Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbors is a semi-documentary movie that follows the daily life of an elderly farmer from the countryside near Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened recently at World Film Festival Bangkok.

ABOUT THE FILM

Information from the website of the film:

SIMPLE LIFE IN THE THAI COUNTRYSIDE

At the age of sixty, Lung Neaw (Uncle Neaw) finds himself retired from his life as a rice farmer in a small village in the Northern Thai Province of Chiang Mai.

Away from the chatter and noise of recent political upheaval, in the capital Bangkok, and the demand for democratic reforms, we follow Lung Neaw in his daily life.

We see Lung Neaw living off the land that he has known since he was born, fishing, hunting and foraging for herbs and vegetation in the open fields and forest nearby his home. He goes about the chores of living and fills up his idle time with the practicalities of a rural existence, and in between he finds time to spend with neighbors, from the local sage, to the ailing and aged elephant king deep in the valley, to children who play in his front yard and the youngsters at the local watering hole.

Lung Neaw is known in the surrounding villages and his own as the man without enemies, a fair man without judgment and humble with his humility.

What else do you need?

We have to ask, "What more can one want when one is already living in Paradise?", in this moment when many people are asking for equality, opportunity, self determination and for democracy in the hands of the people, in Lung Neaw we find both answers and questions to these demands.

We find it in the sustenance of self awareness and sufficiency and in compassion and humility, we find it in the narrative of the real and of the simplicity of each day.

TRAILER

http://www.lungneawvisitsfilm.com/trailer/

WHAT THE DIRECTOR SAYS

"It was shot without a script and everyone in it is a real person, in their own locale. So they're pretty much reacting to each other without any plan or direction.

"But the time sequence was switched. We shot in the winter first and then the rainy season, but because of the flow of time and space, we opened the film in the rainy season and ended in the dry season.

"So it's not a documentary and not a narrative. Perhaps it's more portraiture."

Video of the press conference for the film, at the Venice Film Festival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuPdEioXofg&feature=related

REVIEWS

"The shots are rough, and often out of focus, but the movie gives excellent insight. The length is crucial. An hour-long documentary gets you in and out with a brief knowledge of the issue, but three hours forces you to really think about, question, and examine the content." - COCONUT BANGKOK

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: RIRKRIT TIRANAVIJA

Rirkrit Tiravanija was born in Buenos Aires in 1961 and was raised in Thailand, Ethiopia, and Canada. He is a contemporary artist who has exhibited in numerous galleries in the world, and he is a Professor at the School of Arts at Columbia University.

"Rirkrit, who won the Silpathorn Award for visual arts in 2007, is famed for his "relational aesthetics" - turning mundane activities like eating and cooking into art." - says Thai newspaper THE NATION

Solo exhibitions of his work have been mounted by Reiña Sofia in Madrid (1994), Museum of Modern Art in New York (1997), Philadelphia Museum of Art (1998), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (1999).

You can read more about him on the website of the Guggenheim Museum here

CINEMA OPEN AT 6.30PM + PIZZA + DISCUSSION!

The cinema will be open from 6.30pm - so come early, and have a slice of pizza and a drink with us!

We will also have a discussion after the screening, so stick around and have a chat with us!

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Part of AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: www.avfestival.co.uk 

PRICE: £5/£3.50 (conc)

AV Festival Film Loyalty Card - Collect 4 stamps and the 5th film is FREE

WHOLE PROGRAMME OF THE AV AT THE STAR AND SHADOW HERE http://www.starandshadow.org.uk/on/season/111

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