Filmmaker James Newman on his Documentary Bangkok: City of Angels [S7.E49]

Greg 00:00:05 On this episode, we interview filmmaker James Newman about his new documentary on Bangkok.

Ed 00:00:10 So if you want to hear how a filmmaker tries to define a complex topic like Bangkok itself, you'll love this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.

Greg 00:00:36 So grab and welcome to the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who came to Thailand in 2001. Got addicted to those little pine nuts. They put in the sauce for mango and sticky rice and has been chasing the yellow dragon ever since.

Ed 00:00:50 That is pretty damn specific, man.

Greg 00:00:52 I love those things and crunch them all.

Ed 00:00:55 And I made Knuth, an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract 24 years ago, fell in love with Taxi Driver, smiling when I tell I'm American, but looking dumbfounded when I tell them I'm from Ohio so I never left.

Greg 00:01:09 Well, see, they're dumbfounded because they don't know where that is. But when you tell someone who does know where it is, they're dumbfounded because they're like, why do you live there?

Ed 00:01:16 I don't anymore.

Ed 00:01:17 That's the thing I left. No, it's always when I say I'm American. They always say like New York. Like, really? They're really excited to, you know, to say New York. And then I go Ohio. And then they they just look confused. They don't even know if they don't know if I'm speaking Japanese or what, like what I just said.

Greg 00:01:34 Well, at least you live in America, where I guess, like either. Vancouver. No. Toronto. No. I come from a place called Alberta. What? That's what.

Ed 00:01:45 That's what I say when people say they're from Alberta.

Greg 00:01:50 That's funny.

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Ed 00:02:17 We chatted about Greg's ultimately successful chess birthday cake for his son, and what it taught him about the impermanence of life. A discussion about the terrible methanol poisonings in Laos, and what it says about the drinking and trust culture with young kids traveling in Asia, which I think we've all done ourselves, and some fun experiments with an AI program that analyses photos to see what it can extrapolate from some pictures of Bangkok, to learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 700 bonus and regular back episodes. Click the support button at the top of our website.

Greg 00:02:55 That's right. And as always, if you have a comment or show idea, I just want to say hi. Hi to Bangkok podcast. Com and click the little microphone button on the bottom right. Leave us a voicemail. We'll play it on the show. Alrighty then. Well, on this episode, we chat with a young fella by the name of James Newman, who is an author and filmmaker and who has just released a documentary on Bangkok titled Bangkok City of Angels.

Greg 00:03:16 I watched it the other night, and it's a really interesting look at the city, with some great interviews with noted locals and expats who are trying to define what gives the city its famous chaotic appeal. So I thought it'd be fun to sit down with James, to talk about how exactly one even begins to try to encapsulate a city as complex as Bangkok in a single film. What elements he focused on when making the film and what surprised him, and how his impressions of the place have changed. After spending several years focusing on what makes the city tick. So here is my chat with our pal James Newman.

Greg 00:05:50 All right. Well, we are talking with a young fella by the name of James Newman, a filmmaker and all around creative kind of guy behind the video camera in front of the video camera, maybe. I'm not sure yet, but we'll get into that. James, welcome to the Bangkok Podcast.

James 00:06:20 Hello, and thanks for having me. great to be on the show. I've been listening to it over the years. And, for you guys, it's been over ten years, right? 2000, 13 we.

Greg 00:06:31 Start we started in 2000, 2010, and then we, quit in 2013. And then we started again in 2016. So we've got about 700 episodes under our belt, which is insane.

James 00:06:44 Yeah, that takes it takes a lot of commitment and a lot of, you know, keeping to a schedule and it's.

James 00:06:49 Yeah, it's really, really commendable.

Greg 00:06:51 Well, it's to keep.

James 00:06:52 Going for so.

Greg 00:06:52 Long. The bridging is bridging on insanity sometimes, but it is what it is. But we've both been creative. I've doing. I'm doing the podcasts and you are a filmmaker and, among other things. But you're on the show this week to talk about a documentary that you made, called Bangkok City of Angels. And, I watched through it earlier, today, actually, I watched half of it a few days ago, and I watched the rest of it today. Sorry, I'm a bit busy this week, but, it's it's really good, and it's really interesting. And I wanted to talk to you about sort of about the creative process and especially about when you tackle a subject like Bangkok because it's famously chaotic, hard to pin down, hard to define. And I want to talk a bit about how you capture that in a documentary. but first, your filmmaker, you're from the UK. It's about all I, it's about all I know about you.

