THEP
Artist: Kannan Arunasalam
Synopsis: This is a short movie about Thep – a mild-mannered surgeon in a storefront clinic in Bangkok who gives people the bodies they’ve always wanted. He almost never sleeps or eats, and he keeps his mobile by his side always. Until, like, yesterday, he’d never heard of Caitlyn Jenner. He’s glad the rest of the world is finally catching up.
Bio: Kannan is a British Sri Lankan documentary filmmaker. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The New Yorker, AOL Originals, in addition to broadcasts on BBC and Al Jazeera English. His films have screened at international film festivals and art museums, including Seattle South Asian Film Festival (2015); Neuberger Museum of Art, N.Y. (2014); Rubin Museum of Art, N.Y.C. (2015); and selected for Film South Asia’s Travelling Film Festivals (2011, 2013, 2015). Kannan is a director at the Los Angeles based production company, Stateless Media that produces its signature shortreals for online platforms. In 2013, he was awarded best documentary short for Kerosene (16 mins) at the Seattle South Asian International Documentary Festival and the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation’s best documentary short prize for The Story of One (19 mins).
Screened At: VAEFF 2017 as part of the “Beauty, Sex & Shame” program
