Danaya Chulphuthiphong

History

Danaya Chulphuthiphong lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand. She holds a BA in Archaeology and MFA in Visual Arts. She started her career as a documentary photographer for a newspaper and a magazine. She is interested in lens-based arts and works with both still and moving images. In 2014, Danaya made her first short film 'Night Watch' which has been selected for participation in the International Competition of the 61st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Experimenta India and won the Special Jury Prize from Fronteira, The International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. In 2016, Danaya released her second short film, 'Demos' which has been selected for participation in Southeast Asian Short Film Competition of the 27th Singapore International Film Festival and won the BACC award from the 20th Thai Short Film and Video Festival.

Movies

A Room with a Coconut View

Director of Photography

A tour guide and also a hotel rep automated voice, Kanya, leads her foreign guest, Alex, through a beach town in the east of Thailand called Bangsaen. Since Kanya's presentation is overtly aestheticized and strictly regimented, Alex decides to explore the town by himself, fantasizing to get out of the frame.

In the Flesh

Cinematography

Daryn, a seventeen-year-old girl, fed up with her life in a greenhouse, ran into a human smuggler and learnt the way to escape the town. She had not known at the time that this plan would change her life and those around her in the worst way possible.

By the Time It Gets Dark

Crew at Gor Surangkanang's House

A film director and her muse who was a student activist in the 1970s, a waitress who keeps changing jobs, an actor and an actress, all live loosely connected to each other by almost invisible threads. The narrative sheds its skin several times to reveal layer upon layer of the complexities that make up the characters’ lives.

Demos

Director

By the time the zoo is closing, detained animals feeling frustrated and confused. The only thing they can do is retaining a slight degree of consciousness, waiting for the changing of time. Demos is a lyrical assemblage of observational footage collected from various places. The film is an attempt to depict the gloom, the oppression and the surreality that exists in Thailand since the military coup in 2014.

The Scala

Director of Photography

The Scala opened its doors in 1970. It had one thousand seats and every night, they were filled. In those days, going to the movies was something special. The cinema was a place where people got dressed up, went on dates, and fell in love. But today, everything has changed. There is a multiplex in every mall and the young generation watch movies on their phone. But at The Scala, time has stood still. The cinema is still run by many of the same staff who have been there from the beginning. It is now the last remaining standalone cinema left in Bangkok. And soon, its time will come to an end too.

The Asylum

Cinematography

The lives of two refugees intertwine over a pond which acts as a sanctuary for them as they look toward liberation.

Night Watch

Director

Watching through an ordinary night, under the "situation normal", during the 2014 Thai coup d’etat.