Greg 00:07:44 Tell us more where you're from and why you're here. And what do you do?

James 00:07:49 Yeah. That's right. I'm. I was born in London, And I moved to. Well, okay. Let's go. Way back I was born, I was born in London, and I, I graduated, worked in the City of London in the, in the finance sector as a, insurance broker for Lloyd's of London. from the, from the eight in my early 20s to about 24, 25. And then I arrived in Thailand for the first time in 2001, around about the same time as you guys. Okay. Yeah. and I, I didn't start making films until relatively recently. Before that, I was, I was writing novels and, fiction and short stories, publishing them, in little zines and magazines and, what have you. there was a little explosion around that time in, electronic media, so I kind of hopped on that, and then I wrote a, a crime, detective series.

James 00:08:50 You know, lots of people were doing it back then. You had, Christopher Moore's, Calvino series and you had, some really good books by, Timothy Hallinan and, Stephen Leva and, Jake Needham. These. It was quite, you know, it's quite fashionable, to have this white, privileged male detective, solving crimes in a, hot metropolis such as Bangkok. and it wasn't until 2017 that I began. I produced my first film. First short film with a reasonable budget. I made a film called Crazy Medicine, with a guy called Matt Carroll, who was the writer and also the, financier of that picture. And I hooked up with, Richie Moore, who is, like Bangkok or Thailand sort of go to Hollywood. film director.

Greg 00:09:51 I know, I know, I know Richie well, he's an old friend of mine. One of the craziest, craziest, coolest guys I've ever met. Yeah.

James 00:09:58 Yeah, he's a good, close, close friend. He was. He was living here in the house with me for a while.

James 00:10:05 and then the same guy who, wrote and financed the, crazy medicine, which I did with, Richie, approached me to do a documentary, which became, Bangkok City of Angels. So he had a kind of rough idea of what he wanted to do is was a film that kind of generalized. It was a general kind of overview of Bangkok with a no, no particular kind of focus on, you know, we could have chosen food, we could have chosen travel, we could have chosen religion or culture. instead we kind of gave a, representation of Bangkok through the lens, mostly of a, an expat or an outsider to give it some level of objectivity, I guess, some of the best historians, often outside it. so I had, you know, we had a brief kind of narrative, of a few pages. the narration you hear in the film, which is out on, Amazon Prime. I'm here to plug it, so plug it, I will, it's on Amazon Prime for American, Australian, not Australian, American, UK, Japan and Germany at the moment.

James 00:11:23 Okay. but anyway, the, the main kind of, aim of the film was to give people more of an idea, more knowledge on the city that they would, that they would ordinarily have through watching, you know, YouTube videos or perhaps reading guidebooks or, listening to the guy sat next to you on the bar stool of the, expat watering hole, you know, so we went a bit more in depth with of that. So my job was really to reach out to my contacts and find people who I felt were knowledgeable about the city. So we spoke to, Narissa. The, historian. Yeah. who owns, River books, who was really good at taking us right back to, before Bangkok was Bangkok. It was a, kind of small trading post, wasn't it, really? a small town on the other side of the river. And a big change came when it moved across from Tom brewery. Where? What Aaron is, now to the other side of the the banks of the river where modern Bangkok was founded in, I want to say 17, 1782, and the developer development of the city, from that period.

James 00:12:39 And I decided in my mind to kind of bookmark it between two medical disasters, two pandemics, one being the cholera outbreak in 1820, when the victims of the cholera epidemic were left on the on the temple on water to be eaten by the red headed vultures who in the form of sky burial, the vultures are no longer with us. But but Covid was when I started making the film, so I thought I'd bookmark it. Between 2020 Covid and 1820 cholera and all the, developments and challenges and conflicts and all the adventures that happened in between.

Greg 00:13:18 That's that's a really interesting way to bookmark it, because, I mean, between you said 1820 was the cholera outbreak. so basically basically a hundred years, right? And man, what a change Bangkok has gone through in that 100 years. and for those that don't know, I mean, two.

James 00:13:37 200.

Greg 00:13:38 1890. Oh, yeah. Jeez. Wow. Math is bad 200 years. Well, a few listeners out there I know who are screaming right now, but anyway, yeah, but it's a think of of what things were like back then.

