For the third episode of ▶▶Fast Forward, we are joined by Weerada Sucharitkul, an international entrepreneur building new, democratic models for film distribution and education.

Weerada is the CEO of FilmDoo, a platform using innovative technologies to bridge film content with edtech. Having lived in eleven countries across five continents, Weerada launched FilmDoo to bring together the three things she’s most passionate about: cinema, travelling and entrepreneurship. Today, FilmDoo is a global media company helping people to discover and watch great films, including hard to find award-winning shorts and documentaries. With a catalogue of over 2,700 films from over 80 countries, FilmDoo is a global leader in promoting diversity and helping under-represented stories around the world to get seen and heard.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A moderated by AC Coppens, CEO/Founder of THE CATALYSTS.

▶▶ More about Weerada

Drawing on over ten years of experience across digital strategy and innovation, Weerada’s mission at FilmDoo is to disrupt the traditional film distribution model and create new language learning technologies. Weerada currently oversees the company's strategy, content, product and technology.

Most recently, FilmDoo launched an edutainment platform helping people to learn languages and explore cultures through films.

Based on a personalized recommendation technology, crowd-sourced data and user-generated demand, FilmDoo empowers viewers to take control of what they want to see, while helping emerging filmmakers connect with a global audience.

To achieve all this, FilmDoo makes use of sophisticated metadata tagging systems, machine learning recommendation engines and automated image recognition software.

Weerada speaks regularly on a variety of topics, ranging from innovation and technology in international film distribution, to diversity, startup growth and women in leadership.

Her talks at major film festivals include Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, Edinburgh, Thessaloniki and Odessa, as well as at the University of Reading and the University of Cambridge, her alma mater. Weerada is particularly interested in how emerging machine learning technologies can revolutionise language learning and inspire cultural exploration through film, the commoditisation of culture and balancing eastern and western approaches in a fast-paced technogy-driven world.

Weerada’s work has been featured in Forbes, Variety and Screen Daily.

References, links and resources from Weerada’s talk:

▶▶ The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media, has been founded in 2004 by Academy Award Winning Actor Geena Davis. The organization working collaboratively within the entertainment industry to engage, educates and influences the creation of gender balanced onscreen portrayals, reducing harmful stereotypes and creating an abundance of unique and intersectional female characters in entertainment targeting children 11 and under. A series of very interesting surveys and studies are available on their website. The research shows that damaging stereotypes on screen limit women's aspirations. Characters in leadership roles finds women four times more likely than men to be shown naked.

▶▶ The session gathered an international public, including viewers joining from Bangkok, London and Amsterdam. Questions for Weerada from the audience addressed the cultural diversity of the FilmDoo offerings, including: “Are you perhaps disappointed that this generation is seeking short content that offers personal validation and likes as opposed to real cultural content that can leave a last impression and change outlooks on the world?”; and “Short form content is not only personal validation but very cultural for example through short stories. What are the biggest challenges for short story cinema in the future?”

▶▶ AC quoted the director of “Parasite”, Bong Joon-ho. Earlier this year during his speech at the Golden Globes he said: “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” As AC points out, this sarcastic remark is also a powerful critique of attitudes common in the film establishment in countries like the US, where it is rare that “foreign language” films will gain as much traction as Parasite did.

▶▶ The conversation geared also toward the need for all sorts of inclusivity. Addressing this call, Greta is an app that enables people with sight or hearing loss to experience fully accessible cinema. It also includes foreign language subtitles and audio versions for an international audience.

▶▶ New developments in film and video technology, particularly in the AI space, could help to make films in different languages more accessible - for instance, startups like Simon Says that offer automated subtitling and transcription.

▶▶ Due to the pandemic, a number of film festivals around the world have decided to move their programming online, even cooperating to create a superfestival, as is the case with We Are One, an 10 day online festival , presented by YouTube, produced by Tribeca, with a lineup fed by Cannes, Venice, Toronto, but also the film festivals of Tokyo, Sarajevo, Marrakech and Mumbai, among others (May 29 - June 7 2020). All funds raised during the festival will benefit COVID-19 relief fund. Cannes Film Festival moved its Marche du Film online.

▶▶ Weerada recommended a couple of interesting titles available on FilmDoo, including:

▶▶ The French Touch compilation, with a crafted collection of shorts from raising French talents.

▶▶ In the Absence of the Sun, an Indonesian portrait of three women, Jakarta, and the tensions between tradition and modernity in the indonesian society.

▶▶ Mongolian Bling, a rare insight into the the thriving hip-hop andmusic scene of Ulaanbaatar.

▶ Rooth Tang's feature debut Sway: three couples in Paris, Hong Kong and Bangkok, and three visions of love and struggle to communicate in the contemporary world.