Over the last month Phanganist had met Marie and Albertine and hung out with them. They have been in the process of filming here on the island ready to make a film about party culture.
Albertine is French Canadian and Marie is French and lives in Paris, we invited them in to share their story and views with you…
Hi ladies, so tell us your Koh Phangan story...
Albertine - I’ve been here before, kind of by mistake but was interested in this party culture thing. I’ve never seen such a small island be so active.
Marie - We came specifically to make the movie. We wanted to make a big travel but not being tourists so we were looking for an idea for our movie and saw the subject of parties in western culture to be quite interesting, I have been studying this in my last year of school so this is what it’s about.
Albertine - I study the redefinition of identity, it’s taking different forms and parties are a kind of way of feeling free and connecting in a community, even for a short amount of time.
Someone can experience this just once and it takes them outside of the real world which is square and static, so this island is a great way to experiment.
What do you think about the parties here? Have you been enjoying them?
It’s funny because it’s been the first time in my life that we were disconnected from the party a little and took the role of the ‘watcher’.
We were not missing to be inside the crowd, it was not awkward to stand there and be alone for ten minutes and watch when normally we would smoke ten cigarettes and look for our friends. It was quite different not to drink so much.
It took time to adapt and be around alcohol every day. You need to get into the atmosphere and get into it, we can’t talk about it if we’re not doing it.
The interesting thing here is the visual effects, there’s a lot of work and time that goes into it, some parties look like festivals that would usually cost lots of Euros to attend, they reminded us of some UK festivals.
What is your background in film?
Marie - I started to film a few years ago at school and did videos and my first short movie which was auto produced.
It took a real big team, people taking the sound, images, I was director and I wrote it but during the seven days of shooting I was really helped.
What difference in the party people here have you noticed?
Albertine - At first you can’t notice much difference, people get out and feel good for a few hours, out of reality.
In parties frequented mostly by local people the atmosphere is more relaxed. For example Jungle Experience seemed more relaxed than Full Moon, which is super intense.
Marie - I have noticed that it’s strongly straight people and we’re usually around more mixed/gay parties and here we have met one or two people who are not straight so the straight energy is really strong. There’s no other representation, no gay community we have seen.
How was your time at Cats in Space Hostel where you have been based?
It’s really super cheerful, it is a party hostel so if you wanna party then go there. It’s a cycle that never ends, a lot of drunken energy and maybe one week was too much for us as we are not here so much to party. But they have been so helpful and open minded and trusted us to do an advert for them.
We are making an advert which shows what they do who, a trailer of the hostel. Julia wants it high energy and focused on the parties.
Where do you go from here and what are your plans?
Bangkok then back to France. We will be editing the advert which will take a long time then Albertine is finishing school and we will start editing the movie.
We would like to try to come back for one month as it has been a short time to get everything this time around, if we do come back it will be with a cinema team.
What do you think of what Sharon has done with Phanganist?
It’s cool to have information to be oriented if you come here, it’s comforting and you can look at the side of the smaller parties which is really cool.
When I first came I looked at Phanganist and I think it’s interesting to write about something that’s deeply in the present and happening only with the body, taking another perspective on these activities.
It’s a good choice of mixing the parties, yoga and other things which is cool, you can meditate on the two sides and it creates its own culture.
Has it been a good experience meeting people for the film?
People have been open and helpful but sometimes they don’t want to talk so much on camera.
And leave us with your life philosophy?
Marie - It’s changing all the time but maybe the only thing that stays is I don’t wanna have a job, I think it’s totally absurd to work for fifty years, get old and die.
I want to do what I want, not to earn money. I already live in Paris with very small money, I prefer time than money.
Albertine - Try to be critical and awake about reality and don't get in a routine that makes you closed minded and dead inside.
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