Archive of films Karaoke Girl / Sao Karaoke

Thailand
2013, 77 min

Section: Another View
Year: 2013

Blurring the line between documentary and drama, this visually powerful movie relates the story of Sa, a Thai village girl who works in the Bangkok sex trade in order to support her family back home. The personal connection that grew between Sa and the director allowed for the creation of an inexpressibly human story that reveals much more about dreams and emotions than about sex.

Synopsis

After talking things over with her parents, 15-year-old Sa Sittijun heads to Bangkok to work in a factory; she will send money home to her family, who have stayed behind in the village. Sa very quickly realizes that the pay she earns is hardly enough for family expenses, so she opts for the much more lucrative job of a sex worker.… Embracing her documentary roots, the director of Karaoke Girl combines footage of conversations with members of Sa’s actual family with dramatic sequences focusing on her current life. The two narrative planes are visually differentiated – the more powerful scenes capture Sa’s life in Bangkok, while the more authentic and realistic passages deal with her relatives and the village where she was born. The line between documentary and drama is blurred even further by the fact that Sa plays herself and was fundamentally involved in bringing the movie about. The personal connection that grew between Sa and the director allowed for the creation of an inexpressibly human story that reveals much more about dreams and emotions than about sex.

About the director

Visra Vichit-Vadakan (b. 1981, San Francisco) is part of the new wave of Thai artists. She was born in the United States but moved to Bangkok with her parents at age 9. After graduating in biology from Stanford University she decided to become a filmmaker. This fall she will graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, but having received a Tisch Graduate Film Fellowship she will stay on at the school. She has shot four short films: The Stage (2007), Anatomy (2008), fall (2008) and In Space (2010), which were screened at Rotterdam, Bangkok, and Tribeca. In 2010 her short documentary rise (2009) was screened in competition at KVIFF. Karaoke Girl, her first feature, competed at Rotterdam this year. She is currently working on her next film, Karma Police, having received support from the Rotterdam festival’s Hubert Bals Fund.

Contacts

Hidden Rooster Films
411/1 Soi Rajchadanives, Prachauthid Road, Samsennok, Huay-Kwang, 10310, Bangkok
Thailand
Tel: +662 227 428 58
Fax: +662 227 428 58
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.hiddenroosterfilms.com

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About the film

Color, DCP

Section:	Another View

Director:	Visra Vichit-Vadakan
Screenplay:	Visra Vichit-Vadakan
Dir. of Photography:	Sandi Sissel, Chananun Chotrongroj
Music:	Koichi Shimizu
Editor:	Perry Blackshear, Saranee Wongphan
Producer:	Pornmanus Rattanavich, Pran Tadaveerawat
Production:	Hidden Rooster Films, Co., Ltd.
Cast:	Sa Sittijun, rodina Sittijun / the Sittijun Family, Supavitch Mepremwattana
Contact:	Hidden Rooster Films

www:	www.karaokegirlfilm.com

Guests

Visra Vichit-Vadakan

Film Director / Producer, Film Director / Producer