Though many will know him best from his controversial Palme d’Or winning “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” Thai film director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has long been on the radar of the international film scene. A showcase of the groundbreaking auteur's films is happening at the UCCA Nov 27. We recently had the opportunity to learn more about Weerasethakul’s thoughts on Thai cinema, art and the making of dreams.

The Thai film industry has been domestically robust for years, producing high-quality films—both mainstream and art house. But you are the first Thai director to make waves internationally. Why do you think this is? I was blessed to have great crews and producers, after all these years. Plus the landscape of filmmaking has been changing quickly from a monolithic studio system to independent fragments. The economic crash in the late ‘90s also contributed to the interest of people in new things in life, in a different culture, in democracy.

Describe the Thai film industry in three words. Replicating. Transforming. Righteous.

You’ve publicly commented that you feel there is no true documentary, and that the lines between fact and fiction, at least cinematically, are blurred. How does this affect what you film? It depends on one's point of view whether the piece of moving image is fact or fiction. If you look at it in a large, perhaps ethnographic, scale, everything is a rehearsal—a documentary of mankind. But if you approach it in a philosophical way, everything is fiction. Every cut, every pan, every frame is a subjective [piece of] make-believe. With this complexity in mind, I prefer to have the film work [itself to provide] the discourse.

You recently collaborated with other directors in a showcase of short films about the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake in Japan. Can you describe what you wanted to portray with this work? The beauty of longing and communication.

Piracy is rampant in countries such as Thailand and China. What advantages or disadvantages does this industry present for an art house film director working in Asia? I always think that we have to work like a piracy network. It shows us how to break the static system and reach the wide audience. It also programs people to be careless about other people's properties and ideas. But I think this is a natural course in living with a copyable culture. At [some] point in the future, the balance will set in and we will be more civilized. Distribution channels will be limitless.

If an investor offered you an unlimited budget, what film would you want to make? I dream of a movie I wrote a while ago called UTOPIA, set in the snow plains in Canada with a giant spaceship.

For someone interested in exploring Thai film, aside from your own films, which directors would you recommend they watch? Besides Pen-Ek Rattanaruang, I would say Anocha Suwichakornpong, Yuthalert Sippapak, Uruphong Raksasad, Thunska Pansittivorakul, and Panu Aree.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a surreal film, with much that is left to the viewer to interpret. What feeling did you want to impart to audiences? Floating and dreaming in their own memories. I always say that they can or should sleep while watching my films, which I sometimes do.

Who are your artistic influences? Too many. I love Jacques Rivette, Oliviera, Warhol, my mom, and others.

What is unique about Thai cinematic sensibilities? Perhaps our laid back (read: lazy) attitude towards life. 

Your art exhibition at the UCCA attempts to recreate the feeling of being in a dream, as does much of your work. Which of your own dreams has been most memorable, or most influential in your work? The last one I featured in Uncle Boonmee – his dream about the time travel and the future city.

What do dreams mean to you? Are they expressions of the subconscious, or can they mean more? They are what we need, like food, like cinema. It is a liberation of a fixed pattern of thinking and living. We are all prisoners and we need to dream to be out of our cells.

Can you talk a bit about your next project? I [will] focus on the Mekong River, the water flow, the human dependency on water, animal diseases, tyranny and democracy.

DETAILS

What: Apichatpong Weerasethakul Showcase

Where: UCCA

When: Nov 27 through Dec 11

Tel: 6438-6675

Web: www.ucca.org.cn