Unfortunately, our books haven’t made it to the school, yet. At the moment they are in a room at the National University Main Campus and they need to sort through around 7000 books and find ours. It might take some time but at least they are in Vientiane. I am very happy. And grateful to Books for Asia for allowing me to add some boxes to their container that left San Francisco last September.
As soon as the books are at the school I’ll post some pictures.
They gave me Certificate of Appreciation
And best of all--at least for me-- was all the gifts I received from the students! They gave me these amazing drawings and prints. It was so rewarding. I got the feeling that, although there was the language barrier, we still managed to move forward and created some fabulous work.
All of this was made possible thanks to Ajan (teacher) Sai Soulinya. His help, both administrative and as a translator, was invaluable. Here is a photo of him that I really like. He is next to one of his paintings.
Our first collection of books and equipment for the students at the National Institute of Fine Arts at Vientiane was a great success. We were pleasantly surprised not only in the amount but the quality of the books people donated and the generous contributions of computer equipment. I am so grateful to all who made contributions. It took a while for the books to get here but they arrived well. The students and teachers at the school were extremely excited and couldn't stop looking at the books.
Unfortunately, due to the prohibitive costs of shipping stuff to Laos from the United States only a few of the books were shipped and we skipped shipping computer equipment all together. However, I am happy to announce that the ASIA FOUNDATION Books for Asia program has generously agreed to allow us to include some boxes of books in their container heading to South East Asia at no cost to us. I am so thankful to them for this tremendous support.
Here is a picture of the the Dean of the school Dr. Bounthieng Siripaphanh who came to thank me for getting the books.
Of the three films we created in class two are completed, the third needs major sound work and we hope it will get done sometime soon.
Here is Souphalak's music video. After two false starts and a change of "singers/actors" she finally decided on staring herself with Phoumixay. Phoumixay is the creator, and also actor, of TOLASAP, which is still in post production.
Without further ado here is Souphalak's music video for the Thai musical duo Pan+ Alex.
At the Vientianale film festival I had the opportunity to meet a few Lao filmmakers. I very much wanted to invite some of them to come to one of our classes and show their films to the students and have a Q&A session afterwards. One of the filmmakers I met was Bounthanh Phongphichid. He was also the official translator of the festival. Bounthanh is a multitalented man: a translator; filmmaker; teacher; writer, and now also a publisher as he has just come out with the first literary magazine in Laos. He has made a number of short documentaries in association with some NGOs. When I met him he had just finished his first feature, a narrative about teenagers and the problems of drinking and yaba (amphetamine) addiction, which is on the rise in Laos. Bounthan and I decided this would be a great film to show the students and get their feedback. Here is a little clip I made of the screening:
A couple of weeks ago we shot our second film. The story, script and blocking were all created by Phoumixay. It’s a comedy about six kathoey who wait impatiently for the first one to get off a public phone. It has no dialogue and is more like a mime with lots of hysterical actions and gestures. We start the editing next week. Phoumixay (below) plays one of the characters.
We asked the Centre de Langue Francaise if we could use their theatre/screening room and they were extremely obliging and helpful. More pics of our shoot.
In the school bus on the way to the Centre… (and , yes, there are no seats, those who want a seat have to bring their own)
the students… Oupeka all the way to the left is holding the box that contains the camera we won at the festival. Jervang, third from left is the creative force behind HOT COFFEE
the ‘girls’ before performance…
and during.
Setting up the cameras. We did a 2 camera shoot (the other camera is mine). On the left is Ajan (teacher) Sai, he is one of the painting teachers at the Institute.
Post shoot pic. Once the movie is edited we will bring it to you on this blog.
I’ve been teaching a video class at the Vientiane Institute of Fine Arts since Feb.2009 . On this blog we will post pics of our adventures, screen some of our films and inform you of updates and happenings.
We will start with the first film we made together: HOT COFFEE. We shot it in 3 hours and entered it in the first ever Vientiane Film festival at: www.vientianale.org .
We won the special prize: a 3 chip DV camera. This camera will help the students at VNIA to continue making films. The prize was a donation from Gally Film GbR, a German filmmaking duo who make documentary films. ( www.gally-film.de ). Thank You!!!
One thing you have to understand to “get” HOT COFFEE is that in Laos, at a coffee/tea place, they always ask if you want your coffee hot or cold. And hot coffee IS more expensive than cold coffee. Enjoy!
This is us at the Vientianale. We managed to pack 18 students in a TUK TUK
Souphalak and Chandaline at the festival. Souphalak(on the left) is the class translator- her English is excellent- when Ajan (teacher) Sai is not around. Ajan Sai is one of the painting instructors at the school who is also taking my class and is the official translator- out of 20 students only 2 speak English and that’s them above. He missed the festival because he was up in Luang Prabang doing a watercolor workshop. Oh, they are sitting outside because at the Festival they had 2 projection spaces: one, a small room inside and thwo, a big projection screen outdoors. (I was the projectionist for the outdoor screenings)
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