Lahu Funnyman [Thai Short Film] หนังสั้น

This is an award winning Thai short film about a tribal person who takes offense at a racial slur by a comedian on TV and thus becomes determined to get right up there on the TV, where he can faithfully represent his culture and make it look good.

Lahu Funnyman stars "Yaka Champion", the stage name for Yaka, from the Lahu hilltribe village on Yafu Mountain in Chiang Rai, Thailand. While on Yafu Mountain Yaka struck me as a fun guy who could be just as fun on film, so I asked him to be in this movie. During the filming of Lahu Funnyman Yaka actually did a number of performances with a comedy group I co-founded, and was really funny even though he'd never been in any kind of staged show before.

This film was produced for the Mirror Art Foundation (an awesome charity, check them out at www.hilltribe.org and www.mirrorartgroup.org!)and made possible through a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Because the film was for charity many famous comedians were happy to make cameo appearances free of charge. The music for the film was provided by an Akha hilltribe music group.
I wrote, directed, and appeared in Lahu Funnyman alongside almost every Thai comedian I'm friends with. I was of course ecstatic about winning an award, but I was never fully happy with the result of this film, partially because I had to complete it on a budget, within a time frame, and all by myself. If there is significant interest I will put together a new Director's Cut which I feel would do the story more justice, and do "official" subtitles, which were not included in the film when screened in Thailand. It would increase the running time to about 15 minutes and include more cameos by other comedians. So, everyone please let me know what you think. Otherwise my time will be spent working on my current project, a fun travel show for Thailand and SEAsia which you can check out on my youtube channel.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Thailand
• Hilltribe
• Lahu
• Akha_music
• Thai_movie
• Thai
• Comedy
• Short_Film
• Award
• Champion
• Chiang_Mai
• ตลก
• ไทย
• Jonathan_Samson
• หนังสั้น
• หนัง

[martinwinters86]

how did you get in contact with all these thai stars? this is amazing. geng mak na cup!

[JoeyandJon]

I know them all personally, and every single one of them worked for free because the movie was for charity. Thanks for the comments!

[JoeyandJon]

BTW, I just got off the phone with Yaka. He invited me to his house for the Lahu New Year in mid January. It would be cool if people who saw this video go too. Yaka works as a tour-guide now, so he can arrange accommodations for anyone who goes. ;-)

[leroy1602]

Love the Jon Champion character!

[JoeyandJon]

Love the 1602!

[JudithSamson]

A comment from Barbara Negelow: This is remarkable and insightful portrait. Very beautifully done. Kudos to Jonathan. Looking forward to much more from this young artist. Thank you so much.

[JoeyandJon]

Fascinating. Thank you.

[philiphoward123]

After'n I see this I ain't maikin no more o they Beverly Hilltribebillies pictures!

[yomtumthai2]

soo-ay

[danielaronson]

Awesome vid!

I am currently creating a new series of videos called - "A Series of Words"

Its gonna be a lil like smosh... a lil like lonely island

but with more class and better cinematography.

Check out the first for this new video on my channel!

[samuso86]

this is possibly the oddest thing ive ever watched HAHA good though :-)

[SarahSaechao]

whoa, this is weird

[aiyock123]

5555 doy hee tek 5555555555555-5555555555

[RockGodessss]

that was nice :)

theres a short film contest i heard about yesterday, shoot me a message if you want the link

*me*

[jchat1711]

hey, how do i get in touch with yaka?