Best of the week

Published on January 18, 2008

 The second annual

International Children's Film Festival runs from today until January 27 at Major Cineplex Pinklao, featuring award-winning films for all ages.

Among the films screening today are Ben Sombogaart's "Crusade: March Through Time", at 3.30pm. This 2007 film was the first-prize winner for live-action features at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival. "Kids in Da Hood" by Sweden's Ylva Gustavsson screens at 3pm tomorrow. From Thailand there will be Bhandit Rittakol's classic 1995 drama, "Once Upon a Time ... This Morning", showing at 4.30pm on January 26.

The festival features dozens of films for children and made by children. It's hosted by the Thai Film Foundation with support from the Office of Knowledge Management and Development. Films will be screening in three competitive categories, "Smell a Flower" for ages 5 years and up; "Have a Heart" for ages 9 and up, and "See the Light" for ages 12 and beyond.

The main features will be shown on Saturdays and Sundays at Major Pinklao, with programmes also screening at TK Park in CentralWorld and The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre in Taling Chan. Admission is free.

For more information, call (02) 800 2716 or (081) 651 3519 or visit bangkokchildrenfilm.multiply.com

Inspired by rice

Sakarin Krue-On continues his rice plantation series in "Ripe Project: The Village and Harvest Time", which will be held from Thursday until February 24 at two venues: Ardel Gallery of Modern Art and Tang Contemporary Art.

At Ardel, Sakarin will prepare a 13-by-eight-metre paddy and will invite children to join in the planting. He will have a video and photographic exhibition of his "Terraced Rice Fields Art Project", which was part of Documenta 12 in Germany last year, when he planted 7,000-square-metres on a hillside below Schloss Wilhelmshoehe Castle in the city of Kassel.

At Tang gallery, he will showcase paintings related to the rice series and a live broadcast of the rice field planted at Ardel Gallery will also be presented to let viewers witness the growth little by little.

Ardel Gallery is at 99/45 Belle Ville, Boromrachachonnanee Road km 10.5, Thawee Watthana, Bangkok. It's open from 10am to 6.30pm daily except Monday. For details, call (02) 422 2092 or visit www.ardelgallery.com.

Tang Contemporary Art is on the lower level of Silom Galleria and is open Monday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm. For details, call (02) 630 1114 or visit tangcontemporary.com.

Seldom seen films

Ten classic Japanese films from the golden age of the 1950s to 1960s will be highlighted in the Japanese Film Festival from today until January 25 at Grand EGV Siam Discovery Centre.

"The Hidden Treasures of Japanese Cinema" features films selected by Okada Hidenori of the National Film Centre at the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.

The festival opens with Kawashima Yuzo's "Elegant Beast" (1962), a drama film set during the end of World War II. Others are Shindo Kaneto's "The Ditch" (1954), Nakagawa Nobuo's "The Ghost Story of Yotsuya" (1959) and Shindo Kane's "Mother" (1963).

All of the films are black-and-white and have Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles. Showtimes are at 7pm on weekdays and at 3pm and 8pm Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets will be available for free at the Japan Foundation table in front of the theatre 30 minutes before each screening time, except on the opening night, when tickets will be available from 6pm.

For more information, call (02) 260 8560 or visit www.jfbkk.or.th/event/

jff2008_eg.html.