Suparp, editor of the film magazine Bioscope and one of 12 core members of the project, made the dream of bringing together the world of film-makers and the world of "hard-core" human -rights experts and Southern activists a reality.

The aim was to gather through a contest a set of short films that create better public understanding of the roots of the region's problem.

A panel of officials from the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) and film industry experts selected 12 short films from 308 entries. These were screened for the public last month at a special festival in Bangkok. The films are now also available online (two films per day) at www.filmforpeace.net and will soon be offered on DVD free of charge.

This has all been done under the umbrella of the NRC - a special body set up to help resolve violence in the South, which recently submitted its final report to the government.

Suparb describes the project as "a year of hard work by hundreds of people".

"To me, the result is worth the investment of our brains and time," he says. Most of the work of coordination was done on a voluntary basis given the limited budget.

"Apart from the 12 films selected, the project also recruited dozens of new filmmakers. The greatest success is what the people involved learned, not only the film-makers and us as coordinators but also unexpected groups, like some parents who helped develop the films their kids made," he said.

Suparb, 40, who also owns Bioscope - one of the top six film magazines in Thailand - became the man behind the scenes for the project thanks to his reputation in short-film circles. His magazine also ran a project to encourage new film-makers.

After six years Bioscope has fans around the country, not just film buffs but also people in creative careers like advertising. Surprisingly, more doctors and medical officers are becoming readers, Suparb said. "Our magazine is not a plain movie-review magazine like others. It is more like a magazine that talks about how we can explore and understand the world through films," Suparb said.

Considering that his magazine's activities include promoting new filmmakers, free screenings of indie films at his office's mini theatre and other social activities like the NRC film project, it is easy to mistakenly assume that Suparb is not running a business. In fact, he said, it is a fully commercial organisation and even once listed on the stock market as part of the giant Matching Group.

"I am trying to make it an ideal company that can survive financially as well as give its staff happiness and quality of life at the same time. Work should not be suffering but rather fun. Financial growth is good but not everything in running the company," he explained.

"And it should also give something back to society," he added.

This progressive attitude is not accidental. Suparp's half-artist, half-businessman character is the result of 19 years of direct experience outside the classroom.

His artistic inclination was formed while he was a high school student in his native town in Sukhothai's Muang district. There he spent several years at his brother's music and video shop called Ad Sound and learned from listening to various types of music, from Lamtad to jazz, and reading Starpic, the only available film magazine.

For Suparb moving to Bangkok for university was like entering a sea of film and music, compared to what was available in his brother's shop. And he enjoyed swimming in it.

"Six days a week I spent my time at theatres of various foreign institutions like the British Council and so on, to attend their regular film screenings. Certainly, I could not graduate with my computer science degree from Ramkhamhaeng University," he said.

"There I met people who are the film and music species like me. And most of them are well-known film and music critics today in both print and electronic media," he said.

Suparb began by working as a film-screening officer (as a volunteer at first) at the National Film Museum for two years before leaving to work for six publications, one radio programme and two websites (www.1008pd.com and www.eotoday.com).

Bioscope is the dream of Suparb and his wife Thida Phalitpholkarnphim, who is also a writer and art director for the magazine. They had both been in the media business a long time before deciding to run their own publication six years ago. Financial struggle is what they faced and still are facing, Suparb said.

He said he tried various business models, including listing on the stock market, before deciding it was best to aim for lower financial growth but a happier working environment.

"I can create a magazine about what I am interested in most - music and movies - the way I want it to be. At the same time, we have enough time to do extra activities to promote short-film making and enjoy a certain quality of life working in Bangkok," he said.

"What still makes us happy in our struggle is the response from our readers. Many of them said our magazine inspired and gave them passion for living through our approach and writing," he said.

"It was overwhelming to learn that four of our doctor readers, directors of four hospitals in the Northeast, were inspired to try making a short film to relieve their daily tension. The film is about what they face under the government's Bt30 healthcare policy," Suparb said.

Jira Malikul, well-known director of the film "Mahalai Muang Rae" (The Mine University), was inspired by Bioscope to start writing movie scripts, like many other new short-film makers who are now successful and working with international filmmakers, Suparb said.

And the way he runs Bioscope allowed Suparb to give time to running the NRC's film project.

"Before, I was like the general public that only hears news reports of the violence. We had to believe that it was all true as we had only that limited information," Suparb said.

"By the end of the project we had learnt about the consequences of bias towards people who are different from you, branding them as 'the others' and excluding them from your society. Living in a world of cultural diversity is an important thing we should learn," he said.

Kamol Sukin