New things to come for the SEA Movie Theater Project

After 18 months of hiatus, the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project is once again active. During this upcoming phase of the project, we promise to go a little further, to dig a little deeper in order to exhume more of the faded glory that is the stand-alone movie theater; its architecture and its culture in Southeast Asia.

Continuations in Burma and Thailand are on top of the "to do" list. As the economies of both countries are growing fast, a "down-with-the-old, up-with-the-new" attitude will find economy with each country's movers and shakers. Through the work done here, hopefully we can tweak that attitude just enough to salvage a bit of cultural history, movie theater style.

In the meantime, a few past steps have been retraced in Bangkok, making visits to theaters that have already been covered on this site. Here's the findings:

• Back in 2009 we ran some shots of the Ratchathewi Rama, off of Petchburi Road Soi 12/8. 

"Closed for renovations"

Once part of the Co Brothers theater empire, headed by "Sia" Charoen Poolworaluk, by the time we got around to it four years ago it had recently closed and was undergoing a transformation into a parking garage. Here's the result:

Parking garage in full effect

Still, a few bits of movie theater ephemera remain.

"Coming soon" at the Ratchathewi Rama

• Over on the west-bank Thonburi side of Bangkok, we found that the once-grand Hawaii Theater - originally documented in its later and less than salubrious guise of sex cinema back in 2009 - has closed up shop altogether. Given its proximity to the Wong Wian Yai BTS station, it is a likely candidate for demolition to make room for a condo tower. Transit oriented development (TOD), or the placing of dense housing developments close to public transportation facilities, is usually a good thing, but it will be a shame to lose this old movie theater.

The Hawaii Theater, shuttered.

• But most importantly, after 44 years of serving the public's entertainment needs the Scala Theater at Siam Square is still Southeast Asia's premiere movie palace and looks great. Upgrading to digital projection late last year has improved the viewing experience at the Scala, adding one more reason to attend this one-of-a-kind movie venue.

The Scala Theater, Thailand's last movie palace.

A top priority of the SEAMTP over the coming months and years is to build up a Scala support network dedicated to advocating for this cultural icon to ensure that it is not demolished. When the theater's lease expires in 2017, Chulalongkorn University, the landlord of all of Siam Square, has plans to raze the Scala to clear ground for a new shopping mall. Such action would result in a severe loss to Thailand's cultural capital.

   

Bangkok's claim to cinematic history

Below is the text of an op-ed I wrote advocating for the renewal of the Nang Loeng AKA Sala Chalerm Thani Cinema in Bangkok. Click here for the Bangkok Post version of it.

The Nang Loeng Cinema - Bangkok, Thailand

This past Wednesday, the world’s oldest cinema reopened for business after nearly two decades of dormancy. The 114 year old Eden Theatre, located in the French sea-side town of La Coite, was used by the motion picture-pioneering Lumiere Brothers to screen an early work of theirs. Over the next 90-plus years, the Eden fluctuated between being a movie and live theater before closing down in the 1995. Now, following a lengthy renovation process, the Eden is back in business as a full-time movie theater, with space set aside for a permanent exhibit dedicated to the origins of animated pictures.

With France now claimant to the oldest operating movie theatre in the world, Thailand is in position to stake claim to the oldest active movie theater in Asia. But that claim hinges upon a forgotten piece of cinema real-estate getting the same treatment as France’s Eden.

Nestled in a corner of Trok Nang Loeng, in the historic Rattanakosin area of Bangkok, stands the Sala Chalerm Thani Theater. More barn in appearance than cinema hall, the mostly wooden structure dates to 1918 when it was contracted by the Siam Cinema Co. under the name of the Nang Loeng Cinema. 

Signage announcing the theater's latter name, Sala Chalerm Thani, tacked to the facade.

In the late 1910’s, the Siam Cinema Co. became the country’s largest theater operator after two fierce business rivals – the Krungthep Cinematograph Company and the Pathanakorn Film Company – merged into one. The Siam Cinema Co. operated as many as 20 movie theaters in around Bangkok until the early 1930’s, when financial troubles caused them to sell all their theaters to the newly-formed Siam Niramai Cinema Co., making it the nation’s largest theater chain at the time. It was then that the name of the Nang Loeng Cinema was changed to the Sala Chalerm Thani. 

