Anocha Suwichakornpong, image courtesy Rediance Films
In partnership with FD13, the Walker welcomes award-winning filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong for a monthlong residency in Minneapolis. In addition to this weekend’s screenings of two of her recent films—By the Time It Gets Dark and Come Here—the artist premieres a newly commissioned performance, FREETIME, on March 19, related to her forthcoming feature.About the Artist
Anocha Suwichakornpong a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and producer whose work is informed by the sociopolitical history of Thailand. She was a DAAD resident in Berlin (2021) and a visiting lecturer on art, film, and visual studies at Harvard University (2018–2020). Her films have been the subject of retrospectives at the Museum of the Moving Image, New York; TIFF Cinematheque, Toronto; and Olhar De Cinema, Brazil, among others. She is the recipient of the 2019 Prince Claus Award, the Silpathorn Award (2019), and her feature By the Time It Gets Dark (2016) was awarded Best Picture and Best Director from Thailand National Film Association, making her the first woman to be awarded.
FREETIME
March 19, 7 pmWalker Cinema$12 ($10 Walker members, students, and seniors)FREETIME is Anocha Suwichakornpong’s debut performance. As in her films, within which she collaborates with actors on multilayered narratives that engage with Thailand’s violent past and how that history is remembered, this new work builds on desires and potentials of stage and cinema for grappling with the difficulty of representing the past. FREETIME is conceptualized as a live staged performance of a film in progress, research for her forthcoming feature. Centered on two friends (Ornanong Thaisriwong and Heen Sasithorn) from Bangkok—one actor and one director—the performance forms a part of Suwichakornpong’s research into the final moments of Thailand’s past kingdoms.
Post-show conversation with the artist led by Erin Gleeson, director, FD13.
By the Time It Gets DarkMarch 11, 7 pmWalker Cinema$12 ($10 Walker members, students, and seniors)
Ostensibly a film about the student protests and subsequent massacre at Thammasat University in Bangkok in 1976, Anocha Suwichakornpong’s second feature film, By the Time It Gets Dark, is a beguiling rumination on history, memory, and representation. From a filmmaker interviewing a former leader from the student movement to a young actor’s life on and off screen to the discovery of a glittery blue mushroom, the film follows along a labyrinthine path where people and places return unexpectedly, and the narrative continually makes and unmakes itself. 2016, Thailand, DCP, in Thai with English subtitles, 105 min.
Post-show conversation with the artist led by Pablo de Ocampo, director and curator of Moving Image.
Come HereMarch 12, 7 pmWalker Cinema$12 ($10 Walker members, students, and seniors)
In Anocha Suwichakornpong’s most recent film, Come Here, the spare narrative follows four young actors in a theater company in their attempts to visit a memorial site for the “Death Railway” in western Thailand. Upon finding the site closed for renovations, they embark on an unplanned journey, eventually ending up at a cabin for a languorous evening smoking weed under a sky lit with fireworks. As in her previous films, Come Here eschews the immutable linearity of time with a narrative that simultaneously entangles multiple temporalities. Here, performance is a lens through which the characters grapple with how to understand the experience of others. 2021, DCP, Thailand, in Thai with English subtitles, 69 min.
Post-show conversation with the artist led by Palita Chunsaengchan, assistant professor, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota.
Attendance Requirements
Mask-wearing is mandatory to enter any screening or performance held in the Walker Cinema or McGuire Theater (and select Bentson Mediatheque events).
The Walker requires all ticket holders to show proof of a completed COVID-19 vaccination regimen to attend this event. A negative COVID-19 test result will no longer be accepted.
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We will continue to share updates to the Walker’s response to COVID-19 as health guidelines evolve. If you have questions or require additional assistance, please email info@walkerart.org or call 612-375-7600.