After just one week of screening once a day at the Lido in Siam Square, indie director Santi Taepanich's Bangkok Time has already left the cinema.

Seems Santi had personally rented a digital projector so his film could be shown at the Lido, which lacks the equipment. The film's premature close is simply because he couldn't afford to keep hiring the projector.

There are other cinemas in Bangkok, Cinema 3 of the Grand EGV Siam Discovery for example, that are already set up for digital screenings. But Santi wanted the Lido crowd to see his film, and being part of that crowd, I can't blame him. He thought something would be lost if it were shown in one of the newer shopping mall multiplexes.

Such sacrifice in the name of art.

Bangkok Time focuses on the lives of three people who work around Bangkok's seedy Patpong scene. Ananda Everingham stars as a male prostitute, with Dusita Anuchitchanchai as an emergency room nurse and Uttapon Teemakpon as a hawker of dodgy goods.

After premiering at the Bangkok International Film Festival back in July, Bangkok Time was a Dragons and Tigers nominee at the recent Vancouver International Film Festival, and I understand it may turn up at a few other prominent festivals over the next year.

More information:

• Bangkok Time photo gallery