T H E B E L I E V E R S
A tiger stalks his dreams... A woman seeks belonging... A man finds courage under the magical spell of his tattoos... Each year in Thailand, believers of the sacred Sak Yant ritual gather for one divine day, where personal faith erupts into mass spiritual possession. In the documentary The Believers, enter a cinematic, surreal window into the unseen forces that transform us.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
With this film, I wanted to take viewers on a surreal and cinematic journey under the cultural structures and communal memory of the magical tattoo known as Sak Yant and into the universally transformative power of faith and ritual, and the amplifying effect of ‘coming together’... as experienced through the eyes of several devotees, a skeptical monk, and a tattoo master for one divine day… By forming a distinct visual, sonic, and temporal language of dreamlike slow motion, intimate and visceral vérité, and sweeping human vistas which coalesce from this series of encounters into a collective voice... We hoped to make visual human nature otherwise obscured. The microcosm of this liminal space offers the opportunity to reflect at the porous lines between our physical and spiritual selves, the individual and community, truth and faith, the mythic past and the tangible yet fleeting present. And most interesting to me personally, we witness how the often invisible forces of belief bestow belonging, meaning, and strength into our contemporary lives, and transform our very realities.
TEAM
RECOGNITIONS
Exhibition and Recognitions:
Montclair Film Festival, NJ, USA, 2024 (Jury Award)
Austin Film Festival, TX, USA, 2024 (Jury Nomination)
Dances With Films, NY, USA, 2024 (Official Selection)
SF DocFest, CA, USA, 2025 upcoming
Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, CA, USA, 2025 upcoming
WHAT IS SAK YANT?
SAK YANT is an ancient Thai tattooing practice with roots in Animism now intertwined with Theravada Buddhism, believed by many to grant magical powers to its disciples. These powers range from good fortune to invincibility against accidents and harm... 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 KHUEN (roughly translating to: a thing rising), with many entering altered states taken over by the deities and animals in their tattoos.
Inked skin aside, the extraordinary culture of Sak Yant is largely unwritten. This oral history is passed down from tattoo masters to students in lineages, each with unique designs and practices. Participatory communal traditions such as the annual Wai Khru events ensure the legacy continues...
SPECS
TITLE: The Believers
COUNTRY: THAILAND/U.S.A.
LANGUAGE: Thai, English
SUBTITLES: English
FESTIVALS/THEATRICAL RUNTIME: 14 minute
A LONGER VERSION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
FORMAT: 4K Scope, 5.1 Channel Surround Sound
PRESS & GENERAL INQUIRES
BEHIND THE SCENES
