online premiere screening by designboom: bêka & lemoine film boonserm premthada exploring bangkok

bêka & lemoine unveilS latest film with Boonserm Premthada

After their ‘Tokyo Ride’ in Ryue Nishizawa’s vintage Alfa Romeo, Bêka & Lemoine now take us to Bangkok on a chaotic one-day journey through the concrete jungle of the South-Asian megacity. In their new documentary titled ‘Big Ears Listen With Feet’, the acclaimed artist-filmmakers start by sharing the personal story of Boonserm Premthada, one of Thailand’s most important contemporary architects and recipient of THE DESIGN PRIZE 2021|22 in the category ‘Social Impact’. The film, which will premiere exclusively on designboom soon, unfolds through a free wander, punctuated by stunning encounters, events, and places, which have contributed to shaping Premthada’s unique identity and sensibility.

‘Big Ears Listen With Feet’ follows Boonserm Premthada through the streets of Bangkok

all images courtesy of Bêka & Lemoine

Big Ears Listen With Feet: ONLINE PREMIERE BY DESIGNBOOM!

In Bêka & Lemoine’s latest film, Boonserm Premthada, who is deaf from birth, shares how his disability led him to develop an alternative way of hearing in which his whole body serves as a resonating chamber for sound vibrations. The way the Thai architect hears is similar to the way elephants perceive sound: Despite their large ears, elephants also ‘hear’ acoustic signals primarily through their highly sensitive feet. By learning from elephants, Premthada developed an architecture of the senses in which sound vibrations become the voice of the space. This story is the reason for the title of the documentary: ‘Big Ears Listen With Feet’. 

The documentary by the acclaimed artist-filmmakers shows Boonserm Premthada walking through the dark streets of the slum where he grew up, flying to remote rural communities living in symbiosis with elephants, and observing the devotion of old ladies to the Buddhist monks of their village. In this way, the film reveals the architect’s active engagement with people for whom architecture can have a powerful social impact. In ‘Big Ears Listen With Feet’, a road movie merges with a film diary, unveiling the unique style of Bêka & Lemoine’s performative cinema. Stay tuned for the exclusive online premiere on designboom soon!

Boonserm developed his unique architectural style by learning from elephants

the documentary shows Boonserm walking through the dark streets of the slum where he grew up

the film then unfolds as a free wander through concrete streets and rural communities

the documentary shows the Thai architect observing the devotion of old ladies to the Buddhist monks of their village

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project info:

name: Big Ears Listen With Feet

directors: Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine
director of photography: Ila Bêka
editing: Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine
colorist: Melo Prino
sound mix: Walter Amati, Fuji Studio
production: Bêka & Partners, France
Thailand, 2022, 4K, Color, 93 min