Since his childhood, a future film archivist dreamed of becoming a movie projectionist or a box office clerk. This dream motivated him to study film at Chulalongkorn University. After graduating, he became a freelance magazine writer, started a film club with his friends, attended all film screenings—both mainstream and those shown in non-conventional spaces—visited international cultural institutions, and actively took on the role of advocating for his concern in establishing a film archive in Bangkok as a center for Thai film history preservation. He is Dome Sukvong.
Series of Actions (Chanasorn Chaikitiporn, 2024) presents him—visually and audibly—in a tiny section. However, his writing is read aloud in various voices and tones as well as represented by highlights from the film collection, visualizing his dream that eventually came to fruition in the form of a film archive organization. His life’s journey is filled with dedication to echo the importance of global archives and the history of films or moving images from Thailand, about Thailand, and for Thailand.
Through a presentation of magazine archives, texts, photos, physical nitrate film collections, and digital film copies, we are invited to explore the anatomy of Sukvong’s ideas, movements, and soul, which are invisible from a human framework, especially in what permeates him: cinema. The anatomy that makes up the body of thought is, in fact, a form of representation of the world of cinema and humanity as a whole. It is easy to resonate with the desire to preserve what once existed and has since disappeared, as if there is a drive to build a position against the authorities that stand in the way of this vision of preservation.
Without funding or a large network—and often working alone—Sukvong began his archival vision with small experiments. These experiments continued on a path to build a self-sufficient community and form connections between national film pioneers and the government, albeit with ups and downs and limited by the complexities of bureaucracy and political nomenclature. The context of archiving is drawn back to narratives of “national” representation, Thai film identity, and nationalism. Since the discovery of the oldest and most significant moving image in Thailand, the footage of King Rama V (Chulalongkorn) visiting Switzerland (King of Siam’s Visit to Bern {1897}), the National Film Archive dropped the word “National” from its name after 20 years of its contribution.
The ups and downs of this vision have created a ripple effect on the development of the organization and the writing of Thai film history. Today, these experiments and curiosity have taken shape in the form of a film library infrastructure with hundreds, even thousands, of nitrate film reels and restored historical texts, like fossils and historical artifacts that can be pieced together and revisited.
This body of cinema can seemingly be killed and rebirthed stronger than before. The tougher the road, the firmer the hopes and dreams. Although this struggle seems as difficult as liberating the country from colonialism, the body of cinema will not precede the death of the colonizer. (Gantar Sinaga) (Ed/Trans. Vanis)
Film Details
Series of Actions
Chanasorn Chaikitiporn | 37 min | 2024 | Thailand
Official Selection for Perspektif
Festival Film Dokumenter 2025
