Ethnography in Contemporary Thai Cinematic Practices: A Case Study

Expanding on the nexus of art and ethnography in contemporary Thailand, I take a case study approach in this paper to apprehend the film Din Rai Dan (Soil Without Land) through an ethnographic framework. Completed in 2019 by Nontawat Numbenchapol, Din Rai Dan was shot at the Shan State Army camp, at the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Straddling compelling visual aesthetics and thorough, on-site research, I regard ethnography in Din Rai Dan as the enabling factor in enacting artistic and interventive agency on the relation of the object-subject of inquiry, that is, the Shan State Army community. To do so, this study approaches Din Rai Dan from the perspectives of filmmaker and film subject, as well as filmmaker and film viewer. Together, these two viewpoints mutually reinforce the film’s ethnographic framework at the time of its making and deliverance to the public. Also known as Soil Without Land, the film’s original Thai title ดินไร้แดน Din Rai Dan hints to the dearth of identity to a place that is the land on which we tread but do not belong. The word ดิน (din) is commonly combined with other words to denote earth, ground, or country. Used alone, din refers to the soil that plants need to grow and thrive, or the loam that sustains nature. Din is fundamental; it is what our planet is made of. ไร้ (rai) indicates something that is missing or lacking. แดน (dan) implies land or estate. Together, ไร้ แดน rai dan means borderless; while ดิน แดน din dan refers to manmade territory. Conjoined with the interlocutory rai, the title ดินไร้แดน Din Rai Dan literally means “no land,” evoking the absence, or lack, of the essence of society. Din Rai Dan is a figure of speech, a concept, that relays the condition of inclusion or exclusion to a nation or state—any state but in this case the Shan State.