Bangkok-based film fund Purin Pictures has announced its grantees for autumn 2022, including three fiction projects for production support and four documentary projects for post-production support. A total of $230,000 is being handed out in this funding round to the following projects:
Production Grants ($30,000 in cash for fiction films)
Fruit Gathering (Myanmar) – dir: Aung Phyoe, prod: Thu Thu Shein, Thaiddhi
Prod co: Third Floor Production
Synopsis: San falls in love with her elder co-worker Theint, but finds that each of them expects different things from their relationship.
The Beer Girl In Yangon (Myanmar, Indonesia) – dir: Sein Lyan Tun, prod: John Badalu
Prod co: Kino Media Nusantara
Synopsis: Lily works as a beer girl in a Yangon pub, caught between her attraction for free-spirited co-worker Moon, and mysterious older man Zaw.
9 Temples To Heaven (Thailand) – dir: Sompot Chidgasornpongse, prod: Kissada Kamyoung, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Prod co: Kick the Machine Films
Synopsis: A family takes their elderly grandmother to nine temples in one day, hoping to prolong her life, but finds that the journey tests their relationships.
Post-production Grants ($35,000 in services for documentaries)
Monisme (Indonesia) – dir: Riar Rizaldi, prod: B.M. Anggana
Prod co: New Pessimism
Synopsis: An experimental documentary that observes the human-nature relationship around Mount Merapi, Java, from the perspectives of a mystic, volcanologist, and sand miner.
Breaking The Cycle (Thailand) – dir: Aekaphong Saransate, Thanakrit Duangmaneeporn, prod: Komtouch Napattaloong
Prod co: Vertical Films
Synopsis: A documentary that captures the political awakening of the young generation, whose talisman, Thanatorn Juangroongruangkit, has called for an end to the cycle of military coups.
The Tongue Of Water (Cambodia) – dir: Polen Ly, prod: Rithy Panh
Prod co: Anupheap Production
Synopsis: A documentary about Neang, an indigenous mother, who fights to continue her life on her native land after her village was engulfed by a dam project.
Double Jeopardy (Cambodia) – dir: Phally Ngoeum, prod: So Chandara, Rithy Panh
Prod co: Kudu Studios
Synopsis: A documentary about Sophy’s family in the US, as he awaits pending deportation back to Cambodia, the country he left forty years ago when he was only three months old.
Purin Pictures co-directors Anocha Suwichakornpong and Aditya Assarat stated that the autumn funding round had attracted a large number of strong applications.
“We are excited to support multiple projects from Myanmar and Cambodia, two countries that have less developed film industries than their SEA neighbours. Despite the difficulties, it’s heartening to see the young filmmakers there fighting to tell their stories,” said Anocha.
The Beer Girl In Yangon and Fruit Gathering are both debut features from two promising new voices in Burmese cinema, while documentaries Tongue Of Water and Double Jeopardy (pictured above) both shine a light on the struggle of Cambodian individuals against the larger forces of the state.
Rounding out the selection are 9 Temples To Heaven, the debut fiction feature of Sompot Chidgasornpongse, whose 2016 documentary Railway Sleepers was warmly received, and two documentaries, Monisme and Breaking the Cycle, which were both already funded by Purin Pictures during the production stage.
Anocha added: “Because their subject matter may be less commercial, some films need to rely more on grants. We are happy to reaffirm our commitment to these projects by offering post-production support as well.”
The call for entries for the Spring 2023 session opens on February 1, 2023.