Exhibitions
Gallery VER
Jul 11 - Aug 22, 2020
All images by Courtesy of Gallery VER
The Longest Way Round is the Shortest Way Home is Thai film director Nontawat Numbenchapol’s debut exhibition at Gallery VER, and his first-ever large-scale installation in an on-site gallery.
Echoing the idiom that suggests shortcuts are not, always, the best way, ‘The Longest Way Round is the Shortest Way Home’ reflects on the complexities of the migratory life and on its precariousness, often endeavored without legal documents. Contrary to what may have initially appeared as a shortcut to a better life, the act of crossing the border, specifically from Myanmar to Thailand in ‘The Longest Way Round is the Shortest Way Home’, manifests as an unsustainable choice. Systematically marginalized, immigrants often have no other options than limited freedom, or to return to the homeland.
Focusing on Shan laborers in Chiang Mai, the ethnographical framework of ‘The Longest Way Round is the Shortest Way Home’ incorporates Numbenchapol’s observations and on-site research by way of unique footage shot in the inlands of Myanmar to trace the journey of a young man as he returns, after six years, to his village in the Shan State to visit his family and to process his much-needed national identity documents.
Filmed alone without accompanying crew, Numbenchapol’s footage serves as a collection of visual field notes that reveal the protagonist’s views on his migratory life, the pain of leaving behind his homeland, and his expectations while embracing a new life across the border. At the same time, the footage fuels larger questions of belonging and unbelonging to one’s own homeland and on the meaning of identity, social or otherwise, in the making of an individual.
Encompassing immersive video and sound installations, as well as photography and mixed-media works, ‘The Longest Way Round is the Shortest Way Home’ aims to facilitate dialogues on contentions of inclusion, exclusion and societal acceptance across Southeast Asian borders, while also establishing the foundation for Numbenchapol’s ground research on Shan laborers in Chiang Mai for a feature-length film on the same topic.
About Artist
Nontawat Numbenchapol works in fiction and documentary films. In 2013, he released his first documentary, Boundary, about the people at the Thai-Cambodia border. The film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival, Germany. In the same year Numbenchapol completed his second documentary, By the River, about the Klity villagers affected by water lead contamination. By the River was the first Thai film to receive the Special Mention award from the Locarno Film Festival. In 2016 Numbenchapol created an hybrid docu-fiction #BKKY, which was premiered at Busan International Film Festival and received the Jury Award for best feature- length film from Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg, Germany. Since 2016 Numbenchapol has been working at the border between Thailand and Myanmar investigating the life of the youngsters in the military camps of the Shan State Army. Based on that experience he produced Soil without Land which has been screened at major film festivals including Vision du reel, Nyon, Switzerland and DMZ DOCS, Seoul, South Korea. His current research is focused on displaced ethnic minorities from Myanmar to Chiang Mai.
About Curator
Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani is an independent curator, writer and lecturer of Southeast Asian contemporary art. Her research and curatorial practice revolve around critical sociopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, advocating a counter-hegemonic and non-Western-centric discourse. She curated Diaspora: Exit, Exile, Exodus of Southeast Asia (2019) at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum and Architectural Landscapes: SEA in the Forefront (2015) at Queens Museum, along with several exhibitions for commercial galleries in the US, UK and Southeast Asia. She has published in Frames Cinema Journal, University of St Andrews, UK; Convocarte: Revista de Ciências da Arte, Lisbon University, Portugal; and M.A.tter Unbound, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, among others. She is a member of the Association for Southeast Asian Studies in UK, and Research Network for Transcultural Practices in the Arts and Humanities, Berlin University. Together with Patrick D. Flores, Loredana co-edited the anthology Interlaced Journeys: Diaspora and the Contemporary in Southeast Asian Art, published in 2020 by Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong.
Nontawat Numbenchapol was born in 1983 and grew up in Bangkok. He is a Thai film director and television screenwriter, who is widely recognized for his documentary work. He graduated from the Visual Communication Design Department, Faculty of Art and Design, Rangsit University.
Numbenchapol has frequently collaborated on Cannes Palm d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s works. Projects include UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (stills photographer), FOR TOMORROW FOR TONIGHT (cinematographer), FIREWORKS (ARCHIVES) (project manager), and CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR (documentary making-of).
In 2013, Numbenchapol finished his first documentary film BOUNDARY, funded by Busan International Film Festival and Art Network Asia. The film depicts point-of-views of local people at the Thai-Cambodia border that have never been recognized. Numbenchapol received the Young Filmmaker award from the Bangkok Critics Assembly and BOUNDARY screened across many film festivals such as Berlin International Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.
