Film Screening: “The Last Breath of Sam Yan” (Prempapat Plittapolkranpim, 2023) + Q&A with producers
About the film:
Winner of the 2023 Suphannahong National Film Award for best documentary.
The neighborhood of Sam Yan in Bangkok, Thailand, is mostly filled with new shopping malls and condominiums. The Chao Mae Thap Thim (Mazu) Shrine, long cherished by neighborhood residents and members of the local community, is the only holdout of the Property Management of Chulalongkorn University's (PMCU) redevelopment project.
In June 2020, an order came from PMCU to relocate the shrine. The developer's plan was to construct a 1,800-unit residential building for university staff and a dormitory for students. PMCU also sued the shrine's administrator for 4.6 billion baht. Residents and students protested the plan to dismantle their community's shrine, leading to the hashtag #saveThapthimShrine and a movement to protect the last breath of the historic area.
About the speakers:
Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal is a Thai activist, editor-in-chief, translator, writer, and the country's first modern conscientious objector. In 2022, he was ordained as a Buddhist monk; he subsequently chose to disrobe and return to secular life in order to uphold his principled opposition to military conscription as a civilian without the privilege of religious exemption. Without the shield of the temple, he risks a prison sentence of up to 3 years. Alongside his university studies, Netiwit works as an advocate for democracy, human rights, and the Milk Tea Alliance. His fields of interest include student activism, Milk Tea Alliances, Thai politics, social movements, urban activism, religious as well as secular and engaged Buddhism, political liberalism, Chinese politics and history, and philosophy, particularly the work of Isaiah Berlin.
Settanant Thanakitkoses is a managing editor at Samnak Nisit Sam Yan Student Publishing House (Sam Yan Press). He is a graduate of Chulalongkorn University's faculty of arts with a Spanish major and philosophy minor. Settanant was also the president of academic affairs of the student government at Chulalongkorn University, and served as the first director of the Department of Humanitarian and Human Rights Affairs of Student Government, Chulalongkorn University. Settanant exhibits high passion and curiosity in philosophy, politics and religions, especially Hinayana Buddhism, while advocating for "effective altruism" through multiple social movement activities and actively taking part in proofreading and translation-related tasks for Sam Yan Press.