Greg 00:13:50 And like I was doing a little bit of research down on on Maharshi Road, which runs along the old Bangkok wall. And just on the other side of that is what's the Kent, the Golden Mountain. That's where they used to put all of the, all of the, the victims of cholera, which would be eaten by the vultures. And you cover that in your documentary with some pretty interesting footage. And they have they have the famous doors down there called Pratap, which, where they go stores where they used to take the bodies through and dump them over there to get eaten. So it's it's amazing to think that you can bookmark a documentary with these two global pandemics that both sort of played a huge role in, in how Bangkok suffered and shrank and then bounced back. And I like at the end of it, I'm not going to spoil or anything, but I like how the at the end of it, you sort of talk about the resiliency of the city and the culture of the Thais and the nature of the Thai people and how it's, it's it's sort of on track to be remain Teflon Thailand, you know, as we say.

Greg 00:14:54 So that's a really interesting way to bookmark it between those, those two diseases.

James 00:14:58 Yeah. I felt so and coming at it from a kind of, I don't know, as in through the toolkit of a storyteller. we want to have conflict. We want to have person in a place with a problem. So instead of the person, we take the, the, the city. So the city is a person. and it begins with a, a conflict which they, overcome. And it ends with a conflict which we've pretty much overcome, haven't we? It was a bit,

Greg 00:15:34 Fingers crossed.

James 00:15:35 It was. It was. It was. It was strange filming it during during Covid because, Yeah, it we really did have, You know the streets to ourselves for a while there, right? Right. We were filming right in the middle of the,

Greg 00:15:54 The pandemic. So as I was watching, I just sort of typed a couple of quick notes about, you know, it starts with the cholera thing.

Greg 00:16:00 Well, it's actually starts with sort of the sacking of a UTI on how Bangkok was formed and touches on the cholera. And then sort of in the late 1800s, early 1900s. So, you know, King Khan brought back a lot of Western influences. And then it talks about the colonization, gets into the Vietnam War, you know, World War One, World War two, Vietnam War GIS coming over to Bangkok, marijuana, Pat pong, hard drugs. It touches on the lack of social safety nets, the Bangkok, the Thai people, you know, don't have, don't have access to and some of the rough living that people are forced to do. right through to the financial crash in 1997. There's a great bit on check in. 99 was with Chris Smith, who I also know. And, so it touches on so many iconic turning points and locations that are historical and played such a role in, you know, inspiring the soul of the people and the soul of the city. And, a lot of them are gone now.

Greg 00:17:05 Check in. 99 is not there anymore. Even though I had my bachelor party there, how did you sort of decide on what to focus on and what to leave out? Because as much as it covers, there's still a ton that is not in there.

James 00:17:18 It's interesting. You you mentioned the check in 99, because I think the kind of seed of the film started out of an idea to have a documentary about the check in. Oh, really? I was a patron there from, I guess around about ten years ago, I did an authors night called The Night of Noir. There were lots of, crime novelist came and we, we gave readings and we sold books. And, you know, it was Chris Carter was so supportive of the arts in the area and a legend himself, a really interesting character. So he was the first guy we interviewed, I think. Okay. And it's interesting you talk about the kind of nostalgia attached to some of these old places as well, and we were really sad to see the check in go and other places like, I think I mentioned that legendary tunnel behind the building from Soi, five down to seven, back in the day.

James 00:18:09 I remember walking down there. There was, you know, some bearded guy stroking a lop eared rabbit just sitting watching a are we allowed to say midget or should we say dwarf? I don't know which is, politically correct and that he's a little.

Greg 00:18:24 To say all three. So we covered those cases.

James 00:18:26 Should we just offend everyone? That would be best, wouldn't it? this little person singing karaoke atop of a top of a table, and it was like a scene from a David Lynch movie, you know, a Lynchian scene in the town, right? Right. those places are no longer with us. but I really enjoy sort of modern day Bangkok as well. You know, I think your relationship with a city is like your relationship with a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a wife or a husband. You know, you like them as they change and they grow and they become, in many ways, a better person, right?

Greg 00:18:59 I heard something recently that, that that stuck with me, and it says that it said the tragedy of marriage is that a woman wants the man to change, but he stays the same, and the man wants the woman to stay the same, but she changes and and it's it's funny because there's, you know, you're right.

Greg 00:19:20 With a relationship with this city, there's a lot of people who have been around old fogies like you and I who sort of wistfully look back, you know, you should have seen it 20 years ago. It had some real energy, you know, so your your love and appreciation of a city is sort of stuck in time. But we also love how it changes and becomes, you know, Bangkok has become much more modern and much more cosmopolitan and much more international. And there's there's a lot to love there too. So. So the film does a really good job of, of straddling these two things, you know, like looking back at these old things at once were I mean, if you're talking about 100 years ago, those are obviously gone. But more recent history, it looks very fondly at those. But, you know, at the end it sort of talks about the revival after the 97 crash and coming into the 21st century with new technology and things like that, and then got knocked down by Covid, but then it's coming back again, you know.

Greg 00:20:13 So so it's an interesting thing to think about your relationship with Bangkok because there's a lot to love with what used to be, but there's also a lot to love with what is and what's going to be.

James 00:20:26 I think it might be a Chinese saying, I might be, I might have just pulled this out of my arse, I don't know, but is there a saying that in disaster is opportunity disaster? There's opportunity for someone, right. And the ties are very good at, at taking hold of opportunities.

Greg 00:20:43 A word that came up several times as I was watching the film was the word pragmatic. And we've said that on the on the podcast a lot to Thais are very pragmatic. So, you know, in the, in the film, like I said, you cover all these terrible things, the, the highs and the lows. But through it all the ties are like, you know, so by sub, I do what we need to do and get on with it. and that's, that's a theme running through all of the things that you cover in the documentary, you know, like whether it's good or bad, you know, the good stuff.

Greg 00:21:12 There's people that are sitting outside of that, the effect of that good stuff and the bad stuff. There's people that are sitting outside of the effect of that. But, you know, I don't really know what I'm saying here, but ties are no matter what is thrown at them, good or bad, they they always seem to remain very even keeled and very levelheaded.

James 00:21:30 I think it's quite an optimistic picture and the film is quite optimistic. And, you know, we can dwell on, you know, the terrible effects of, say, you know, the sex industry or slavery or, you know, there's some awful things going on. Let's not forget that. but the aim of the picture, I think, was to, focus on how the city has been resilient and how it has overcome, the major obstacles it has had to face.

Greg 00:22:00 And how long did it take you to to film it? You said you talked to Chris Smith at check in 99, and in the film, it looks like he's in the check in 99.

Greg 00:22:08 So you must have filmed that a long time ago. So how long have you been working on this?

James 00:22:11 From when the interview started, I guess was 2020 or 2021. Okay. and then the final interview was probably 2023. Right. and then it was released finally this year. So probably four years from conception to delivery, which I guess is about normal for a documentary. I wouldn't want to do one in less than a year, and certainly not one with as wide a, Topic as this one. I think documentaries, they evolve and they grow. it's not like if you're doing a narrative, film where you have a script and you just have to deliver the script, right? when you go into doing a documentary, you have really an idea. And then someone, you speak to people and they will say something which leads you in another direction. Yeah, yeah. And then you have to loop back and go somewhere else and find footage to cover it. Right. So it's really.

Greg 00:23:10 And you know, George Lucas one time said, he said a film is never finished.

Greg 00:23:14 It's abandoned. And I think that that's especially applicable to a documentary and especially applicable to a documentary about Bangkok, because there's always another interview, there's always a new expat, there's always a new story or a new new twist you can go to. So when when you finished it and when you sort of locked the picture, did you feel like, oh, there's so much I want to I missed or, you know, the next day something major happened. You're like, God damn it, I wish I would have got there, you know?

James 00:23:41 No, it was because it covered such a broad, timeline. We couldn't have got every. Yeah. And, there was. We were bound to miss out things. and what we did do, which I'd encourage all filmmakers to do, is once we once we shot it and we kind of locked it, we did a test screening, and then we did another test screening and another test screening. So we got a bunch of people together. we watched the film and gave us feedback, and then we went back and edited it.

Greg 00:24:12 And nerve wracking process sitting in with an audience in front of it.

James 00:24:16 Well, no, not if you're egotistical like me. Correct.

Greg 00:24:21 That's good. I'm. I'm cloaked in a protective layer of ego. There's, there's a lot of really great footage in it, too. From from way back in the day, monks. And, especially like the the footage of the the major flood that happened, I believe it was in the 1940s when, you know, there was knee deep water all through Nickerson Island. Where did you find that stuff and how did you dig it up?

James 00:24:45 Well, my go to guy for most of the archive stuff, not all of it, but a majority of it was, Mr. Pat McKay, otherwise known as Bank of Pat.

Greg 00:24:55 A friend of the show, former guests of the Bangkok Blood cast.

James 00:24:58 As he been on the show as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a friend and, But anyway, I sat down with him and said, you know, have you got footage you can use and you know who owns it? Can we get the rights to it? And, you know, had to have the rights being distributed.

