Forgotten Incident Found in Film Archives

Thai director Manutsak Dokmai wanted to bring up the events of Bangkok University in 1976 with his documentary Don’t Forget Me. The incident led to an open confrontation between the army and the demonstrating students.

”There have been many confrontations between the army and students in our country. The events of 1976 are exceptional because people don’t talk about them, and nobody seems to know what really happened”, says Dokmai.

The events started when the right wing government suspected communist activities at the university. The army troops arrived and opened fire against the demonstrating students.

The documentary film was shot on the location of those very events. The sounds are from another film. Dokmai tells us that he found the film, which was shot in the course of the confrontation, from a film archive.

Camera repairman turned into a film director

Before he became a director, Dokmai worked as a camera repairman for Canon. Luckily for him, the contract with Canon ended and Dokmai went on to work at a film archive as a volunteer.

Two years ago he made his first movie.

”I’ve always been interested in films”, he explains the career change.

Don’t forget me, which will be screened at the festival, is the ninth film of this young director, and he’s already working on the next one. When I ask him if he’s a celebrity in his home country, he laughs and shakes his head.

The young man is also only beginning to conquest the world. The visit to the Tampere Film Festival is his first trip abroad.

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