Pen-ek Ratanarueng is without a doubt one of the brightest Thai filmmakers today. He was born and raised in Bangkok, then lived in New York 1977-85 studying at the Pratt Institute before returning to Thailand. After working as an art director for several years, he made his debut film, Fun Bar Karaoke in 1997. He gained critical international acclaim for his film Last Life in the Universe (though the Thai press virtually ignored him up until this point) in 2003 where he teamed up with Japanese cult star Tadanobu Asano and Aussie cinematographer Christopher Doyle (pictured). He worked with them again on Invisible Waves in 2006. His newest release, Ploy was one of only three Thai films screened at Cannes in 2007. This interview was done a few months ago, during the release of his short documentary Total Bangkok, which focuses on the Bangkok street football scene.

How did the project Total Bangkok happen?
A friend of mine who has been doing documentary for the past few years got to know someone from Nike Thailand on a trip abroad. They got to talk about doing a documentary about football culture in Thailand. I don’t know what my friend actually said to her but that person from Nike thought it was a good idea. So my friend emailed and asked if I was interested in doing it. I said yes immediately, even without knowing what I was going to do it or if I had the time or the ability to do it. And that friend of mine became the producer of the project.

Are you a big football fan?
I used to be when I was very young. From around 8 until I became interested in the arts around 20-years-old. Now I’m more interested in filmmaking, but football has always remained my first real love. You could say it’s an old flame that has never completely diminished. I still play whenever I can and still have to stay home the nights Arsenal play. I’m not the football nut I used to be, but I still love it.

How did making this documentary differ from making a fiction film?
Making documentary is much freer and much more spontaneous but also scarier because you don’t know if you are going to get anything worthwhile or not. You can’t plan for things to happen. You just have to wait and respond to whatever happens. I had to spare 3-4 hours everyday while we were shooting just to watch the dailies by myself on my little video camera, so I would have an idea what to shoot for the next night. You let the footage inform you. And you let the story and the atmosphere take shape while you are making the film. Although I work that way anyhow when I make fiction films, I had never done it to this degree before and I learned a lot from this experience. Whenever the producer or the assistant asked what I wanted to do next, I always said "I have no idea." It’s very liberating.

Is working without a script or complete storyline scary in any way?
It was scary in the first few days, and then you get used to it. You begin to realize that the scariness come from your expectation that something should happen and it might not happen. Once you stop expecting and just start responding, the process become much more enjoyable. And if you don’t expect to create a masterpiece, then you become more relaxed.

What was the most challenging part about making this movie?
That you would, ultimately, come up with something worthwhile.

Are there any other sports you'd like to make a documentary about?
Coyote dancing, but that hasn’t been officially classified as sports yet, has it?

What's the most important element you need to see in a project before you begin working on it?
First and foremost, it would be the fact that it is something I hadn’t done before. It thrills me to go into a project with half-confidence or zero-confidence and fantasizing that if I could pull it off, it would be brilliant. It keeps you struggling and concentrating and learning. It keeps you away from compromising.