Asian Cinema Fund

ACF Asian Cinema Fund

Script Development Fund

2012 Script Development Fund

LIST Bare

Category	Asian Project
Project	Bare
Director	Ekachai UEKRONGTHAM
Country	Thailand, Singapore
Director's Profile	Thai-born Ekachai UEKRONGTHAM is an award-winning film and theatre director whose film credits include Beautiful Boxer (Berlinale), Pleasure Factory (Cannes, Busan), The Coffin (Rotterdam). Also a writer, he′s written most of his screenplays. His stage plays and musicals have played in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China and America. These include Chang & Eng - The Musical, Singapore′s longest running homegrown musical and the first English-language musical to be staged in China; and Boxing Boys, the world’s first non-verbal Thai kickboxing stage performance. Ekachai is currently completing his feature-length documentary entitled Accidental Muay Thai Boys. A recipient of the Culture Award from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Singapore, Ekachai was also knighted and conferred with the Italian′s government′s "Cavaliere del l′Ordine della stella della Solidarieta′ Italiana".

Synopsis: Based on a true story, BARE unveils the intriguing life of Thailand’s first nude photographer who started taking portraits of female nudes when the fascist government was in power during 1940s.
A charismatic and rebellious aristocrat, Mom Luang (M.L.) Toy Xoomsai abandoned the usual path, became a farmer and was elected Member of the House of Representatives during World War II. An accomplished self-taught photographer, architect, illustrator and writer, this Renaissance Man returned to his childhood love for photography after the death of his wife. BARE puts a lens on his mind and exposes how he’s drawn into taking nude portraits, and how he lured in women of different strata during such prudish days to disrobe. Defending his works as “nudes not pornography”, M.L. Toy decided to publicly exhibit his photos at the National Red Cross Fair after his friends were arrested for opposing to the militant government’s totalitarian policy.

Director's Note: I was first exposed to nude photos when I was 10. They were taken by my uncle during his photography studies in the U.S. When I first saw those pictures, I was shocked. Only years later were I able to differentiate between his kind of photography and other types of naked shots.
There′s always fine line between art and pornography. Nudes have always been controversial. It’s no wonder why they’ve also been used also as a form of protest - political and otherwise.
Nude photos taken by M.L. Toy Xoomsai intrigued me - not just because of their technical brilliance that’s so ahead of its time but also by the history embedded in them.
What is art? What can it do? How do we remember? And what makes one unforgettable?

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