James 00:25:14 And so he was my main archive guy. Some of the other stuff I, I bought, some of it I found borrowed and some of it I shot. So a lot, lot of footage I kind of shot and made it look old and stuff. Okay. All right. So some of the footage we use was from an adult entertainment movie called Hot Sex. Oh, really? Shot in the 1970s. But the scenes between the scenes, between the scenes. The scenes between the sex scenes were actually the real juicy plot. Yeah, I mean, the establishing shots were actually really nice. All that stuff in Pat pong where he's pulling the lens and we're focusing on the lights and pulling out. That was all, transition. Transitional, establishing. camera footage from other sex films. So. And no one's claiming for some reason, no one's claiming the authorship of that or copyright. That's as far as we can see. It's fair game. Yeah, that's.

Greg 00:26:12 What you get to watch a porno at home.

Greg 00:26:13 And it was legitimately saying, I'm doing research. Come on.

James 00:26:16 Oh, yeah.

Greg 00:26:18 That's so funny. Has, has has your speaking of relationships with Bangkok? Has your relationship with Bangkok, changed after doing this? Like, you've been here as long as I have and 23 years. You know, you develop a definite connection with with the city, especially accounts. Put words in your mouth. But for me, like, I really love it. You know, it's obvious from what we do, but, Have you. Has it left you with a sense of sort of nostalgia or wistfulness? Or are you optimistic about the future, seeing, seeing such a wide space of time captured in in a single movie? What's your take away from it? How do you feel about how things are in the city?

James 00:27:00 I can't project into the future too much. Part of me sees it going the same way as like a Singapore or one of the, a Hong Kong. I do think it's a center, the center of Southeast Asia.

James 00:27:16 Will it be, sanitised? Will it be become less chaotic? I doubt it. You know, I'm not bothered which way it grows, really, I will I will live and adapt to the city rather than it live and adapt to me.

Greg 00:27:29 Did you experience any any pushback with this stuff? I mean, I know, I don't know how it works for documentaries, but I know if you shoot a film in Thailand, you know, you've got to have someone, a representative from the Thai film office there. And they have to approve the script and stuff like that. When you're shooting a documentary, especially one bookmarked by, you know, these iconic outbreaks, the negative parts of of of life in Bangkok. Did you have any pushback from the authorities or the Thai film board or anything like that?

James 00:27:56 Yeah, I think documentaries come under a different category, don't they? to.

Greg 00:28:01 You'd hope so, yeah.

James 00:28:02 Feature films. You need to have permission from the, the tourist board. so if you want to shoot a feature film, you need to submit your script.

James 00:28:11 You need to have a script supervisor and someone who's with you on set each day. But documentaries, I believe, fall under the same category as, like, music videos or commercials. So, yeah.

Greg 00:28:22 I don't think I don't think documentary films have, you know, have to have the same stringent controls that that narrative features do.

James 00:28:28 So yeah. And I wasn't traipsing around town with a crew. Yeah. like you have to do with, with feature films. So.

Greg 00:28:35 No, it's it's it's great. I also want to mention, another film that you you brought up real quickly in our previous conversation called I Am Joseph. and I didn't have a chance to to watch the whole thing yet. I skimmed a few minutes of it, but it looks really interesting. And it's another part of Bangkok that makes Bangkok. Bangkok is it basically profiles a very eccentric dude living here. Can you talk a little bit about that too?

James 00:29:02 Yeah, so I am Joseph is a character documentary. So it focuses on one person rather than one city.

James 00:29:11 And he is a guy who a, a friend, suggested that I am contact. I was I have a YouTube channel called strange TV and I'm into strange stuff. So, this guy is indeed very strange. he dresses as, Santa Claus. He has a white beard, and he wears a red, and it's, It's a festive season. So this is his his time of year. And he goes around with this book, which he'll tell you it's not a Bible, it's just a blank notebook. And he will approach you in the street and ask you to write down a message or a positive message about humanity. And that's what he does. He goes from person to person, all around the kind of tourist areas of Bangkok asking for these signatures, which he records in his book. So I met him. I followed him around, and we went around Carson Road. And, what he also does, he has, he has social media, so he does Twitter and he does, Instagram. And he shoots videos of himself talking to the camera, which I had free access to.

James 00:30:22 So I kind of made the video from interviews I've done and from his own stuff. And the first line of the film, which is killer, it's him looking directly into the camera. He says, I came to Thailand to kill myself. Yeah.

Greg 00:30:36 Yeah.

James 00:30:37 I came to town to kill myself because I wasn't a good person. Yeah.

Greg 00:30:41 It's.

James 00:30:42 Boom. That's a great opening line.

Greg 00:30:45 Not to mention his thick Irish accent makes it makes it a bit more, lyrical Limerick accent.