Without going into a detailed history, the Nang Loeng Cinema, or Sala Chalerm Thani – whichever you prefer – is a worthy candidate for a revival. Its unique architecture, historic location and nearly century-old age provide ample justification for that.

The architectural aspect boils down to the material it’s made from. While wooden theaters were the norm during the early days of motion-picture in Thailand, by the middle decades of the twentieth century they had become the rare exceptions. Only in the smaller towns and villages in the provinces did wood occasionally find utility as a building material for theaters. Over the years wooden theaters have all but disappeared, replaced by theaters built of brick and mortar or not replaced at all. The Nang Loeng Cinema is thus a rare example of Thai vernacular cinema architecture in the heart of the country’s primary city. 

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), Bangkok’s version of a city planning office, has been seeking ways to increase tourist revenue from historic Rattanakosin. Were the Nang Loeng Cinema to find a source of funding for a make-over it would be transformed into a fascinating and potentially lucrative destination. Try to envision daily tours to the Nang Loeng Cinema to screen a documentary film about, say, the history of Rattanakosin, or Bangkok in general. Visitors could then explore the ancient neighborhood, bringing revenue to local businesses in the process. By night, the 95 year old structure could be turned into an art-house theater, or live venue, drawing regulars from the ranks of Bangkok’s film and art sets. 

If done properly, a revival of the Nang Loeng could make it the cinema equivalent of the Jim Thompson House – a vestige of old Bangkok with both contemporary and historic functions.

As of 18 months ago, notices found tacked to the Nang Loeng’s façade announced up-coming renovations sponsored by the owning Crown Property Bureau – the financial branch of Thailand’s revered Royal Family. This would seemingly be the solution to the theater’s now twenty year-long stint as a storage space - an unfortunate use for such a significant structure. But when questioned about the notices, nearby residents said that they had been pinned up more than a year prior and nothing had happened since. Few in Trok Nang Loeng had any hope the renovation plans would be enacted.

The revival of France’s Eden Theatre as the oldest operating theater in the world should inspire a vision for “the oldest operating theater in Asia.”  In the Nang Loeng Cinema, Bangkok has the right inventory! An attraction of that gauge would add further value to Thailand’s cultural capital, and from a very unique perspective at that. Movie theaters, after all, are fairly universal, but wooden ones are almost unheard of.

As an investment into the economic viability of Rattanakosin, the revival if the Nang Loeng Cinema will certainly will not answer all of the BMA’s questions. It would, however, be one piece of the puzzle. The only thing that seems to be missing is the political will to get it started. 

Images of Burmese movie theaters on display in S. Philadelphia

The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project is proud to announce its first ever exhibition in North America. The more precise location is south Philadelphia - my residence when not documenting old movie theaters in Southeast Asia - at the Southeast by Southeast Community Center - 1927 S. 7th Street. It opens tomorrow, Saturday September 21st.

Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program has graciously sponsored this display of images in conjunction with photographs taken by members of the city's recently arrived Burmese and Nepali refugee community. The latter details the experience of this nascent community from refugee camps in Asia to row-house South Philadelphia.   

If you're in the Philadelphia area, please come join us for a night of fun and conversation.

Popular Bangkok movie palace, no more

The Rama Sam Yan Theater, more commonly known under the truncated name of Rama Theater, is reportedly undergoing demolition.Word of the architectural loss came by way of a comment recently posted on the SEAMTP's Facebook page. This report was later reconfirmed, along with a photo of the theater's half-fallen auditorium. A high rise condominium will be constructed in its place.

The Rama's demise marks the end of one of Bangkok's most popular movie palaces of the 1970's and 80's. It was also one of the first movie theaters in the country to combine multiple functions under one roof, with office space and bowling alleys accompanying the theater.

Aside from its multiple functions, the Rama Sam Yan Theater is noted for its unique architectural modernism. Elements of Japanese temple architecture can be seen in the design of its stand-alone ticket booth located in a five-story atrium lobby. On the theater's upper facade, entrants were greeted with a relief of a bowler knocking down pins above the marquee.

The Rama Sam Yan dates the late 1960's. The movie section from Bangkok newspapers circa 1976 have it listed under the Apex Circuit, then known as Pyramid. It may very well have been either contracted or purchased by the once prolific Apex chain, which was spearheaded by former movie theater mogul Pisit Tansacha.