In the same year Numbenchapol completed his second documentary BY THE RIVER, about the Klity villagers affected by water lead contamination. It became the first Thai film to receive the Special Mention award from the Locarno International Film Festival.
In 2016 Numbenchapol created an hybrid docu-fiction #BKKY, a story of a teenage girl, “Jojo,” questioning life and identity. Jojo’s character is a compilation of 100 teenagers interviewed in Bangkok about their loves and dreams and coming-of-age just after graduating high school. It premiered in October 2016 at the Busan International Film Festival before it received the Jury Award for best feature- length film from Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg, Germany.
Upcoming Projects
Doi Boy
No Boys Land
GREEN CANVAS COMBAT BOOTS DOI ARMY
Selected Works
2016 - #BKKY
2013 - By The River (Sai Nam Tid Shoer)
2013 - Boundary (Fah Tum Pandin Soong)
2012 - DIG
2012 - Ratchapruek
2012 - Aurora Primary
2011 - Gaze And Hear
2009 - Empire Of Mind (Arnajuk Hang Jai)
2006 - Weirdrosopher World (Lok Pra rach)
Awards
2016 - won the Purin Award at the close of Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab (SEAFIC).
2016 - Jury Award for the best feature film at Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hanburg, German.
2014 - Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards, Thailand- Young Director Award.
Official Selection
2013 - Locarno International Film Festival, Cineasti del Presente - Special Mention Award.
2012 - Film On The Rocks Untamed winners
2011 - DMZ Fund from Asian Network of Documentary
2011 - Arts Network Asia (ANA) Awardees.
2009 - The 13th Thai Short Film & video Festival Thailand 2009, Duke documentary competition, Special Mention Award.
Selected Exhibitions / Screenings / Festivals / Workshop
2018 -
2017 - Fringe Queer Film and Arts Festival in London,United Kongdom.
2017 - ASIAN PROJECT MARKET (APM), Seoul,South Korea.
2017 - Docs Port Incheon, Seoul, South Korea.
2017 - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea.
2017 - Tokyo Docs, Japan.
2017 - Tokyo Talent, Japan.
2017 - the Seattle Asian American Film Festival.
2017 - “Flight for the Empire”, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany.
2017 - New Narratives Film Festival, Taipei, Taiwan
2017 - Docs By The Sea, Bali, Indonesia
2017 - EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) TTB Ties That Bind in Udine, Italy.
2017 - 13th International Conference on Thai Studies, Chiangmai, Thailand.
2017 - Busan International Kids & Youth Film Festival.
2017 - Lovers Film Festival Torino LGBTQI,
2017 - Wicked Queer Boston, USA.
2017 - Kuir Fest, Turkey
2017 - Cambodia International Film Festival
2017 - Helsinki Cineaasia, Finland.
2017 - Cinema Asia Amsterdam
2017 - Glitch Film Festival
2016 - Southeast Asia Fiction Film Lab, Thailand.
2016 - Q CINEMA Manila Philippines.
2016 - Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hanburg, German.
2016 - Hong Kong Asian Film Festival. 2016 : Q CINEMA Manila Philippines.
2016 - Busan International Film Festival 2016.
2014 - Human Right Dignity International Film Festival, Yangon, Myanmar.
2014 - Green Film Festival in Seoul.
2014 - Chop Shot, Jakarta, Indonesia.
2014 - "A BRIEF HISTORY OF MEMORY" The 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art Strategic Projects.
2014 - "Chapter 3, State of Being New Video art From Thailand" at XXX Gallery, Hong Kong.
2014 - Human Right Dignity International Film Festival, Yangon, Myanmar.
2014 - Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival.
2013 - Cambodia International Film Festival.
2013 - Festival Film Dokumenter, Yogyakarta Indonesia.
2013 - Luangprabang Film Festival, Lao.
2013 - Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary.
2013 - International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
2013 - Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan.
2013 - Milano Film Festival, Italy.
2013 - Salaya International Documentary Film Festival, Thailand.
2013 - Berlin International Film Festival.
2013 - Festival dei popoli, Florence, Italy.
2013 - Kolkata International Film Festival, India.
2013 - SalaMindanaw International Film Festival, Philippine.
2013 - World Film Festival, Bangkok, Thailand.
2013 - Hong Kong Asian Film Festival.
2013 - Locarno International Film Festival.
2012 - Film on The Rock, Thailand.
2011 - Experimental Film Forum, Singapore
2010 - Doi Saket International Film Festival, Thailand
2008 - The 5th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival, William Warren Library, Bangkok, Thailand.
2007 - Head or Tail contemporary media and video works from Thailand, Pallas studio, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom
