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15th DMZ Docs(2023)

I AM DOCU



Damnatio Memoriae

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Thunska PANSITTIVORAKUL

  • Thailand, Germany
  • 2023
  • 108min
  • 18 +
  • DCP
  • color/black and white

World Premiere

Synopsis

This documentary, composed of various video clips and footage, is an exploration to search for some missing jigsaw pieces in history. Something that turned someone into a hero, or an absolute jerk. Some things are hidden under the carpet, from Hiroshima to Teresa Teng to the Space Race, an Olympic and the moon. 

Review

¡°Damnatio Memoriae¡± is a name of the punishment from ancient Rome, and it completely erased all records of condemned people as if they never existed. Damnatio Memoriae was inflicted upon traitors, tyrants, and executed empresses, and it was the worst punishment, even harsher than the death penalty. Damnatio Memoriae is a found footage to recover the memories lost in Asian history. The director paints modern history with countless photographs from the age of imperialism to the present as if he found a basket of photographs discarded for Damnatio Memoriae's punishment. Damnatio Memoriae features chains of images with historical memories deleted under the names of war, national development, scientific development, and popular culture. The music and caption languages are the needle and thread that rearrange and restore the photographs. The director finishes Damnatio Memoriae with the intertitle of ¡°Never Ending¡± paradoxically as if the basket of condemnation is never to be emptied. The film seems to say that the deleted memories of Asia can be restored at any moment. Can the needle and thread weave the memories of struggling and resisting history? Where is the basket with photographs of historic memories?

Director

  • Thunska PANSITTIVORAKUL

    Thunska Pansittivorakul was born in Bangkok in 1973. He graduated in Art Education from Chulalongkorn University. In 2019 his Santikhiri Sonata won a Grand Prize at Doc Lisboa, Portugal. And in 2022 his Danse Macabre won a Merit Prize at Taiwan International Film Festival.

Credit