Located on Rama IV Road in the Sam Yan neighborhood of Bangkok, the Rama's demolition follows the recent demolition of the majority of old Sam Yan, a low-rise, traditionally a middle and working class Chinese neighborhood.

The Rama Sam Yan Theater complex c. 2009

Artistry in relief form, the Bowler

Ticket booth in Japanese moderism

Atrium lobby and ticket booth

Farewell to the Rama Theater

Classic Yangon cinema to get preservation treatment

The preservation of old structures is like a balancing act. While it would be nice to salvage every quality old building and restore or repurpose them to new found grandeur, the odds of doing so are slim. Battles for preservation are more successful when the are selectively fought. As a rule of thumb, old and under-performing structures must make way for the new and profitable, sometimes at the expense of good architecture. In the world of urban real-estate, where land is typically scarce, this rule is all the more immutable, especially when it comes to buildings that are expensive to maintain.

Fortunately there are exceptions to this rule. Savy municipalities take strides to preserve their structural antiquities when possible, conscious of the fact that with the passage of time older structures can gain an irreplaceable allure.

In Yangon, Burma, architectural preservation has become a popular topic. With international capital rushing in to the frontier market, a country saturated with natural resources and inexpensive labor, Yangon's vast inventory of aging architecture has come under duress, and both locals and visitors have noticed.

Downtown Yangon has very little vacant land to accommodate the fledgling free-market economy. Property owners hoping to cash out from the current economic boom are eager to sell for the right price. On Bogyoke Aung San Rd., a stretch of city informally known as Cinema Row due to the more than half dozen movie halls that have crowded the area for decades, redevelopment is everywhere. In the last year at least 3 of the 6 remaining theaters on Cinema Row have been leveled, giving way to high-rise hotels and office towers.

But in keeping with the balancing act analogy, it sounds as if at least one theater will survive the demolition unscathed, if not enhanced. And it couldn't be a better one.

The Waziya Cinema on Bogyoke Aung San Rd.

Details of the veranda

Entrance to lower level seating

An usher awaits patrons along the corridor of upper level seating

According to a Facebook post by Thant Myint U, the leading voice of Yangon's architectural preservation movement, there is talk of revitalizing the Waziya Cinema - the oldest and most architecturally intact of all the Cinema Row movie theaters. Dating to the 1920's, the Beaux-Arts Waziya - originally known as the Excelsior -  is one of the oldest active theaters in all of Burma, if not broader Southeast Asia.

Interest in its preservation seems to have gained momentum from having hosted the 3rd annual Watthan Film Festival, giving the old picture house exposure on a broader platform.

Night shot of the Waziya Cinema

Should the Waziya get restored this will be a huge victory for Yangon's architectural preservation movement. And for stand-alone movie theater enthusiasts, this will be enormous.

But vigilance must remain high, as there are three more elegant theaters in the vicinity in the Nay Pyi Daw, the Shae Saung and the Thamada that might also face the wreckers claw.

Hopefully this news will be noted over in neighboring Thailand, where the fate of Bangkok's exquisite Scala Theatre is still in limbo.

Updates and hold-me-overs

Please pardon the lack of content, but I have been out of the field for nearly 18 months and my inventory has run dry. It's been a long, slow 18 month hiatus from this project, the harebrained idea I dreamed up back in late 2008 with the ambitious goal of documenting all the remaining stand-alone movie theater across Southeast Asia. Indeed, in my absence from the region I've missed out on attending 4 SEAMTP exhibitions. One in Thailand, two in Indonesia and one in Laos. I can only imagine the number of theaters that have been demolished during this period without a proper record of their existence. 

But, ladies and gentlemen, trusty loyalists and casual followers alike, the hiatus will soon be over. In a little less than two months I'll be flying into Bangkok. The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project will be back in action. More details on this at a later date.

In the meantime, here's a little something to hold you over. 

This shot of Bangkok's King's Theater was sent to me a few years ago by a former US serviceman stationed in Thailand in the 1960's. King's was one of three theaters built on land formerly occupied by the Wang Burapha Palace, a grand old teak mansion built by King Chulalongkorn for one of his brothers. 

In the early 1950's Wang Burapha was purchased an razed to make way for the King's, Queen's and Grand theatres. Ask any Bangkokian who was around back then and they'll tell you that this area was the place to be for teenagers, with its trio of first class movie theaters and surrounding businesses all in one bustling section of town.

