We are living through the time where things change. As things come and go, most of the time we cannot resist the nature of time and try to keep everything the same as they are forever, but instead we can observe them and appreciate its existence, understanding the cycle of circumstances that vary.
Nowadays, movie theatres are slowly dying, especially the stand alone film cinemas which there are only a few left in Thailand with Chinatown Rama being one of them and the only one left in Chinatown, Yaowarat. It is closing down by the end of this year before the owner of the building is going to turn it into something else more beneficial according to the expensiveness of the location. This reflects the ongoing changes from the old era to something else new, and also how commercialization is consuming the society and the precious cultures that are slowly dying these days.
This project aims to record the story and the memories of the dying standalone movie theatre Chinatown Rama, before it closes down in the next few months. We’re interviewing the manager of the theatre, Lung Jeab, who has been working here for the past 30 years about how he got into doing this job, how he feels about Chinatown Rama, his workplace, and what he thinks about the fading culture of standalone movie theatres. It is already too late to save the place, but we hope that our documentary will at least be a memoire of it for us to look back at the golden days of this place and culture.
producer: Praepisut Peechapat
camera & sound: Thaniya Chaikam, Chanapat Soontorngumjonpanich
editor: Thaniya Chaikam
colorist: Praepisut Peechapat