James 00:30:52 As I was, shooting with him, a big secret was revealed, which I can't be give away because we're we're we're screening the film at the moment, actually, we're, we're, we're showing it on the 15th of December with the Bangkok City of Angels. We're doing a double feature, and that's at the Crown Prince Heritage Theater. Oh, I.

Greg 00:31:15 Love that.

James 00:31:15 Place. It's a great place, right? Yeah. It's got like a 700 inch screen.

Greg 00:31:20 Yeah, yeah. I really want to see if I can take my PlayStation five down there and set it up on this dude.

Greg 00:31:24 Neither here nor there. Yeah, well, it's really interesting. And it reminded me, I don't know if you've seen another another short documentary that's on YouTube. It's called, Mystery Mind maps by a guy named Rafael Terrazas, who he is. But it's it's it's about that that guy who goes around scribbling those weird, cryptic drawings on the sidewalk all over Bangkok. peachy.

James 00:31:49 Yeah. Peachy.

Greg 00:31:50 Yeah.

James 00:31:51 And I've got another short. Not really a documentary. It's an interview. So I got to speak to him in my broken tie, and, he doesn't speak any English, but, yeah, his story is always the same. He went to, He went to rap camp hangs. So he graduated with a degree in engineering, apparently. but then he joined the Navy. And then something happened to his family. And, like, each member of his family was killed. and now he's on this kind of, mission of redemption. Yeah, to uncover this vast conspiracy within the city of Bangkok.

James 00:32:28 And it's fascinating stuff. I'm sure he's got a secret. I'm sure he has something to tell the world. And there's some kind of cryptic puzzle that needs unlocking within those, within those mind maps.

Greg 00:32:40 Yeah, it's a bit of a sad story. I think those events kind of broke him a little bit, and he, he sort of went into his own little world and but it's it's amazing how many people have seen these things. And now with the exposure on social media sort of. No, no, no more about his story.

James 00:32:56 I think if he was operating or working in New York or London, his work would be selling for millions, I really do. I think the fact that, and he has been exhibited at the back. Right. Oh, yeah. He has had his. Yeah. But there isn't really a market for it. And I don't think he would be responsive now to any kind of commercial avenue to his message. You know, he is what the French call art brut, right? He's on the street, he's doing it for real, and he has a message.

James 00:33:27 And he men like him and, you know, really make Bangkok colourful and excited.

Greg 00:33:32 And enjoy Like him. Like Joseph. Yeah. These these these characters. Yeah. So man, it's great to you're out there the you know, you know giving giving giving voice and giving face to these, to these, these little facets of the city that keep it so vibrant and chaotic and colorful.

James 00:33:49 It's just so much fun. Yeah. Isn't that really I mean, yeah, we live in a very exciting city. it's very chaotic. It's exciting. There's interesting people to me all over the place. and long may it continue.

Greg 00:34:02 That's right, that's right. I drink to that. Well, James, let's let's wrap things up now. But thanks so much for coming on. And, this, this this documentary is very worthwhile checking out. I really love the idea of bookmarking it between cholera and Covid. It's a bit a bit of a bit of a, a dark, a dark way to start.

Greg 00:34:22 But those two events had such a long lasting, deep impact on on the culture of the city that it does make sense. So I get it. It's really cool where you said it was on Amazon. Where can people find it? Coming up? We're doing this this interview at the beginning of December 2024. So so going forward, where can people find, the documentary Amazon Prime?

James 00:34:44 you can either buy it as a download or you can rent it. I think it might be like five bucks to buy 2 or 3 bucks to rent in on UK. a little bit more. And that's in, UK, USA, Japan and Germany at the moment. I'm also negotiating other distribution deals as well. So it's out on Amazon at the moment, but it should be out on other platforms quite soon. I'll contact me, you know, if you contact me and ask nicely, I'll probably give you a link.

Greg 00:35:16 And where where can people find you on Facebook and your website? What are they.

James 00:35:20 So Facebook, James Newman and website is JD strange.com.

James 00:35:26 JD strange is my non de plume. That's the name I used to write my fiction And Twitter I think is James Newman. BC and what else do you have? It's X now isn't it? and Instagram I think is JD strange 2020.

Greg 00:35:42 Nice, nice. Well keep doing what you do man. This is really cool. And, it's cool that, you know, to know that I'm not the only one who's still constantly fascinated by the city and looking for ways to to show off its its its beauty and its mystery and and its fun, which is what we do on the podcast and what you do in your film. So I hope to see you next time, perhaps, hopefully in front of a movie screen with a pint of beer that would be more of.

