Unknown Forces

Thailand / USA 2007
4 screen installation, various lengths, loops / Digital, 16:9, Dolby 5.1 / Colour

• Director / Editor Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• Cast Sakda Kaewbuadee, Jenjira Pongpas, Nitipong Thinthupthai
• Camera Yukontorn Mingmongkon, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• Post Production Supervisor Lee Chatametikool
• Music Cyndi Seui
• Sound Designer Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr
• Art Director Akekarat Homlaor
• Assistant Director Suchada Sirithanawuddhi
• Prop Masters Nitipong Thinthupthai, Montri Busayasiri
• Continuity Manita Niyomprasit
• Production REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater), Los Angeles

Commissioned by REDCAT with support from the Asian Cultural Council, North Star World, the James Thompson Foundation, R23, Smallroom. First presented at REDCAT, Los Angeles, 18 April – 17 June 2007

For UNKNOWN FORCES is a tribute to our land and our countrymen after the political maelstrom of 2006.

UNKNOWN FORCES is also for the hard workers and hard drinkers of the northeast, my home region, who are the crux of Thailand’s booming real estate development. These workers are hauled around by contractors from one construction site to another, roaming cities and villages. Thailand’s landscape is shaped by these nomadic souls on pickup trucks. Like many actors I know, the workers have resided in a hierarchic system for so long that they are voiceless and are assigned to be part of an apolitical species.

On many occasions I feel I am part of this pickup truck syndrome, fueled by a strange cocktail of politics, monarchy, and religion.

• Apichatpong Weerasethakul