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The Story of 0: Twenty-something UK-based Thai Film Director O Nathapon Scores a Hit with "A Moment in June"

The Story of 0: Twenty-something UK-based Thai Film Director O Nathapon Scores a Hit with "A Moment in June"

Gay Man's Paradise: The Sansuk Sauna and Guesthouse
The world’s most unrivaled beach scene—and the nearby Sansuk Sauna and Guesthouse—are just two of the multitude of reasons that Pattaya and adjacent Jomtien Beach, Thailand, continue to be sought-after destinations for gay men everywhere. Staying at the Sansuk Sauna and Guesthouse is like staying in a palatial countryside villa where every day your host throws a pool party on your behalf so you can meet and mingle with new friends and fellow travelers. Located a pleasant five-minute walk from the main road connecting Pattaya and Jomtien Beach, the Sansuk may have “guesthouse” in its name but it is really a resort pretending to be a guesthouse, so well-equipped that if you never want to leave, you don’t have to.

Producer/Host Nicholas Snow interviews "A Moment in June" Writer/Director/Producer O Nathapon

A Moment in June is O Nathapons triumphant debut feature film—as writer, director and producer—in which heartthrob Shahkrit Yamnarm of Bangkok Dangerous fame plays gay, and beautifully so. O himself has leading man good looks, along with acting training and experience, but he prefers his behind-the-scenes role. Os movie offers something for everyone, and includes a very strong gay storyline. The script is based upon a combination of O's personal experiences, characters he had developed previously, and the idea that Life imitates art and art imitates life.

Producer/Host Nicholas Snow interviews "A Moment in June" Writer/Director/Producer O Nathapon

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The Story of O…

While many Asian sons are culturally compelled to work in the family business, O Nathapon earned his parents’ blessing to make movies instead.

By Nicholas Snow

O Nathapon as photographed by Nicholas Snow in Lumphini Park, Bangkok, Thailand - January 2009

Critics will often avoid screening a film that has been written, produced and directed by the same person, especially someone relatively unknown. Filmmakers with wealth on their side can achieve such a feat early in their careers but the resulting films often play like vanity projects with little redeeming social or artistic value. A Moment in June is about second chances but writer/producer/director O Nathapon has certainly gotten it right the first time. His film had three sold-out screenings at the 2008 Pusan Film Festival weeks before its gala hometown premiere as the opening night selection of the World Film Festival in Bangkok, where three years earlier his screenplay was one of three winners of a new production-funding competition. O’s film enjoyed a theatrical release in Thailand in February 2009 where the box office receipts were better than expected. From this writer’s perspective, the film deserves international box office opportunities.

The screenwriting prize came with a producer and fifty percent funding out of Paris but with strings attached, requiring O to raise the other half in Thailand but to do all post-production in France. O dropped his French connection opting instead to also raise funds in the UK, an easier task since he had received commitments from an all-star cast in Thailand where he produced the film in its entirety for about half the original budget.

While I have interviewed O for a variety of media outlets, I’ve saved some of the best tidbits for my online audience. For example, the first time I met O, he was hot, sweaty, and wearing only a towel. Nothing scandalous, as we were in the steam room at Fitness First Q House Lumphini where he maintains his fantastic body and I simply work to drop a few more kilos (this gym is very non-cruisy, one of the reasons why I like it). O, by the way, is in a long-term relationship.

O’s movie offers something for everyone, and includes a very strong gay storyline. The script is based upon a combination of O’s personal experiences, characters he had developed previously, and the idea that “Life imitates art and art imitates life.” A Moment in June seamlessly fuses the past with the present, and real life with what is taking place in a play within the movie. The film is in Thai with English subtitles, and if you are the type to avoid subtitled movies, break your rule and see this one.

O delayed filming to secure his dream cast, which also includes Deuntem Salitul (Perfect Killer) and Suchao Pongwilai (Ong Bak) who acted in O’s first movie, plus Sinitta Boonyasak (Last Life in the Universe), Krissada Sukosol (The Adventures of Iron Pussy), Hiro Sano (Invisible Waves), Napatkorn Mitr-em (Naresuan 2) and Mayurin Phongpudpanth (TV dramas).

