{"id":29216,"date":"2026-08-07T17:27:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.koktailmagazine.com\/?p=29216"},"modified":"2026-08-10T10:26:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T03:26:20","slug":"friday-future-lister-oat-montien-the-artist-unlocking-the-queer-closet-through-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.koktailmagazine.com\/th\/2026\/08\/07\/friday-future-lister-oat-montien-the-artist-unlocking-the-queer-closet-through-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Future Lister: Oat Montien, the Artist Unlocking the Queer Closet Through Film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When stories outgrow the page, Oat turns to film, where queer lives and imagination take centre stage. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Queer stories deserve queer eyes. Meet the filmmaker who asks who gets to hold the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pattanapong “Oat” Montien is an artist who has never been bound to a single form. His practice moves between writing, illustration, painting, performance and curation, each becoming a different language to explore identity, desire and experiences that often exist outside the mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the founder of Bodhisattava Gallery, Thailand’s first gallery dedicated to Southeast Asian LGBTQ+ artists, Oat has spent years creating space for voices that are often overlooked. His move into filmmaking feels less like a new direction and more like a natural extension of the same instinct: questioning whose stories are preserved, how they are seen and who gets to tell them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some artists choose a medium. Others simply follow wherever the story needs to go. Film has become another way for Oat to build worlds, challenge familiar images and look beyond aesthetics into the ideas and histories behind them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We met Oat at Sala Saneha to talk about his journey into filmmaking and what lies beyond each frame: the memories, questions and perspectives that continue to shape his work.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Courtesy of Koktail Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Medium<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You may first encounter Oat at a gallery opening, on your social media feed or in a university classroom teaching communication design and art. Whatever the setting, his creative work often explores identity, history and queer experiences. But before filmmaking became part of his practice, he had always seen himself as a storyteller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I’ve always known I’m a storyteller. I started as a writer, contributing to magazines. Writing was something I loved but I also illustrated many of my columns, so my words and images were always in conversation with each other.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The turning point came in 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic when Oat joined an artist residency at the Patpong Museum. Living inside the museum, he interviewed people connected to the neighbourhood, driven by his fascination with history and personal stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“The stories were incredible. I realised that photographs or writing alone weren’t enough. I wanted a medium that could hold everything.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That experience led to his first film, Patpong Narcissus <\/em>(2023), a tribute to James Bidgood’s 1971 film Pink Narcissus<\/em>. With no formal filmmaking background, Oat found himself shooting inside Patpong while the district was closed during the pandemic, giving him rare access to locations that would normally be impossible to film. He credits Michael Messner, founder of the Patpong Museum, for making the project possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Oat Montien (@oat_montien)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n