We recently connected with Art Parnitudom and have shared our conversation below.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Art Parnitudom, and I was born 1995 in Bangkok, Thailand on a Saturday, I’m a cinematographer, turned writer/director and an Associate Member of the Society of Camera Operators. Before earning my BFA in Cinematography from Emerson College, I began working as a Director of Photography in Boston, primarily on narrative films. There, I shot LOUDER THAN WORDS (2017), debuting in the International Competition at Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia in Tokyo, Japan and Nominated at the IFFBoston for Special Jury Award.

The quality in my cinematography that diverges from the norm are the distinctive ways that I approach each project, through texture & feel. Film is quite a 2-dimensional format and traditionally we tend to avoid optical imperfections, but in challenging norms I’ve found a specific visual language that speaks to me and also elevates the projects that I’m brought onto shoot. A good friend and mentor of mine once said, ‘Fortune favours the bold’.

In 2018, I began the prestigious New York University Graduate Film program on scholarship with my writer/director debut short film, IN THIS PLACE WHERE WE LIE (2017), which I also lensed as Director of Photography. Since then, I’ve lensed almost 40 narrative short films, including for rising directors, assistant to: Cary Fukunaga, Scott Cooper, and Marielle Heller. I’ve also shot commercial works for notable brands not limited to Canon, Aquascutum, Maybelline NY, 1800 Tequila.

In 2022, I wrote & directed I MISS MY MOM & DREAM OF OUR NEW HOME, which premiered as a Semi-Finalist at the 26th Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. In the same year, I shot my debut feature film BORN A STRAY written/directed by Adel L. Morales and Executive Produced by the renowned Spike Lee.

Currently, I’m in-development on my debut feature film as writer/director, slated for production in 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

One of the most interesting aspects about a creative pursuit, or any pursuit that comes from a place of innate passion is that it is self-sustaining. The desire to improve is never-ending, yet at the same time fulfilling – once you reach the peak of one mountain, you realize you’re at the foot of another.

For the longest time, I had a deep desire in honing my craft as a cinematographer. The byproducts of achievement were rather ‘bonuses’ secondary to the primary feeling of achieving goals I set for myself. By putting in hours to move myself closer towards that goal, I built a stack of undeniable proof to show I am who I say I am.

Although cinematography is still something I care for, my 5 years spent at New York University’s Graduate Film program, a program known for the numerous contemporary auteurs it has produced in American and International Independent cinema, gave me a deeper appreciation of film. It felt that for the longest while, as a cinematographer, I got quite skilled at care-taking for other people’s children. But now, the desire to have my own, a film, far exceeded that desire.

My feature film in-development is about shared familial loneliness.
I hope the film can illustrate that everyone deserves the chance to be understood – just like you, or me.
I hope this film can be an homage to the love left unsaid in my life, and yours, and the quaint peculiarity that is living.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I find it very difficult, if even possible, to separate myself from the work that I make.

The joys and sufferings of life, and how they continually reform me overtime unquestionably bleed into the body of work that I create. This takes shape in many ways in the films I make; their rhythm, structure, and feel.

Any honed craftsperson has a sensibility that makes them singular and unique. There is a tangible yet invisible quality of an individual that bleeds through and creates a sort of signature in the body of work that they present to the world, which is what makes it special.

For me, as I’m developing my first feature film, there is a great joy in digging deeper into myself: my childhood, my fears, my hopes.

It feels like I’m simultaneously figuring myself out, as I digest and share that to the world – I hope it speaks to someone.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.prntdm.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prntdm/
• Full Filmography: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6520008/
• Other works: https://vimeo.com/prntdm

Image Credits
Childsholiday, Tyler Clark