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THAILAND - In the Garden of the Dragon from Justin Heaney on Vimeo.
Dark alleyways; a night-time traffic jam; beggars crawling on the street. These aren't exactly the sorts of things that draw most tourists to Thailand, but digital content producer Justin Heaney dove into the country's gritty underbelly and came back with a tense, unnerving, beautiful short film. "I became enchanted by the almost electric atmospheres pervading the busier parts of Bangkok," says Heaney, "along with the many and varied sensory overloads that confront you at every turn." The hypnotic city scenes are complemented by more serene images from the Lanna region of northern Thailand, a contrast that puts the developing world's drive to urbanization in stark relief.
Heaney typically works on more commercial projects, but In the Garden of the Dragon was an opportunity to pursue his own vision. In most travel films, he explains, the filmmaker "depicts the traveler inside the experience, interacting with the experience, often set to music or with commentary. These types of films tend to recycle the same cultural motifs and cliches, and I wanted to steer clear of this approach to tread new ground."
This method demands extensive post-production analysis, as the scenes that result are completely contingent upon the chance encounters between street life and Heaney's camera. "It involved lots of examination of the nuances of the footage," he explains, "and lots of free association before sequences are formed."
What emerges is a series of vignettes that all but the most observant travelers would breeze past on their way to the nearest temple. Heaney's voyeuristic style challenges traditional tourism agendas, which tend to focus on "traditional" Thai culture and sweep unsavory elements under the rug.
"I have attempted to create a confronting experience for the viewer," he says. "Reality is more potent than a script."
