SEAMTP exhibit at 4th annual Luang Prabang Film Fest

For the second time in three years the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project is being honored with a photography exhibition at the Luang Prabang Film Festival.

Now in its 4th year, the Luang Prabang Film Festival has steadily increased its profile in Laos and across greater Southeast Asia by screening the best of locally-made cinema from across the region. This year's festival, which will be enlivening the UNESCO World Heritage city from December 7th to the 11th, will showcase 28 feature films and dozens of shorts, all of which are free of charge and open to the public.

The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project's exhibition will be held at Project Space Gallery, which is doubling as the visitors center for the film fest. In addition, I will be giving a short talk about the SEAMTP at the gallery on the 9th at 10AM.

Here's the teaser for the festival

Exhibit at Luang Prabang Film Festival, Dec. 3rd - 7th

The UNESCO World Heritage City and former Lao capital, Luang Prabang, will in December be hosting the 2nd annual Luang Prabang Film Festisval. Over 50 films from across Southeast Asia will be screened at the 5-day long event taking place from December 3rd - 7th.

Check out the promo video below:

Included in the festivities, a photo exhibition from the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project will be held at Project Space Gallery. So if you're around for the movies, don't forget to drop by and check out some photos of old movie theaters.

There will be lots of events and various kinds of screenings taking place this year. I am especially looking forward to the collection of Pathet Lao propaganda films from the 1960's and 70's that the Ministry of Information has dug out of its vaults.

Luang Prabang is easily one of the most beautiful little cities in the region, if not the world. You'd be hard pressed to find a more opportune place to hold a film fest.

Film festivals of a new kind

Let it be known to all you cinephiles in Thailand and Laos, or anybody who might be headed in that direction, there are two inaugural film fests taking place very soon. Next week, in fact, from August 6-8, begins Bangkok IndieFest. The motley mix of independent, international programming for this first-time film fest will be screened at Bangkok's HOF Art Gallery. This may be the initial run for BKK IndieFest, but the organizers are veterans of the trade, having held successful festivals for three years and counting over at Cambofest, in Phnom Penh and Kampot, Cambodia. Their inaugural Bangkok version is shaping up to be an event worth making time for.

Across the border and few months down the road, the Luang Prabang Film Festival is set to run from December 4th to the 11th in the picturesque Laotian city it's named for. This is an exciting prospect for little Luang Prabang, which is notoriously lacking in entertainment options once the sun goes down. There's no doubt that the ancient capital of northern Laos will benefit enormously from this dose of the silver screen.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of their organizers, neither Bangkok IndieFest nor the Luang Prabang Film Fest will be screening films in any classic stand-alone theaters this year. But maybe - just maybe - if enough people turn out to get their fix of film this time around, next year's festivities will be held in one of the few remaining stand-alone theaters in Bangkok or Luang Prabang. A lurid possibility which I hope to see happen more often at local film fests.

The Rachinee (AKA New Queen) Theater - Luang Prabang, Laos

Smack in the middle of Luang Prabang's most densely packed tourist area, silently masquerading as a boutique hotel, stands the Rachinee Theater. Innumerable travelers have strolled past this building clueless to the fact that before Luang Prabang was fancified by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) there was a real movie theater in town, two even.

Behind the facade of a guesthouse lies an old movie theater, unbeknownst to the throngs of tourists who visit Luang Prabang every day.

It was back in 1966 that the Rachinee Theater (also known as the New Queen) first opened to the public, under the stewardship of the Sisalermsak family. When they built the Rachinee it was the second brick and concrete theater in town, and an instant competitor of the Siang Savan Theater (see two posts prior for more details). The Sisalermsaks owned two wooden theaters in town prior to the Rachinee, but they are both long gone.

On my last day in Luang Prabang I met Mr. Nophavong Sisalermsak, the son of the original owners. He helped his parents run the Rachinee for years and had a wealth of knowledge about the Laotian movie theater industry. He explained how prior to 1975 the different theaters throughout the country formed film distribution partnerships, sharing film reels within their own group. The Rachinee, for instance, had a partnership with the Vieng Samay and Odeon theaters in Vientiane, while the Siang Savan was allied with the Bua Savan and Seng Lao theaters, also in the capital.

Superior quality American-made projectors, rusting away in a storage shed behind Nophavong's house.

Nophavong Sisalermsak praised the quality and reliability of the American-made Century Projectors (two above photos) that he used before the communist takeover in 1975. When diplomatic relations between Laos and America were severed, the only available projectors were USSR-made models. Nophavong lambasted these inferior machines, claiming that "they consistently burned through film and couldn't play older movies."

Inferior quality Soviet-made projectors, rusting away in a storage shed behind Nophavong's house.

Behind a stack of bricks, the old crown in the sign leans against the Sisalermsak house. The crown stood between the words "New" and "Queen" on the top of the theater. Nophavong Sisalermsak wants to restore the old crown and return it to its original place. It would add a nice touch to the building and alert tourists to its erstwhile function.

Nophavong Sisalermsak

The Rachinee stopped showing films back in 1993, after which it was transformed into a karaoke bar for a period. After UNESCO proclaimed Luang Prabang a World Heritage Site, however, the karaoke bar was deemed out of character with the French colonial/montaine Southeast Asian kingdom themes. It was ordered to shut down. The old Rachinee Theater's most recent incarnation is as the Le Tam Tam Garden Guesthouse and Restaurant.

The Siang Savan Theater - Luang Prabang, Laos

In terms of quaintness and subtle charms, you'd be hard pressed to find a theater better suited to those terms than Luang Prabang's Siang Savan Theater. Built in the late 1950's, presumably by somebody of Sino-Lao origins, judging by the Chinese characters molded onto the cornice, the Siang Savan was the first brick and mortar theater in the former capital of northern Laos. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to speak to anybody with any strong ties to the theater, outside of a few locals who recalled seeing movies there when it was functioning.

Full frontal

Like all Laotian movie theaters, the Siang Savan was partially nationalized after 1975, coming under the direction of the Ministry of Culture. While the cinema of Thailand, France and America was banned from Lao silver screens, replacements were brought in from Communist ally countries like Vietnam, Russia and non-aligned India. Films from communist China were surprisingly absent from the film fare due to stunted relations between the two countries. The Laotian communists had been under the tutelage of the Vietnamese, who had shifted political allegiances from China to the Soviet Union - hence the lack of Chinese movies, among other things Chinese, in Laos. To be sure, Lao and Chinese relations are quite warm these days, thanks to expanded trade and often environmentally unsound infrastructure projects.

Ornate plaster moldings adorn the front entrance.

Ticket window in the vestibule. Notice the design on the bars.

I wasn't able to get any precise details, though rumor has it that the Siang Savan has been closed since the early 1990's. For a brief period it was rehabbed and turned into a restaurant, trying to capitalize on the influx of tourists that Luang Prabang has received since it gained UNESCO World Heritage City status. Luang Prabang is a pretty and well-preserved town, but there is little to do once all the tourist sites have been seen. Everybody likes the movies. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a cinematic future in store for this old gem?

Siang Savan translates to heavenly sounds. Sounds heavenly to me!