THE BELIEVERS
PRESS KIT
SYNOPSIS
In the documentary THE BELIEVERS, the disciples of an ancient tattoo ritual believed to offer supernatural powers gather for a sacred day, where forces known and unknown erupt.
ABOUT SAK YANT
SAK YANT is an ancient Thai tattooing practice with roots in Animism, Brahmanism, and Theravada Buddhism, believed to grant magical powers to its disciples. These powers range from good fortune to invincibility against accidents, bullets, and knives—provided the wearer leads a moral life, following certain precepts.
Every year, over ten thousand disciples gather for WAI KHRU at Wat Bang Phra, a Buddhist Temple and Monastery, to participate in a ceremony honoring their tattoo masters (ajarns and monks), renewing their faith, and recharging the powers of their Sak Yant. As the event reaches its peak, the collective potency erupts into mass spirit possession, or KHON KHUN (roughly translating to - a thing rising), many entering altered states taken over by the deities and animals in their tattoos.
Tattoos aside, the extraordinary culture of Sak Yant is largely unwritten - This oral history is passed down from tattoo master to students in lineages, all with unique designs, magic, and beliefs. Traditions such as the annual Wai Khru events ensure the legacy continues.
DIR. STATEMENT
"With this film, I wanted to take viewers on a surreal and cinematic journey under the cultural surface of Sak Yant and into the transformative power of faith, as experienced through the eyes of several devotees for this one divine day. By forming a distinct visual, sonic, and temporal language of dreamlike slow motion, intimate and visceral vérité, and sweeping human vistas... we hoped to make discoveries of our human nature otherwise obscured. The microcosm of this ephemeral ritual and it's liminal space bubbled with outsized ideas and themes, providing an opportunity to reflect at the blurring crossroads of our physical and spiritual selves... the individual and the community... faith and doubt... order and chaos... the mythic past and the tangible present... and how our most sacred traditions and beliefs bestow belonging, meaning, and strength to our everyday lives. I also believe finding new ways to tell stories of culture to be especially vital today; in a rapidly modernizing world, this project has been a therapeutic and enriching counterpoint. I hope by sharing The Believers, it can help preserve such wonderful magic." - Evan Newman
TEAM
SPECIFICATIONS:
TITLE: The Believers
COUNTRY: THAILAND/U.S.A.
LANGUAGE: Thai, English
SUBTITLES: English
FESTIVALS/THEATRICAL RUNTIME: 20:00
A LONGER AND SHORTER VERSION CAN BE MADE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
FORMAT: 4K Scope, 5.1 Channel Surround Sound
DOLBY ATMOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
PRESS & GENERAL INQUIRES:
