Cinema Laos

[Cecelia Seiner]

Aftercolonialism and the civil war, film was not regarded as a priority. Until 1989, the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Department had a monopoly on film production. The first feature-length film produced after the monarchy was abolished is Gun Voice from the Plain of Jars, directed by Somchith Pholsena in 1983, but its release was prevented by censorship.[1] After 1989, several state companies were allowed to operate, but the success was limited.[2] In fact, writing in 1995, Som Ock Southiponh asserted that Laotian cinema does not exist."[3]

In the 21st century, the government allowed co-productions with foreign companies, which effectively created modern Laotian cinema. In 2008, Sabaidee Luang Prabang (Thai: สะบายดี หลวงพะบาง) was the first commercial film shot in Laos since 1975. It was directed by Thai director Sakchai Deenan together with Anousone Sirisackda, a local Cambodian who had worked for the governmental cinema department. After this experience, Sirisackda felt he was able to direct without foreign support, and in 2010 directed For the Sake of Love (Khophienghak).

Documentary co-productions have been successful. The 2017 feature documentary film Blood Road was produced with assistance of the Laos government. Chronicling the journey of an American and Vietnamese mountain biking team traversing over 1,200 miles (1,900 km) on bicycle along the Ho Chi Minh trail to the site where their father, a US Air Force F-4 fighter pilot, was shot down in Laos 40 years earlier. The film would go on to win several awards, most notably a News and Documentary Emmy Award in 2018.

However, the director who made Laotian cinema notable beyond Laos was Mattie Do. She was also Laos' first female director. Born in the United States and trained in Italy, she returned to Laos as part of a relocation deal offered to her husband by a production company.[7] Do made her debut in 2012 with Chanthaly, which was the first horror film written and directed entirely in Laos. Her second film, Dearest Sister (2016) (Lao: ນ້ອງຮັກ) was selected to participate in the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.[8] Do's 2019 film The Long Walk also participated in international festivals.[9]

The Luang Prabang Film Festival (LPFF), is a non-profit organization, founded in 2010, which hosts a yearly film festival in Luang Prabang, Laos.[10] The festival features works solely from ASEAN-member countries. Additionally, the organization supports various educational activities, competitions and small grants for filmmakers from Laos and the greater Southeast Asian region throughout the year.[11]

Vientianale was a film festival held annually in Vientiane from 2009 to 2018.[12] The festival included a competitive short film section for Lao filmmakers, and hosted screenings of popular international films.[13]

Visualize this movie: Set in modern day Vientiane, social status rules your destiny. A poor rural man making meager means as a mechanic collides with a wealthy privileged young man seeking limitless gratification.

Before Lao New Wave, there were two eras of Lao cinema, before 1975 and after 1975. Before, there were many war and propaganda films made, many commercial theater operated at the time in Laos. After the Soviet Union collapsed, there was no more funding for filmmaking, no more imported movies for screening, therefore Lao cinema quickly faded away for almost one generation. Until 2000s, Lao Art Media was the only company that made Lao movies along side with movies made by the Lao cinema department. The movie in this era are mostly made in melodrama style, similar to Thai soaps, most of the content are propaganda and educational, which failed to catch the attention of the Lao audience, and some quality movies are not 100% Lao made movie (for example, they were co-produced and co-directed with foreign production such as Thailand or Vietnam).

In brief, Lao film-makers are on the rise, however the market size is still the same. The lack of theaters is the main difficulty for the industry, Lao-ITECC cinema in Vientiane screens in 35mm format and DVD format, one theater in Pakse but screens only 35mm format, and another small standalone cinema in Savanhnakhet. The chance for film makers to make money is slim, and so far we have to rely on foreign funding. LNWC productions is going to experiment with DVD and online market in 2013, hopefully, we will be able to earn back budget and continue making movies.

What makes it popular is the entertainment value and production value. We need to have variety of movies, one with expression (art), one with message (commercial-art) and one for mass (mainstream/commercial film).

It will slowly grow, compared to our neighborhood countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma) we are so far behind in the movie industry. The challenges is a small market and the authority controls it.

VIENTIANE -- In most countries, the phrase "let's go to the movies" is commonplace. In tiny Laos, which has no tradition of cinema and lies in the cultural shadow of neighboring Thailand, it is a rallying cry.

