the father, a civil servant, before moving out to an upper Myanmar town. That day, the boy tries to understand the complexities of adult relations.

Trailer:

Digital Funeral: Beta Version by Sorayos Prapapan – Thailand | 2020 – 6 minutes

One of my dreams is to organize my own funeral.

Excuse Me, Miss, Miss, Miss by Sonny Calvento – Philippines | 2019 – 15 minutes

Vangie, a miserable contractual sales lady, is about to lose her job. But in her desperate attempt to convince her boss not to sack her, Vangie uncovers the ultimate jaw-dropping secret to regularization

Trailer:

Here is Not There by Nelson Yeo – Singapore | 2019 – 20 minutes

Xun, a Chinese migrant worker, falls in love with Chong, a Malaysian colleague at her warehouse job. Their relationship is like an endless dance of two jellyfish in the ocean, making ends meet with no end in sight. Until one day, Xun announces she is pregnant, which is a deportable offense, and the fates of Xun and Chong are altered forever.

Housemaid by Prach Rojanasinwilai – Thailand | 2020 – 20 minutes

A housemaid and a young son of the family she works for has to come to term with the inevitable parting as time continues to pass and the end of the day is fast approaching.

jù rén by Henry and Harry Zhuang – Singapore | 2019 – 5 minutes

A seed is planted. A school of fishes washes up to a barren land. While all the fish leaps into the sea, one digs deep into the land.

Lanny by Chuah Jie Xie – Malaysia, Taiwan | 2019 – 27 minutes

Following the death of her beloved grandmother and her pet, a young girl is to relocate to the city to live with her parents despite their estrangement. While being told how to think, feel and behave by her parents, she re-veals love in its rawest form.

Trailer:

Shadow and Act by Taiki Sakpisit – Thailand, South Korea | 2019 – 23 minutes

“Shadow and Act” navigates through the remains of Chaya Jitrakorn, once the most prominent photo studio in Thailand built in 1940 and was the only preferred studio of the dictator Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram. The film explores the studio’s 72-year archives and its owner’s personal photographs while representing the defunct studio like the corpse of the deceased Giant. The film experiments with the relationships between memory and space as well as the past and the future.

Star (Tokwifi) by Carla Pulido Ocampo – Philippines | 2019 – 20 minutes

As Limmayug carries firewood back to his home village, something falls from the sky: a 1950s television, with a hysterical showbiz star trapped inside it. She is Laura Blancaflor. The frightened man saves the television – nay, saves Laura – from the flames of the impact. Worlds apart in their language and methods, the two try their best to engage each other. But for Limmayug, an indigenous man from an off-the-grid mountain town, Laura’s TV talk seems too contrived and, alas, during commercial breaks, uncontrollably tactless as well.

Trailer:

Stay Awake, be Ready by Pham Thien An – Vietnam, South Korea, USA | 2019 – 14 minutes

A motorbike crash happening before the street stalls on a street corner is embedded in the mysterious story of three young men.

Trailer:

The Graduation of Edison by Pham Hoang Minh Thy – Vietnam | 2019 – 20 minutes

Minh lives in a village where every child is born with a tree on their heads, except for him. On the graduation day, students who have turned 18 will get their tree cut to signify adulthood. Problems arise when Minh’s sister decides to keep hers.

The Unseen River by Phạm Ngọc Lan – Vietnam, Laos | 2020 – 23 minutes

Stories told along the river about a woman who reunites with her ex-lover at a hydroelectric plant. Meanwhile, a young man travels downstream to a temple in search of a cure for his insomnia.

Trailer:

To Calm the Pig Inside by Joanna Vasquez Arong – Philippines | 2020 – 19 minutes

“To Calm the Pig Inside” is a contemplation on the effects a typhoon leaves on a seaside city. Myths are woven in to try to understand how people cope with the devastation and trauma. A girl divulges bits and pieces of her own memory of her grandmother and mother to tie in the experiences she felt revisiting this ravaged port city.

Trailer:

For more information about the programme and the festival please go to the official website: https://www.baff.go.th/