MAM Screen 024: Jakrawal Nilthamrong

Traversing diverse forms of moving images - from short and feature films to documentaries and multi-channel video installations - Jakrawal Nilthamrong (b. 1977 in Lopburi, Thailand) has created a singular body of work that explores the invisible forces governing human experience. His works interlace Buddhist and ecological concepts with sci-fi and surrealist imagery to show how one’s life and experience are contingent on the natural environment and social conditions.

While contamination, decay, and renewal are recurring thematic concerns for Nilthamrong, these ideas are often embodied literally in the physical properties of his celluloid film. His use of 1960s-style special effects made from organic materials, together with expired film stock, conveys the texture of degradation, breaking spectators away from the diegetic illusionism of cinematic space. Instead, these techniques foreground audio-visual stimuli unique to the film medium as a means of communicating his worldview.

This screening centers on Rhizome (2022), a work that follows a man on a makeshift raft floating aimlessly above a flooded world, where adaptation to the spread and growth of micro-organisms has become vital for survival. Intrusion of what is foreign, the work suggests, may be less a disruption of the established environment than a condition of its creation for both humans and non-humans. Together with Agent of Decay (2025) and Intransit (2013), the program demonstrates how Nilthamrong reimagines the material and philosophical possibilities of cinema.

Works Screened

1. Rhizome, 2022, 29 min. 13 sec.

2. Agent of Decay, 2025, 5 min. 17 sec.

3. Intransit, 2013, 4 min. 39 sec.

Jakrawal Nilthamrong

Born 1977 in Lopburi, Thailand; currently based in Bangkok. His films have been featured in numerous film festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival (2014); Toronto International Film Festival (2014); International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands (2015); Tokyo Filmex (2021); Venice International Film Festival (2021); and Busan International Film Festival (2022). His works, including feature films and video installations, have been presented in venues and international exhibitions such as SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul (2014); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2018); Para Site, Hong Kong (2018); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Germany (2021); Bangkok Art Biennale (2022); Jeju Biennale (2024); and Gwangju Biennale (2024). Nilthamrong is a recipient of the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary for the Promotion of Culture (2007); the Hivos Tiger Award, International Film Festival Rotterdam; and the Grand Prize, Tokyo Filmex (2021), among others. Since 2009, he has served as Lecturer on Film Subject at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Thammasat University, Bangkok.