Lifescapes Southeast Asian Film Festival

A lifescape is an expanse – life, livelihood, and reality – that can be seen in a single view. The Lifescapes Southeast Asian Film Festival is here to expose the stories of the region – to show what media, education, and NGO’s in and around Northern Thailand and the Mekong region are doing. We’re doing it to raise awareness, inspire dialogue, and maybe even evoke change.

Lifescapes will screen contemporary films – documentary, docu-drama, dramatic – to showcase thoughtful work with a social conscience. The festival hopes to raise awareness while celebrating the film culture and filmmakers of Southeast Asia who make meaningful social commentary with their work – showing the “beautiful” without flinching from “grim reality.”

The festival hopes to show films that explore regional issues and human rights struggles within mainland Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Laos, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The festival will screen films and give audiences and directors the opportunity for discussion . Directors and film-makers are warmly invited to speak, and representatives from NGO’s will host a cross-country forum.

Lifescapes will run from 3- 6 February, 2011, at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand. The festival is organized by the South East Asian Institute of Global Studies at Payap University.

Opening and closing receptions, film screenings, discussion panels, and presentations will take place on the Payap University main campus. All films will be subtitled in English (and hopefully Thai also). All activities are free and open to the public.