In all likelihood, this was the worst photograph taken during Tate Modern's A Night With Apichatpong Weerasethakul, an all-night celebration of the great Thai filmmaker. I wish I could say this was taken to mark the end of the marathon as proof of the caffeinated, sleep-deprived delirium that comes with being awake for 24+ hours to watch movies, but, of course, it was the first thing I did after taking my seat. Perhaps, then, the blurriness was due to my excitement and anticipation of what was about to unfold: a sixteen hour dive into the various works of Weerasethakul, curated and introduced by the man himself -- this kind of thing doesn't happen very often.
Somehow, I held my composure for fourteen of the sixteen hours of this extraordinary night of cinema, only skipping out on the final few works because I had seen two of them, Ashes and Syndromes and a Century, already, and, by this point, my eyes were only capable of delivering images as blurry as the above photograph. I am, barely three hours (UPDATE: I fell asleep writing this, now closer to 8 hours) after walking out of the Tate into the alarming glare of the sun, in no fit state to deliver any kind of verdict on any of this, and I probably never will be -- but what I can do is list the films I made it through, in the order in which they were screened, with links to videos if I can find them. Maybe this will be of interest? Who knows. Cinema's beautiful when it's shared.
(DCP unless otherwise stated)
Trailer for CinDi (2011)
0116643225059 (1994)
My Mother's Garden (2007)
Sakda (Rousseau) (2012)
Haunted Houses (2001)
Footprints (2014)
Mobile Men (2008)
Morakot (Emerald) (2007)
Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
The Anthem (2001, 35mm)
Like The Restless Fury of the Pounding Waves (1994)
Windows (1999)
thirdworld (1997)
Cactus River (2012)
Worldly Desires (2005)
Blissfully Yours (2002)
Nokia Short (2003)
M Hotel (2011)
Luminous People (2007)
Monsoon (2011)
Vampire (2008)
Meteorites (2007)
Ghost of Asia (2005)
Tropical Malady (2004, 35mm)
Mekong Hotel (2012)