A Time to Fly: A film about chasing dreams and achieving life's aspirations.
When classrooms, libraries, or even cafeterias of nearly 30 small schools in remote areas—on the fringes of mountains, in valleys, and high in the mountains—were transformed into mini-cinemas to screen the film "A Time to Fly" for children, some of whom are underprivileged and stateless, their eyes were fixed on the moving images and sounds on the screen. Their eyes, filled with hope, conveyed their emotions as they watched the true story of "Mong Thongdee," a stateless child who brought fame to Thailand after winning an award in a paper airplane folding competition in Japan. After the film ended, many children were moved to tears by the story, which mirrored their own lives.
"Most of the children, after watching the film, understood it deeply. They cried. They felt like this was their own lives, like a small piece of paper, worthless for nothing, could transform a person's life, turning them into a hero, making them famous, and eventually giving them a Thai national ID card. Because, by law, stateless children like them can only gain Thai citizenship after contributing to the country or graduating from high school, an opportunity very few have."
Saksiri Kochapatcharin, the screenwriter and director of this film, recounted with a smile the feelings of the children who had the opportunity to watch the film. He and his team meticulously crafted the story of marginalized children on film and traveled to screen it for underprivileged children, many of whom were stateless, in schools in remote areas before it was shown in cinemas. Even though some schools were very far away, requiring hours of travel, and sometimes the power would go out halfway through the screening, the children would still stay and wait, refusing to go home.
“We went to a movie screening on Friday evening. When school started again on Monday, the teacher called to tell us that the children were folding paper airplanes and throwing them all over the mountain. When we asked them to write feedback, they said they understood, and thanked Thailand for providing them with free education, for the teachers who cared for and helped them, and for the kindness of Thai people. Even though they couldn't throw paper airplanes and get a Thai ID card like 'Pee Mong Thongdee,' they were still grateful for what Thailand had given them.”
But before A Time to Fly, the inspirational film for children, became a reality, Saksiri and the team at Imageimax Co., Ltd. had to overcome many obstacles. After securing funding from the Safe and Creative Media Development Fund in the strategic category for 2019, they not only had to develop a new script and incorporate a storyline addressing the issue of children addicted to games, as per the funding requirements, but also faced three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns restricting travel and leaving the house forced repeated postponements of filming. Just as the situation improved and the team was planning to resume filming, a second lockdown was announced, ultimately forcing the entire crew to cancel their flights.
"When we postponed this, there were problems with the visuals we had planned. We were going to be able to capture beautiful blue skies during that time, but we couldn't. We had to reschedule filming to April, which is when they have forest fires. The scenes in the movie are all white; viewers might think it's fog, but it's actually smoke."
As for the actors in the film, the young children who came to be on set were initially small. But due to the nearly eight-month delay in filming and the third wave of COVID-19, they grew taller and their hair grew longer, making filming difficult. However, all the children and actors, including Supach Thaosakul, who played Nong Mong, and Maneerat Kham-uan, a professional actress who helped bring the story to life, gave their all to this film. Similarly, all the scenes using sports competitions were originally planned for 3-4 locations in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Tokyo, Japan. However, during that time, most sports stadiums did not allow filming due to concerns about the spread of infection. So, we had to adjust the plan and film at only one stadium, but adapt it to look like two locations with two stadiums. This was very difficult, just as difficult as filming the sports competition scenes to make it look like there were spectators, because in reality, there were hardly any people due to the restriction on having a crew of more than 20 people.
Faced with relentless and challenging limitations, A Time to Fly, a 98-minute drama and feel-good film, took almost two years to shoot. It premiered at the 15th World Film Festival of Bangkok in late 2022 and is scheduled for theatrical release later this year. Look forward to this life-affirming film that instills courage, hope, and inspiration in underprivileged stateless children and everyone striving to achieve their dreams.
#MediaFund #ATimetoFly #FlyingforDreams #Film
#SharingStories #ArticleSharingStories
#Projects by Media Fund Grant Recipients
#Creative media for social change
#Fund for the Development of Safe and Creative Media
Follow the "Safe and Creative Media Development Fund" at:
Website: www.thaimediafund.or.th
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThaiMediaFundOfficial
Youtube : www.youtube.com/c/ThaiMediaFund
Line Official : @thaimediafund
