แม่บ้าน (mae-ban) 




Housemaids. 

These are all words to describe Sorn’s job in my household. 

But I call her พี่ (P’). It means “sister” in Thai. 

a project that began from self-reflection

We only often recognize the value of some things only when we take a little step back. Sometimes, it meant that one has to travel away for a while to realize somethings that they often taken for granted. 

The same goes for myself as I traveled to Japan for my undergraduate studies in 2016. Separated from family for the first time, I began to feel more distant from my home country. At the same time, it had enabled me to look my home from a new perspective. During the summer break of 2019, I met P’Sorn who came to work in our home.

Loud, little daring, but also strong-willed and loving. 

She reminded me of all the ladies who lived in my home. Those who had stayed and left; some with a short goodbye, others who just faded away without a trace. Those who for one moment felt like a family member, but a stranger in the next. Meeting her rekindled childhood memories of playing with them. But I hardly remembered or knew anything but their name.

At first glance, our relationship seems pretty simple, and perhaps transactional. I am the daughter of the P’Sorn’s employer. But behind the label, I often wondered if there’s anything else beyond such status quo. As I explored the boundaries and possibilties of the relationship, I slowly learned to put myself into P’Sorn’s shoes. In my last year of university, I returned home to pursue my graduation project. I began taking footages and get closer to P’Sorn, in hopes that I might be able to understand our relationship a little better.

“Under the Same Roof: a personal documentary” is a film of sorts. Not a documentary, not a family video, the film fits itself into an undefined category. To me, it may have been an attempt to reconcile with my childhood. It may also be a personal letter from myself, to all those who once, in their lifetime, had shared time under the same roof. 

This film was created in the process of my sense-making of my relationship with P’Sorn in for my undergraduate studies. The project had spanned from August 2019 until July 2020.