In 2025–2026, the state of Thai auteur documentary cinema is marked by a profound contradiction. On the one hand, a new generation of curious young filmmakers is attuned to the country’s social transformations and eager to portray reality through a personal lens. On the other hand, the structural, economic, and cultural conditions necessary for creative documentary filmmaking to develop in a stable and independent manner are still lacking. In Thailand, documentary filmmaking remains a fragile field. The sector’s economic difficulties, the burden of censorship and self-censorship, and the predominance of an audiovisual industry geared toward commercial products severely limit young filmmakers’ ability to pursue a free and sustainable artistic path.

Added to this is the lack of venues for screening and training programs grounded in the practice of documentary filmmaking. Many young filmmakers work in isolation, without access to documentary education that guides them in developing a unique perspective, a methodology, and an ethical relationship with the world they film.

It is precisely in this context that a Varan documentary filmmaking workshop was created.

A first Varan workshop in Bangkok in 2025

At the joint invitation of the French Embassy and the Thai organization Doc Club, Ateliers Varan organized a five-day introductory workshop on documentary filmmaking in July 2025 in Bangkok. The 10 participants, who were highly engaged and receptive to the pedagogical approach and the principles of direct cinema, produced short films in Bangkok on the theme of work.

This short workshop was organized in partnership with DocClub, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the French Embassy in Thailand, and the Alliance Française of Chiang Mai as part of the Fond Equipe France 2024-2025 in Thailand.

A second Varan workshop in Bangkok in 2026

Following this successful initial experience and the contacts made on the ground, the Thai Film Archive and the Thai Film Foundation reached out to Ateliers Varan to organize a feature-length documentary workshop. The workshop project in the community of Nang Loeng then took shape and came to fruition in the summer of 2026. The 10-week workshop is organized with the support of the Department of Cultural Promotion of the Thai Ministry of Culture, of the French Embassy in Thailand and the regional audiovisual cooperation in South-East Asia of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, of the Italian Cultural Institute in Bangkok, of Rai Cinema, and of the community of Nang Loeng.