Don’t Forget Me
Ya Lerm Chan
THAILAND / 2003 / Thai / Color, B&W / Video / 10 min
Director, Editing, Producer: Manutsak Dokmai
Source: Thai Film Foundation
The footage of “Bloody Wednesday,” the Thammasat University student massacre that occurred in October 1976, when Thai police and military attacked crowds of students under the guise of a “red purge.” The narrative voiceover is taken from 1960s ethnographic documentary footage regarding the ethnic minority group Yellow Banana Leaves Ghost of northern Thailand. As the pop love song “Don’t Forget Me” plays on in the background, the two archival footages reflect diffusely against each other portraying two historical entities that have been erased from the memories of the people. Explosive colors, clips and captions are exquisitely fused in this artistic archival documentary.
[Director’s Statement] Like many people, before I found out about how it happened and the background behind it, I knew very little about the October 6, 1976 massacre at Thammasat University. People just want to forget because it is too painful to remember or talk about. I just don’t want people to forget about it even though it is hard to speak out about the truth.
Manutsak Dokmai
Born 1974, Manutsak Dokmai graduated with a degree in electronics from St. John Polytechnic School. He is now studying Communication Arts at Sukhothai Thamathirat Open University while working on the staff of the National Film Archive of Thailand. He has made nine experimental short films since 2000. Don’t Forget Me won the RD Pestonji Award from the Thai Short Film and Video Festival in 2003 and has been selected for a number of festivals including the Tampere Short Film Festival, the Busan Asian Short Film Festival and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. |