James 00:36:09 A PlayStation five.

Greg 00:36:11 Anyway, as long as the beer is there. I'm not really. I'm not really picky about what I'm what I'm watching. Thanks a lot, James. It's great to talk to you.

James 00:36:19 Cheers, Greg. Thanks so much.

James 00:36:20 Take care.

Ed 00:36:28 You know, I really enjoyed that interview. I'm a little bit surprised. I've never run across him, at least. When I looked at his photo on Facebook, he didn't look familiar. But he and I have a bunch of mutual friends who are filmmakers, and of course, a bunch of people he interviewed are people that, at least some of them are people that we've had on the podcast. Totally.

Greg 00:36:46 Yeah. It's funny how you meet people like this, right? You're like, how have we never met? We know. That's right. Yeah. 50% of the people I know are friends of you as well. And right. It doesn't work. But yeah. Yeah. Really nice to sit down with him, chat with him. And, you know, I think, you know, you're a film guy more than I am, but I'm a film lover. And, in Bangkok, it was so interesting and so cool and so chaotic. And I think it's certainly crossed my mind before, like, man, that would make a really interesting short film or like to discuss that or talk to this guy.

Ed 00:37:18 Well, I was going to say, I mean, you guys talked about it, obviously, but you know, what he's trying to do in, I guess his this short film was 45 minutes. What he's trying to do in 45 minutes is what the podcast has been trying to do for, for 12 years.

Greg 00:37:31 That's a really good way. I never even thought of that. That's a great way to put it, you know.

Ed 00:37:34 But you and I have taken 12 years to try to figure out why so many foreigners, like Thailand and like Bangkok. And he's trying to squeeze it all into a short film.

Greg 00:37:46 Yeah, it must is I mean, that's just, like, so daunting. How do you even. Where do you even start? But I guess you just start with, like you said, you just start with the parts you like and and sort of build it up from there. I thought it was really interesting how he bookended it with the cholera outbreak in the in, in the 1820s and going right up to Covid in the 2020s, you know, 200 years.

Greg 00:38:06 That's right. Interesting. Way too interesting way to sort of, sort of force yourself into at least a smaller chunk of time than the full 800 years of war or whatever it is, but, sure. Yeah. Really interesting insights. And good to see some some familiar faces on there, too. But, there's he could probably do a whole series of them. Right. Like, how many parts did he leave out?

Ed 00:38:28 No doubt. No doubt.

Greg 00:38:30 And, you know, at the end of the interview, we also talked about his other little film he's doing called Joseph. And, man is something he, James has a knack for finding, you know, interesting people who have an interesting angle. And you and I have talked before about how a lot of people suggest, oh, I should come on the podcast to talk about this thing. And we're like, well, right. Yeah, okay. But that's something everyone has done. But every once in a while there's, there's, there's a topic or an angle that's just a little bit tweaked a little bit that makes it compelling in a way that's different.

Greg 00:39:00 And this, this, this, film he has called I Am Joseph with this sort of strange, eccentric Irish guy who lives in Bangkok. Something about him. And it hits me the right way. It looks really, really interesting. I gotta make sure to follow that up and check it out. Now.

Ed 00:39:15 Is the is the Joseph character essentially homeless?

Greg 00:39:20 I don't know, I've only seen the trailer. so I don't know if write.

Ed 00:39:25 His status.

Greg 00:39:25 Exactly. Yeah, yeah, but but I want to learn more and that's what it's.

Ed 00:39:28 So he's, So basically he's a super interesting expert.

Greg 00:39:32 Yes, exactly. And that that can go this way or that.

Ed 00:39:35 Right in either direction. Right, exactly.

Greg 00:39:37 Yeah. But many thanks, James. A very interesting discussion. great film and, keep making them because, we want to keep watching them for sure.

Ed 00:39:44 Thanks, James. And I look forward to meeting you. I'm sure we'll cross paths at some point.

Greg 00:39:48 All right. Let's get into some lovely weather.

Greg 00:39:50 Live with where one of us picks a particular aspect of living in Bangkok, which we discussed to decide if it's something we love about living here, loathe about living here, or have come to accept as something that we just have to learn to live with no matter how we feel about it. And this weekend, I'm going to pose a question to you. I must have done this before, and it's a very simple, silly one. But I saw it the, the other week when it was raining. What what is what thought crosses your mind when it starts to rain a little bit? Not a lot. Just a little bit. And you see someone walking down the street with a plastic bag around their head. Sort of like sticking up like a marge Simpson style. Oh that's great. And protector.

