Palita Chunsaengchan

The public screenings are part of the continuing series, Southeast Asian Cinema and Its Diaspora: Theory/Praxis/Politics. The program brings together film practitioners, academics, and other stakeholders from across Southeast Asia for a series of public talks, workshops and public screenings of Southeast Asian films. This program is interdisciplinary in that it seeks to enhance collaborations across fields, methodologies, and areas of expertise. It also aims to invite participants to consider contemporary Southeast Asian cinema as a productive site that processes historical and political events. The series celebrates Southeast Asian cinema, and most importantly, the people behind it for their creativity and resilience, and acknowledges their contributions to the global collective of film theory, praxis, and politics of filmmaking.

This September, I am organizing ABSENCE IN GREYSCALE — public screenings of two Southeast Asian films, The Edge of Daybreak (2021) dir. Taiki Sakpisit; and Cu Li Never Cries (2024) dir. Phạm Ngọc Lân. Please follow the links above to see more information about the films and to reserve your ticket(s) if you are in Minneapolis. It is my great pleasure and my honor to announce that it will be the first time that The Edge of Daybreak will be screened in the US, and the first time for Cu Li Never Cries to be screened in the Midwest. I hope you can join us to celebrate these occasions.

My sincere gratitude to Nakrob Moonmanas, Taiki Sakipisit, Elizabeth Wijaya, Nadwa Hussein, everyone at 185 Films, Square Eyes Film, Trylon Cinema, the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Imagine Fund Special Events grant at the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Minnesota for the generous support.