Today, the King's Theatre itself is gone. In its place stands the Merry King's Department Store.  

Judging by the "My Name is Pecos" billboard on the side of the theater, this photo probably dates from 1967 or 68.

Movie Theater Gangsters in "The Act of Killing"

Seldom do film reviews find their way into these annals of movie theaterdom, despite the sibling nature of the two topics. The movie theater, in and of itself, offers plenty of content to explore without need for divergence. But given the general lack of new material being posted here lately, and the fact that the film to be reviewed brings to light a direct link between movie theaters and politics - in this case, political violence - an exception is well warranted.

In his The Act of Killing Joshua Oppenheimer has directed a feature length documentary chronicling the murderous anti-Communist campaign carried out by Indonesia's "movie theater gangsters." In it, the film's protagonists, led by Anwar Congo and Herman Koto, recreate episodes from their days as hit men for Indonesia's right wing paramilitary forces. The pair were literally given an entire film crew to reenact, from their own perspectives, what it was like to hunt, interrogate, extort and murder Indonesians believed to be sympathetic to the left-leaning Sukarno government.

In an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Oppenheimer describes how in 1965 the Indonesian army recruited

"civilian death squad members from the ranks of movie theater gangsters, preman bioskop in Indonesian. These men were gangsters. They were part of a mafia that was running all sorts of criminal rackets, protection rackets, smuggling, illegal logging, prostitution rings, and so forth, but they were using as their base of operations movie theaters. And they were selling movie theater tickets on the black market as a kind of small side source of income. And they loved the movies. And because they were hanging out in them, so they developed a whole culture around the movies, whole kind of youth gang culture around the movies."

While the film focuses more on revealing the extent and atrociousness of the crimes committed by the predecessors to Indonesia's current government - crimes, moreover, which have never been addressed by any supranational investigative body - than on a connection between politics and movie theaters or film, it nonetheless makes clear allusions to the latter. In an early scene, Anwar and Herman recall their outrage at the Sukarno government - the "Communists" - for banning their beloved Hollywood films from theaters. The ban, it's assumed, was enacted to curb right wing American influence in Indonesian society. In the same Amy Goodman interview, however, Oppenheimer further explains that the real reason behind the ban was that the then head of the American Motion Picture Association of Indonesia, a man named Bill Palmer, was widely believed to be on the payroll of the CIA. Besides being responsible for importing Hollywood films, with their pro-American propaganda, Palmer was also alleged to be complicit in designing a coup against Sukarno.

The notion of American soft-power being spread through the seemingly benign medium of film in Cold War Southeast Asia - if not the broader world - is wholly legitimate, if not often overlooked. Nearby Thailand, a country with numerous sociopolitical parallels, was home to an American with a role similar to that of Indonesia's Bill Palmer in the person of Willis Bird. Among Bird's numerous enterprises, which included arms sales to right wing dictators, was the distribution of American films to Thai cinemas.

From the 1950's to the mid 1970's, Thai theaters screened a disproportionate percentage of Hollywood films. Due to their high production value compared to the local fair, tickets sales were usually robust, ensuring that Thai society was exposed to American pop-culture en mass. As one might expect, many of the films shown also contained narratives which were favorable to America and its free-market ideology; boot-strap capitalism, rugged individualism, the triumph of the free world and perhaps above all, a disdain for the red menace.

With the aid of people like Willis Bird, who had built relationships with all the important Thai power brokers, American movie studios went so far as to finance the construction of their own movie theaters. Anti-communist themes were thus reinforced by Hollywood icons on silver screens throughout the country.

As for Indonesia, with its movie theater gangsters turned right-wing executioners, although at the extreme end of the movie theater narrative, it was not without regional precedent.

Joshua Oppenheimer has done a stand-up job of adapting this grim period in Indonesian history into a one-of-a-kind documentary. Edited down from over a thousand hours of footage into 115 minutes of ceaselessly engaging cinema, The Act of Killing is an at times entrancingly absurd  trip down memory lane with Anwar Congo, Herman Koto and more of most sadistic henchmen you're likely to witness anywhere. That said, this movie is not for everybody, not least of all the faint of heart. Some might even interpret the entire thing as a vulgar glorification of crimes against humanity. But then again there are those who were furious over Mel Brooks' mocking portrayal of Hitler in The Producers.

Why not decide for yourself?