Organizer: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand and sponsored by NYSEAN

Description:

The Cold War saw the rise of the persuasive power of cinema in promoting political ideology. From the early 1950s to 1970s, the United States Information Service (USIS) was active in Thailand, with a key responsibility to produce propaganda films countering the perceived threat of communism and promoting American-style democracy.

Meanwhile, Thai media and filmmakers of the period also captured images of great historical and cultural importance, many of them showing Thailand at a geopolitical crossroads from the early days of the Vietnam War into the 1970s.

The Thai Film Archive has preserved a wealth of Cold War documentary films and clips that capture the divisive dynamics of this intense yet vibrant period. Some excerpts to be screened this evening include short clips of Thai Prime Minister M.R. Kukrit Pramoj’s historic visit to China in 1975, a scene from a US army base in Nakhon Phanom in 1970, Benny Goodman’s jam session in Bangkok in 1966, “New Adventures of Hanuman” (an animated anti-communist propaganda film), and many more.

The clips are from the period 1966 to 1975 when Thailand became an important strategic player in the Cold War, and include work from USIS and from Thai sources including TV channels and independent reporters that capture the heady period.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.

Speakers: 

Kong Rithdee, the Thai Film Archive and scholar.

Dr Puangthong Pawakapan, associate professor, faculty of political science, Chulalongkorn University, and author of “Infiltrating Society: The Thai Military’s Internal Security Affairs.”

Dr Wasana Wongsurawat, associate professor, department of history, Chulalongkorn University, and author of “The Crown and the Capitalists: The Ethnic Chinese and the Founding of the Thai Nation.”

Kong Rithdee, deputy director, Thai Film Archive, and film critic and literary translator.

Moderator: 

Gwen Robinson, FCCT board member and past president.

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