Over the last few years, Lao audiences have seen their options for movies grow slowly and steadily, with up to three Lao-made feature films appearing each year. This is in many ways a silent revolution, perhaps unnoticed elsewhere, but life-changing for a one-party state that until less than a decade ago had virtually no independent local film industry.

LAWRENCE SHER Oct. 9 7 p.m. DMAC Screening Room A-list cinematographer Sher (Joker, The Hangover) is the force behind ShotDeck. The Oscar nominee is now working on Joker: Folie Deux. NATASHA LYONNE Oct. 10-11 Distinguished Visiting Artist The star of such acclaimed shows as Orange Is the New Black, Russian Doll and Poker Face will spend two

In these days when Asian cinema is being celebrated all around the world,people seem to ignore the fact that there are only a few select nationssuch as China, Japan, and Taiwan which are dominating the internationalspotlight. There are many other countries like my own, Laos, which, becauseof economic and other reasons, are struggling to build a domestic cinemadespite possessing an old and rich visual culture.

Laos is a small, landlocked multi-ethnic country. The social, cultural,and economic development of the 4.5 million Laotians was delayed by thelong colonial occupation and by thirty years of war in Indochina. Unfortunately,very limited documentation exists on Laotian cinema. Exactly who did what,and when, remains largely a mystery. We know that twelve feature films havebeen produced so far, but regrettably only three remain in existence today.The oldest documentary film dates back to 1956 and includes rare footageof the former royal family. The first feature film was shot in 1960 andwas entitled Fate of the Girl. Approximately 9000 reels of film arestored in the National Film Archives, including material shot by Laotian,Vietnamese, Soviet, and East European camera crews.

As the only professional, independent Laotian film director, my casespeaks a lot about the past and present conditions of cinema in Laos. Itis perhaps telling that I originally wanted to study law, but when the revolutionhappened, I was selected by the government in 1977 to study filmmaking inCzechoslovakia. It was not my first choice to become a filmmaker, but atthe time I agreed because I wanted to go abroad to study something. Thatwas the beginning of my nine years in Prague.

I enrolled at the Faculty of Film and Television, Academy of Arts andMusic, Charles University, where I studied cinematography under Jan Machane,who was the best cameraman at the Barrandov Studio in Prague. Nine yearswas a long time to be abroad, but there were about 50 to 60 other Laotianstudents studying in Prague at the time, so I was not lonely. I was actuallyone of six from my country to begin studying film at Charles, but sincethe others left to go to France, Germany, and Switzerland or to return home,I was the only one who remained to graduate from that university.

The only time I returned home during that period was after a six-yearabsence to film a documentary production on Laos. That eventually turnedinto my graduation film, Country of a Million Elephants, a rathergood 16mm work that was completed in 1986 and eventually broadcast on Czechtelevision. As part of my graduation requirements, I also finished a thesisin Czech on Laotian and Southeast Asian cinema.

I finally returned to Laos for good in 1987 and began working for LaoNational Television as a director and cameraman. The work I made there withlittle money was what one could call "tourist political" piecesabout Louang Prabang (northern Laos). It was not what I could call rewarding:after studying at a university, I wanted to use my skills to make somethingof better quality.

So I left after only two months to begin working at the newly establishedLao State Cinematography Company, where I met other Lao filmmakers who hadstudied cinema in Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, India, and Czechoslovakia.In 1987, I made two 35mm films: one in color about the Communist Party Conferencein Vientiane and the other in black and white called Red Lotus ("BoaDeng"). The latter is one of only two feature films made in Laos sincethe revolution in 1975, the other being the 35mm color production GunVoice from the Plain of Jars made by Somchith Pholsena in 1983 (it wasabout the brave soldiers of the Second Battalion of the Lao People's Army,but unfortunately did not pass censorship).

Red Lotus is a revolutionary love story set in a rural villagein Laos on the eve of the fall of the United States-backed royalist government.Boa Deng, played by the actress Somchith Vongsam Ang (who is now my wife),falls for a boy from her village named Khammanh, but in part due to themachinations of her stepfather, a government spy, his house is raided andhe has to leave to fight for the Pathet Lao. In his absence, Boa Deng'sparents press her to marry a rich man in the village, but she refuses. Herlove is eventually vindicated when Kammanh leads a Communist attack on thevillage and kills the stepfather, reuniting the two.

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