Truth v. Fact & The Final Day of Work in Thailand

Now I’m sitting at the Anusan Night Market, more Sky Lanterns filling the sky, fireworks exploding. And I once again sought the joy of Thai Pakastani food, so I can combine curry, hummus, and tikka masala.

It was our most full day in Thailand, with an early departure to teach classes at both Chiang Mai Rajbat University and Chiang Mai University, both of which were excellent. Since we know our students will be coming to the full, public screenings tomorrow night, we could focus on technical discussions and examples in our work and theirs. They were engaged, questioning, and bright. The afternoon was spent with local filmmakers – Chiang Mai is branding itself as an arts hub, and the artists we met were inspiring…and very eager to be introduced to Kickstarter! Then a radio interview

and back to the hotel to rest.

Given the brevity of the day, I’ll insert something I wrote to a friend of mine in an email about our teaching here on Truth v. Fact, a theme that’s arisen in both Vietnam and Thailand and that Clay and I started to articulate on the festival circuit last year.

“In our lectures here in Thailand and last week in Vietnam, I talk a lot about the difference between ‘truth’ and ‘fact,’ and how I see ‘truth’ as being of equal value to an artist and a journalist, while ‘fact’ is of much more importance to the journalist and sometimes of no importance to an artist. When making a documentary, and thus straddling the line between the two, these are important concerns. Audiences today are especially vulnerable to blurring, because we still haven't generally accepted documentary as being non-journalistic, nor have we fully accepted how creative much of today's 'journalism' actually is. I find these ideas interesting in the US. In Vietnam, they were far graver, given the state-controlled media, and were especially wonderful for sparking discussion with local filmmakers and artists, who face the pressures of censorship daily and bravely.”

Lastly and amusingly: worth noting we heard that our crazy Thai VH1-like interview aired today.