I asked O if there was concern on the part of the actors, the studio or even his parents about the gay storyline. It wasn’t an issue for the actors, O explained. “They realized that the screenplay didn’t talk about how difficult it is to be gay in the society, or any other typical gay film element. It was all about two people in love with one another and how to make it work. The distribution company in Thailand didn’t seem to be bothered either as they had just a big success with Love Of Siam in which the two main characters are gay. My parents have seen the film but didn’t say anything about the gay characters.”

“So far, the audience response has been exactly what I expected really,” explained O. “I have met people who were in love with the film and thought it was moving, and I have also met those who didn’t understand a thing about it and hated it. I’m glad it’s that way because at least they’ll go home and talk or think about it, and that is what films should be able to do. It should trigger your thoughts or emotions one way or another.”

"A Moment in June" Movie Trailer

Does O think his movie should entertain, inform or both?

“It’s there to do both jobs. I believe all films should entertain—and I don’t mean that you have to laugh or smile to be entertained. I believe that you can cry and be sad or be scared and still be entertained. I think filmmakers, like priests, are there to suggest to people what to think—and it makes sense to me to find a message in any film we watch. I’m not saying they are all good or valuable or even believable—but at least there is something there. My film raises a question about second chances and asks if there are second chances for everyone, or are we lucky to be given one?” O opened his own wallet as well. “Yes, it’s true. I pitched some money into this. Fortunately I was in a position to be able to do so, so why not?” He does not however spend money on business class when jet setting between his quite modest London apartment and his family’s Bangkok home which adjoins one of his parents’ factories. They export silk. Perhaps the family should have had a car dealership instead as indicated by O and his siblings’ nicknames. “O” comes from Oldsmobile. His brother is called Fiat. Their sister is called May from the Thai word for bus, rot may. So, along with cousins Benz (you get the picture) and M (short for BMW), they’re ready for the races!

O Nathapon as photographed by Nicholas Snow in Bangkok, Thailand - January 2009

While he may look like a movie star himself, O confessed, “I’m definitely not a fashionista. I’m hopeless at that. I’m more like a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, but I don’t feel comfortable wearing jeans in Thailand because of the humidity. You’ll often find me wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals. It’s kind of my uniform really.” O owns only two suits, one black and one “almost black,” but he makes up for it with Gucci sunglasses and a posh gift from his father, a pair of Paul Smith shoes.

O grew up in Bangkok but at age 14, his parents enrolled him at Brighton College, a boarding school in the south of England about an hour from London by train. “Life was fun in that school despite the lack of freedom,” said O. “There were rules and more rules” with only one hour of free time each day. “By Sunday all I wanted to do was watch movies.” O’s love affair with the cinema had begun and he ultimately enrolled in the film program of the prestigious Art Center in Pasadena, California. “I had to prove to my parents that I could do this and do it well,” O explained of filmmaking, so he decided to shoot his art school thesis project, a short film entitled Bicycles & Radios, in Thailand. “It was my first big project and there was no option of failing.” In his thesis film, two wounded souls come to know one another because of a talk radio show but their plans to meet in person are complicated when someone’s batteries die. “The film went on to win a nomination for the Student Academy Awards in 2004 and that was a turning point for my parents. It was some kind of a relief to them,” O explained.

Inspiring to O is music. “Damien Rice, David Gray, Radiohead and Savage Garden are my heroes. I also listen to a lot of Thai music and I think Aof Pongsak is one of the best Thai singers out there today.” So enthralled was O with the song Hear The Wind Sing by Stamp of 7th Scene fame, he insisted on accompanying the artist to the Sony/BMG studios to secure soundtrack rights and to arrange to direct the music video. See and hear for yourself at below.

The theme from "A Moment in June" - Hear The Wind Sing by Stamp of 7th Scene fame

Most recently, O was one of seven winners selected from 12 finalists selected from over 500 applicants to the annual short filmmaking competition held by the popular UK TV program Coming Up, produced by Channel Four. The seven winners were assigned which films to direct by the show’s producers. In December, O directed Saving Baby Rio, written by Dewi Bruce-Konuah, about a young black father who needs to rescue his baby, Rio, from Rio’s drug addicted mother. The film will be broadcast on UK television at least twice in 2009. As for O’s next moments, “I can’t wait to start writing again. I have a few ideas I want to work on.” As for your big moment, O advises, “You have about 20,000 days. Go make it happen.”