THAI  SHORT  FILM, TO SCREEN AT SOHO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

              First film of  three Bangkok-based,multi-national  film actors, who start new film company

A Thai Short Film ‘CLUELESS’  has been selected for the Soho International Film Festival in New York, where  it will be screened on Friday 16 May ,followed by the  American feature film ‘Growing Up and Other Lies’ ,starring Adam Brody.

Most excited are the three  Bangkok-based  film artistes ,Poo Sahajak Boonthanakit, Byron Bishop, Peter Lloyd,  who  contributed to making  the film, and who will be flying to New York for the film-screening.

The only Thai among them, is actor Poo Sahajak Boonthanakit, who lived in New York for many years, before he moved back to Thailand in 1996.

Since then, he has acted in more than 40 international productions that were shot in the country,starting with ‘The Beach’, various others like 'Beyond Borders, Trade of Innocents, The Lady' , not to forget ‘Only God Forgives’, last year, and ‘The Coup’, this year .

Sahajak’s brother was a story- board artist in LA for nearly two decades, but he said that he opted not to live in LA but in Bangkok, because “ I would have been just a tadpole there, whereas  I’m a fairly big fish, in a fairly  big pond here!”

The actor said he totally enjoyed  acting in ‘Clueless’,  the first  film of the trio’s new company ‘Keynok Productions’. The film was shot in just two  days, at the lush locales of Nakhon Nayok , within a modest a budget of 21000 baht ( $ 700) .

“We’re proud of the beautiful shots and locales, as our chief aim was to promote Thailand” said Poo, during  the recent Thailand International Film Destination Festival at Bangkok, where all  the films screened, were shot in Thailand. Sahajak acted in  five of the movies, assaying a wide array of roles with confidence and flair.

Byron Bishop is half American-Japanese, who lived in LA many years, before moving to Bangkok, to marry super-model Cyndy .He was a model too, and also did music videos and TV commercials, before he moved to films. He  was part of the Thai cast of  Cannes Competition film ‘Only God Forgives’  ,which he calls “ a great experience.”

Byron directed and acted in ‘Clueless’. He does not speak a word in the film, but shows an ease and dynamism with his role, which surprised even him.

“  It was amazing having a vision in my head and then seeing it manifest itself” he exclaimed.

Peter Lloyd graduated in law from Oxford,  had a successful  barrister career in London,  before he  bought a diamond  mine in Tanzania which went bust, and eventually moved to Thailand. In between, he relished being a bass-player, writing books on Vietnam, and  creating numerous  scripts. Infact, he has two completed scripts ready, which his two  friends are trying to get funds for, through the on-line fund-raising campaign ‘Kickstarter.’ 

According to him ‘Clueless’  has been  “ transformational’ for  them, as  “ it has established our credibility as writers, directors and producers. “  Peter plays a pivotal role in the film ,in addition to writing the script .After all, it was a home production, where all of them had to  chip in as much as possible.  That’s why Byron’s and Sahajak’s wives both have roles in the film.

The trio said that they were totally diverse personalities, but they had the same “vision and objectives.”

Their main vision was to make good films, set in Thailand, spoken in English, for the international market.

“We can combine our talents to produce high quality material, through our company, ‘Keynok Productions’ ,and we are looking forward to that” they stated.

‘CLUELESS’ will be screened at the Village East Cinema, at 189 Second Avenue (12^th Street), on 16 May, at 7-15 pm.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/growing-up-other-lies-clueless-soho-film-festival-tickets-11398203333

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From Left- Byron Bishop, Poo Sahajak, Peter Lloyd