Born in Bangkok, Thailand in July 1970, Apichatpong Weerasethakul is an independent filmmaker initially trained in architecture at Khon Kaen University. After receiving a Masters degree in filmmaking from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997, Weerasethakul commenced a prodigious career in experimental cinema that awarded him the Jury Prize and Palm d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives in 2010. As evidenced in feature length works such as Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, and Syndrome and a Century, Weerasethakul’s films are marked by interplays between organic, natural time and measured cinematic time while drawing from Buddhist narrative structures as well as science fiction themes.