Somsak Techaratanaprasert, “Sia Jiang”, the president of the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand, finally quits. He tearfully announced in a press conference this afternoon, and accused the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) of making the rift between the Federation and its members.
Somsak’s decision came out after three studios, GTH, RS Film and Five Star Production sent out their resignation letters last Friday, in order to support the Bangkok International Film Festival (See details). This week, two smaller companies, Box Office Entertainment and Onpa International followed the line.
Sia Jiang blamed TAT as the cause of triggering all conflicts among the Federation’s members. He explained: “They (TAT) should contact the Federation, not the studios or companies directly. Why did they do so? Why did they not call and have a talk with us first? They kept avoiding us until the last minute when they only informed us that they had already contacted the companies. The Federation does not need to contact them again. And we would be given US50,000 budget for inviting Asian stars to come to the festival.”
“So far, TAT runs the festival only for tourism purpose. They used Thai films only as a puppet show,” said Somsak.
Sia Jiang sharply criticized that the Thai film industry hardly granted advantages from the festival in the past three years. “True. It’s true that more foreigners know Thailand. But it does not mean that the Thai film industry would get any advantages from the festival. It’s not true at all. Why did the foreigners not want to come? They can take free business-class seats, with the arrangement of private cars and drivers. Why did they want to come? If I am given a chance to run the festival, I can do it to the biggest, with only US$7.5 million budget.”
He said he had not been forgiven just because he spoke something wrong.
“I made only one mistake in saying that Invisible Waves was not considered as Thai film by the Federation's criteria. I already apologized the head of Five Star during the meeting last week. But I still insisted that it was only a foreign co-production film, not a Thai project.”
“But I don’t mind if it is going to open the festival. But why did TAT not contact us? Why don’t let us talk with the company? If we were allowed to do so, you might not need to pay a lot for the screening fee.
Since he has already resigned from the position, all of the Federation’s earlier rules would be no more valid. “If any members want to join the festival, they can go ahead wiht it. But Sahamongkol Film will not do so. We consider it as the Federation’s resolution. My company always respects and follows the Federation’s rules,” he said.
He said he would never come back to the position again even though he might be elected.
Source: Rewritten from Manager Online
NOTE: There would be no report for the Thai Film Directors’ Association meeting, since it was conducted as an internal activity. The meeting was also called for discussing about the change of Thai film programming rather than the emergent conflicts. With the resignation of some Federation’s members, each distributor will book theatres on their own and might cause competition in the future.
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