Kon Chai Moon

“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” -Pablo Picasso

Have you ever heard of the Minoans? How about the Lenka – at least their direct descendants are still around. What about the Shan people.

Of these three cultures, the Shan are still here, there culture is somewhat intact, but they are struggling to maintain it.

The Shan history is long and troubled but it is recent history that has seen the Shan homeland split across international borders, into Burma and Thailand.

Kon Chai Moon is a young Shan man who left Burma and is now a documented refugee trying to survive and prosper in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He also wants to work towards preserving his culture with the next generation, even in this new, foreign home.

Art Relief International is an organization based in Chiang Mai that works to preserve and promote traditional cultures, and uses art as therapy. The organization has no great method to measure success, but they do offer Kon Chai Moon an opportunity of artistic consolation, as well as the means to teach a younger generation about Shan ways.

Kon Chai Moon from Actuality Media on Vimeo.

This video was produced on location by an Actuality Media student crew and shot with a Canon XA10 and a Canon 60D.

Director: Angela Crilley
Producer: Caitlin Royse
Cinematographer: Tianyi Chen
Editor: Nick Kachibaia

Actuality Media is an organization that takes media students to developing communities around the globe to create positive media that tells the story of changemakers doing good works to fight societal and environmental problems that plague the world. These short documentaries were each produced during a thirty day outreach where crews researched their subject changemaker, wrote out their story, filmed and edited it.

There are so many more positive stories worth telling, and Actuality Media will have more short documentaries soon.

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