Friday, March 10, 2006

Federation has new president, but it really wants Sia Jiang back

Chaiwat Theaweewongsangthong is the new president of the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand. (Maybe his first job would be to update the Federation's website?)

He was elected to the post reluctantly. Seems the membership was desperate to have Sahamongkol boss Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techaratanaprasert back at the helm, according to the The Nation's Soopzip column on Wednesday.

Sia Jiang resigned as head of the Federation after calling for a boycott of members of the Bankgok International Film Festival, a move that prompted three major studios - Five Star Production, GTH and RS Film - to quit the Federation.

The whole story can be found here, here, here and here.

Several nominees were proposed, Soopsip said, including veteran entertainment journalist Nakorn Veeraprawat and director Thanit Jitnukul. They politely declined to stand. Former Federation president Khom Akkradej said he was too busy.

Even Chaiwat, a committee member on the Federation, withdrew, in hopes that Sia Jiang would come back.

Then he changed his mind.

"Sia Jiang asked me to accept the post if everyone else refused to take on the duties. So I decided to say yes," Chaiwat was quoted as saying.

For his part, Sia Jiang wants to put the fireworks of the past behind him.

"My decisions as president caused the three companies to leave the federation, so I shouldn’t take the position again," he was quoted as saying

Does he have a message for the three companies?

"Please come back, we have a new president."

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)

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