Western Travelogue Films Set in Siam during the Silent Film Era: A Case Study of In Siamese Society (USA 1919)

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.