Ed 00:40:30 Well, I am sometimes that guy. so it's funny. It's funny when you. When you mention this. I thought you were gonna. When you started. I thought you were going to talk about the way the city shuts down or how the the taxis won't stop, and I.

Ed 00:40:43 I loathe the way the city responds to rain. It's like. It's like they act like it's never rained before.

Greg 00:40:51 Yeah.

Ed 00:40:51 It's like, oh, my God, it's raining. And the whole city, like the city practically shuts down and you can't get a taxi. And it's just like. So that I loathe.

Greg 00:40:58 It’s like the first light snow, a light dusting of snow in Calgary, like. that's.

Ed 00:41:02 Right. Oh, my God, it's snowing again. no, but the impromptu, impromptu rain production. I might even go love just because I, I, I have to just because I'm often that person. I hate carrying an umbrella. I know it's the responsible thing to do, but I hate it because I am the person who leaves my umbrellas everywhere. So I just gave up. I just completely gave up on umbrellas. And, so I'm often although your point about the blue, like, what I tend to do is grab, honestly, what I'll do if I'm, if I'm leaving my place and it's either already raining or it's impending, I'll grab a garbage bag and, like, stuff it in my my my my bag, my my shoulder bag.

Ed 00:41:49 And then I'll just put a garbage bag, basically put a garbage bag over my head, I don't care, I have no. Yeah. So I not I know the blue bag you're talking about that, that it is. Marge Simpson is the perfect analog. So. So I can't say I love the Marge Simpson blue bag towering over your head, but, Yeah, I mean, as a as a non umbrella guy, I certainly can't say I loathe it. I say I'm going to stick with love. It's it's it's got some MacGyver to it. Yeah. I'm an old MacGyver fan, so.

Greg 00:42:24 Yeah, I'm going to dive using dynamite with the paperclip and a compass.

Ed 00:42:31 I'm going to say impromptu rain where I'm going to give a thumbs up to that.

Greg 00:42:36 Oh, it's funny, it's funny. I'm alive with on this one because I think it's every time I see it, it just sort of reminds me of the time when, you know, we were walking, me and my wife and my son were walking home and we got a light, a light sprinkle of rain, just like.

Greg 00:42:51 Like that, you know, barely touched our heads. And we came inside and, and my wife said, well, we better take a shower because he got his hair wet. And I was like, what are you talking about? You know, so it just reminds like, because when it starts to rain just the slightest bit here, people run like it's about to like a hurricane. No, to blow.

Ed 00:43:08 That I love. I loathe the way the city reacts to rain.

Greg 5 00:43:12 Yeah. Because it really just kind of shuts down and it's so frustrating.

Greg 00:43:16 But but the plastic bag on the head just sort of reminds me of how how ludicrously frightened people are of a slight raindrop.

Ed 5 00:43:25 Oh, I see your point.

Ed 00:43:25 Yeah. You know, no, I. Okay, okay, okay. From that point of view, I understand what you're saying. I don't mind getting wet, so I only, I only use the garbage bag when it's pouring and I don't want to get soaked, but.

Ed 00:43:38 Yeah. Okay. No. Okay. I see your angle now. I thought you were. I thought you were making a point about, like, fashion or how ridiculous it looks, but you you were kind of making a point more about, like, oh, I can't get wet. I'm almost the same way. a lot of ties, especially tied women will will block the sun with their hand. Right?

Greg 00:43:57 Right. When they're walking across the crosswalk for, you know, nine seconds in the in the sun. Yeah, yeah.

Ed 00:44:02 Okay. That's that's a different topic, but, yeah. So I get your point. There's nothing wrong with getting a little bit wet, but, I like the, the, the DIY nature of it, so I'm going to stick with my I'm going to stick with my love.

Greg 00:44:15 I live with because it's it's goofy and it's funny. I can't loathe it, but it just makes me laugh.

Greg 00:44:20 You could walk the 25m to the end of the street.

Ed 5 00:44:24 That's right. That's funny.

Ed 00:44:25 All right, a final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that they're helping and are never ending. Quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website and connect with us online. Where Bangkok podcasts on social media Bangkok podcast.com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from our listeners and always reply to our messages.

Greg 00:44:51 True that. You can also listen to each episode on YouTube. Send us a voicemail through our website that we'll feature on the show. Hit me up on blue Sky at VK. Greg. Thanks for listening, everyone. Take it easy. Merry Christmas coming up. We'll see you back here next week for sure.