COMPLICATED HAPPINESS

In this session we discussed the film of Rosalia Namsai Engchuan, Complicated Happiness. The film is inspired by the Thai Park in Berlin: a meeting place since more than 20 years for Thai migrant women that transformed into a tourist attraction that has become too big. Now there are already plans for its transformation, and it is unlikely that this process can be stopped. This attempt at formalisation of the informal will fail: most Thai women I spoke to do not plan to follow the transformation of Thai Park. This place will soon be a distant memory. What many forget is that this park was never first and foremost about selling food. What people see is the commodification of authentic food and the need to regulate informal economic practices. What they don’t see is the people. Once again Thai women are hypervisible so that they themselves become invisible. This video is set in the future at a time when the Thai Park is no longer there. It is a reminder of the liminality of social spaces and through a fictional storyline allows the Thai women to leave before they are forced to do so.

The presentation of the film was then followed by a discussion on the racial and gendered implications local government health and safety policies, as well as gentrification projects.

Presenting: Rosalia Namsai Engchuan

Commenting: Raúl Silva, Assem Hendawi, Litchi Ly Friedrich, Hannah O’Flynn, Amit Rai, Hubert Gromny