Uruphong Raksasad for Agrarian Utopia (Sawan Baan Na)
Nomination Details
Nomination Detail
Winner, Cultural Diversity Award Under The Patronage of UNESCO, 2009
Uruphong Rakasad was born in 1977 to a farming family in the district of Terng, outside of Chiang Rai in Thailand’s north. He moved to Bangkok when he was 18 to further his study at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications, where he majored in film and photography. After graduating in 2000, he worked as a film editor and post-production supervisor on several Thai feature films. In 2004, he moved away from working on large scale feature films to focus on grassroots filmmaking through the story of his home village.
2009 INTERNATIONAL JURY STATEMENTS
“One of the real surprises for me was the Thai film Agrarian Utopia. On paper it looked daunting. I found it a very very powerful film in a very understated way. It requires a degree of deep concentration but I thought it developed into a really powerful film about cultures and about the culture of change that I think is a universal story – it could be applicable among Australian farming communities, to anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region or anyone with a close relationship to the land. It’s a brilliant film that through looking at the very specific story of this person and his community it reached universal truths.” – Andrew Pike
Trailer
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.