Western Travelogue Films Set in Siam during the Silent Film Era: A Case Study of In Siamese Society (USA 1919)
Western Travelogue Films Set in Siam during the Silent Film Era: A Case Study of In Siamese Society (USA 1919)
Files (excerpt)
Published date
2014-08
Resource type
Publisher
ISBN
ISSN
DOI
Call no.
Other identifier(s)
Edition
Copyrighted date
Language
eng
File type
application/pdf
Extent
19 pages
Other title(s)
Authors
Advisor
Other Contributor(s)
Citation
International Conference on Language and Communication 2014 Proceedings, 1-19
Degree name
Degree level
Degree discipline
Degree department
Degree grantor
Abstract
Thailand’s great variety of panoramas, its thriving domestic film industry and the country’s
well-developed infrastructure, have been attracting western filmmakers for over one hundred
years. Hence, the number of western-produced films in Thailand in the 20th century is
substantial. However, only little research about selected films made after the Second World
War has been conducted. And studies of relevant films made prior, when Thailand was still
named Siam, are virtually non-existent. This apparent lack of academic interest in these films
may be attributed to the difficulty of actually finding them or because they were not preserved
and are therefore lost forever. Incomplete and misleading information in particular about early
films also poses a considerable problem. Nevertheless, a film-historical investigation into the
corpus of western-produced films shot and set in Siam is called for because they were shaped
by colonial and imperial worldviews of the West in the 19th century and by the modern
interest in travelling. Therefore, they presented Siam, Siamese people and cultures to western
viewers in very specific ways. These representations of Siam lasted well into the second half
of the 20th century. The films that meet the necessary criteria ‒ made by westerners, in Siam,
to show Siam ‒ are either travelogues, i.e. travel documentaries with a strong interest in the
exploration of foreign cultures, or semi-documentaries/semi-narratives associated with the
travelogue genre. The corpus of travelogues set in Siam can be divided into films of the silent period, which officially ended in 1927, and films of the sound period. In order to limit the
scope, this paper gives an overview of travelogues made during the silent film period only,
and provides an in-depth analysis of In Siamese Society (USA 1919, Burton Holmes Travel
Pictures) as a case study of Siam’s depiction in western travelogues.