Fresh Goodies from Joe

A little over two years ago, I was quite thrilled when one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, was awarded the Palme d'Or at Cannes for his marvelous Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. During this year's festival in the sunny south of France, I was likely not alone in my joy at hearing of the Thai filmmaker's newest projects. Apichatpong is known for being a fairly productive artist; aside from the six feature film projects to his name, he has also created a large number of short films and installation pieces, testing his unique, experimental sensibilities in various ways. The recent news of his two latest short films come as a welcome assurance that he will be continuing to maintain his productive, curious work methods even with a Palme d'Or on his shelf.

-The first of the two films that were screened at Cannes is Mekong Hotel, which clocks in at a little over an hour. Daniel Kasman wrote about the film over at MUBI Notebook in an enticing piece.

-The other film, Ashes, can actually be viewed for free online. Jittery and primitive in its visual quality, it was created with the LomoKino camera as part of a collaboration between Apichatpong, LomoKino and MUBI. Disorienting and beautiful.

-Also over at the Notebook is a wonderful interview with Apichatpong by Kasman about these new pieces and his work methods.

A jungle straight out of Apichatpong's cinema...in Northern Ontario.