This travelogue begins at Bangkok's rail depot, a center of Indo-Chinese commerce. Next the narrator talks about Buddhism as the camera shows us some of Bangkok's many temples. Then, the narrator introduces us to the importance of traditional dance, with emphasis on the way that delicate wrist movements tell stories. It's on to the system of waterways in Bangkok, where more than 1,000,000 people live or conduct commerce. We take a ride down the Menam River, the country's most important commercial and social road. From our boat, we pass Wat Arun and other colorful signs of life typical in serene Siam.
In the mountains of Northern Thailand lies a boarding school. The students come from different tribes in the area and live together with their Thai teacher, grow their own crops and cook their own meals while continuing their education. The biggest question on their mind, having spent all their lives in the mountainside, is where the rivers running down the hills end. If they pass the final exams their reward is a trip to the end of the river, to the ocean itself. The children are poor, some orphans, and most of them only speak their tribe's language, but all try their best to pass the exams to be able to take the long-awaited trip. This trip is not only a journey from the children's villages to the ocean but also a journey that symbolizes the change from childhood to adulthood.
The hotel Gondolín is home to some 30 transvestites who practice prostitution as the only option to survive in a society that excludes them.
In Thailand, a hymn to rice need not always be sung. A dance, or spectacular homemade fireworks can say the same thing. As can a film, as is convincingly demonstrated by this lyrical, beautifully filmed homage to this essential staple food.
21st century legal prostitution through the frank stories of Amsterdam red-light district sex workers at a time when tighter regulation threatens their livelihood.
Buy Bye Beauty is a 2001 documentary film by Swedish director and performance artist Pål Hollender. The film is about the way Latvian sex industry and its being fueled by businessmen and sex tourists from Sweden visiting Riga. The film was shot in Riga in July 2000. The narration of the film is in English, with interviews conducted in Russian and Latvian.
1961 documentary about the history and seedy reality of the sex industry in London's Soho.
A documentary about the atrocities committed against the Hmong people by the Laos government. Shot by Hmong people with cameras provided to them in 2006, this film provides a unique look into one of the worst, and silent, human rights tragedies of the 21st century.
Mabel tells us through her experiences how it is that at such a young age she starts in a world of prostitution, leading her to a process of evolution and transformation throughout her life.
An intriguing exploration of the Asian massage parlor industry in Providence, RI, where a 25 year-old loophole has made the exchange of sex for money legal - as long as it happens behind closed doors. As the documentary follows a recent Korean immigrant, "Heather", working to operate her spa, the city's mayor fights to change the law that allows her business a legal existence. The film includes interviews with Korean women who work in spas, clients who frequent the spas, politicians from 1980 and today, police, local news footage, radio call-in shows and "voiced" reviews from inter-net escort review boards.
British filmmaker Beeban Kidron ventures onto the mean streets of the South Bronx and other New York locales to examine the lives of those involved in the city's thriving sex industry.
Katoey meets three people in rural Thailand who are clearly and confidently women even though their bodies are male. Integrated to an impressive degree into society, these women have successfully overcome the difference between their physical and mental genders.
From love pride parade to the strain hunters of Thailand. A vlogger makes its journey from the side hustle streets of Bangkok, covering the lost gems of Pattaya beaches and the mystical wonders of valuable antiques, amulets and significant temple paintings.
A documentary about the girls of the Mustang Ranch, a legal brothel in Nevada.
Street art, creativity and revolution collide in this beautifully shot film about art’s ability to create change. The story opens on the politically charged Thailand/Burma border at the first school teaching street art as a form of non-violent struggle. The film follows two young girls (Romi & Yi-Yi) who have escaped 50 years of civil war in Burma to pursue an arts education in Thailand. Under the threat of imprisonment and torture, the girls use spray paint and stencils to create images in public spaces to let people know the truth behind Burma's transition toward "artificial democracy." Eighty-two hundred miles away, artist Shepard Fairey is painting a 30’ mural of a Burmese monk for the same reasons and in support of the students' struggle in Burma. As these stories are inter-cut, the film connects these seemingly unrelated characters around the concept of using art as a weapon for change.
There are only 320 Mlabri people left on this planet. They came out of the jungle in Northern Thailand on the border to Laos one generation ago. The Mlabri people used to be hunters and gatherers. Today they scrape out a meagre existence at the bottom of society working as day labourers for the Hmong farmers, and living in shacks on the outskirts of larger Hmong villages. The Mlabri people are currently going through a transformation process, which has taken many other people thousands of years. Now the young people are faced with the choice of staying with their families in the village or adapting to the Thai society. How do they experience the meeting between their own culture and the local, regional and national majority cultures? In this film young Mlabri tell about their past, present and future as they see it; all expressed in their unique and expressive Mlabri language.
Storror Supertramps - Thailand is the first film of its kind. Seven friends take you on a thrilling feature length adventure, documenting their wild journey around South East Asia. Join some of the worlds favourite athletes on an incredible exploration into their world of fun, freedom and adventure. The boys push the limits of their comfort zone as they endure twenty-eight days with no plans, accommodation or money. What could possibly go wrong ?
A short documentary about Thailand, formerly known as Siam.
Documentary on the daily life of a sexual masseuse in Berlin.
Critical investigation of The World Bank and IMF. Too hot for PBS, but prime time TV everywhere else. Do the World Bank and IMF make the poor even poorer? Are the Bank and IMF democratic institutions? Why do people demonstrate against the Bank and IMF? For the first time, a documentary global investigation of major criticisms of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two of the most powerful financial institutions in the world. Five country case studies are presented, each concentrating on a different aspect of critics' charges: 1. Bolivia: Debt, Drugs and Democracy 2. Ghana: The Model of Success 3. Brazil: Debt, Damage and Politics 4. Thailand: Dams and Dislocation 5. Philippines: The Debt Fighters. The charges, including those related to structural adjustment, are controversial and provocative. Some go to the heart of the power and policies of these institutions.