Cannes

Filmmaker and 2010 Palme d’Or winner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul is presenting the new MUBI edition LomoKino camera in Cannes today (Saturday 19 May), and discussing his new short film ASHES, which he shot on a LomoKino.

The first ever clone of the popular hand-cranked analogue movie camera is designed by MUBI and endorsed and signed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.  His 20 minute short film ASHES shot on the camera is a first step into production by MUBI, the global online film platform. Every LomoKino MUBI Edition box includes a physical roll of film as shot by Apichatpong during the making of ASHES and a free month’s subscription to MUBI.

The LomoKino MUBI Edition including a month’s free subscription to MUBI, will be offered to press attending the exclusive LomoKino launch in Cannes.
Produced by MUBI Founder and CEO Efe Cakarel, Apichatpong’s ASHES contemplates love, pleasure, and the destruction of memory. The surroundings of everyday life are shared with extreme intimacy. For Apichatpong, Thailand, while full of beauty, is slowly collapsing into darkness. 

Efe Cakarel, MUBI Founder and CEO, says, “Joining forces with Lomogrophy to create the LomoKino MUBI Edition was a dream project for us, and then to have Apichatpong come on board and create a movie with it? We couldn’t be happier!”
Sally Bibawy, President, Lomography, says, With the Lomokino, movie camera, Lomographers and film makers can experience the world of film from its analogue archaic scratch - frame by frame. The project with Mubi and Apitchatpong resulted in a beautiful piece of art, which shows the endless creative possibilities fertilized by the LomoKino cam. This will hopefully encourage many movie makers to try out analogue film - again!
ASHES will screen for press and industry at 11.30am in Palais F with repeat screenings at 12.00pm, 12.30pm and 1.00pm.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul will also be holding a Masterclass for short film directors in the Cannes Marche Short Film Corner.

On Sunday 20 May, ASHES will stream on MUBI for members worldwide to enjoy.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s documentary MEKONG HOTEL with Tilda Swinton premieres at Cannes with a Special Screening.

For further information please contact:

Premier PR - Christelle Randall/ Tina McFarling
Christelle.randall@premierpr.com/ tina.mcfarling@premierpr.com

MUBI

MUBI is your online cinema, anytime, anywhere. MUBI will give you the latest buzz from the Cannes Film Festival or a restored masterpiece personally chosen by Martin Scorsese (he’s a member too!).   A social network that lets you find a visual gem that will definitely not be released in the local multiplex, and allows you to find a girl in Tokyo who loves Kubrick (she actually exists, her name is Yuko and she’s into Wong Kar-Wai too…).  MUBI, which has 5 million members worldwide, invites you to watch, discover and share visionary films from all over the world. http://mubi.com

ASHES

Apichatpong Weerasethakul contemplates love, pleasure, and the destruction of memory. The surroundings of everyday life are shared with extreme intimacy. For Apichatpong, Thailand, while full of beauty, is slowly collapsing into darkness.
Synopsis:
King Kong rarely barked. She had been with us since she was three months old. Every night she slept and looked around in her dreams.
We thought that our spirits were enriched by the fertile soil and the greenest leaves and the rarest insects and the abundance of humility. But came a day in March we woke up from our dream. The sky wept ashes. The rotten ground trembled as baby worms rose to taste the gray snow. Across the mountains the light of devotion shone and blinded our souls. The darkness was so bright we wept and shouted in silence. And we woke up again, and again.

We united like multiple King Kongs with no sound. Every heartbeat a baby was born with her mouth shut tight like a touch of two stones. With pleasure we lived in hope, and hoped to never wake up. A land of Nothing. We slept. We smiled. We ran.

APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL
Apichatpong ‘Joe’ Weerasethakul is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer whose films have enthralled audiences and critics worldwide. At Cannes Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the prestigious Palme d’Or in 2010; Tropical Malady won a Jury prize in Cannes in 2004; and the Un Certain Regard section awarded its prize Blissfully Yours in 2002 Cannes Film Festival.  Syndromes and a Century, which premiered at the 63rd Venice Film Festival, was the first Thai film to be entered in competition there.
Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Weerasethakul has directed several features and dozens of short films. Themes reflected in his films (frequently discussed in interviews) include dreams, nature, sexuality (including his own homosexuality), and Western perceptions of Thailand and Asia, and his films display a preference for unconventional narrative structures (like placing titles/credits at the middle of a film) and for working with non-actors. Cinephiles affectionately refer to him as “Joe” (a nickname that he, like many with similarly long Thai names, has adopted out of convenience).

LOMOGRAPHY
The Lomographic Society International is a globally-active organisation dedicated to experimental and creative snapshot photography. Boasting over a half-million members across the world, the concept of Lomography encompasses an interactive, vivid, blurred and crazy way of life. Through our constantly expanding selection of innovative cameras and photographic accessories, we promote analogue photography as a creative approach tocommunicate, absorb, and capture the world. Through the efforts and skill of our Lomographic Society members, we seek to document the incredible planet around us in a never-ending stream of snapshots – literally a global “Lomographic” portrait as seen through the eyes of countless individuals and cultures.