I was kind of a scaredy cat. As a child, I was very well-behaved and really obeyed my elders. I still don’t know how to ride a bicycle because my mom was afraid I would get hurt.

I felt like a girl ever since I was little. I liked wearing my mom’s clothes, liked her heels and playing with dolls. I even had a crush on a tomboy in sixth grade. She looked like she could protect me.

Growing up in an all-boys middle school made me realize what I am. Guys would call me e-tud [faggot bitch]. It was OK, though. I still managed to get good grades.

I went to a casting for Exact, a TV production company, and got a part in the lakorn Chai Mai Jing Ying Tae [Fake Man, Real Woman] which aired more than ten years ago.

I felt unhappy with my life. I was an English teacher at the time. I couldn’t do the things that I loved. So I borrowed my uncle’s video camera to shoot a short movie, Wan, and sent it to the Thai Short Film competition in 2001. I knew nothing about movie making but it won an honorable mention and I started making a lot more films both here and abroad.

In international competitions, they won’t care if you’re transgender or not. They only care about the ideas. This is how I want to be judged.

People tend to only look at the surface, in Thailand. It’s why I’m having these problems with Insects in the Backyard. It isn’t accepted here because Thai people are so conformed to what they know and what they’re supposed to see.

I didn’t think the feedback would result in the movie being banned. I thought the ratings system would help ensure it got screened. I mean, I was expecting the 20-years-plus rating.

Thai society has always been censored to the point that everyone is so used to it. Thais have been taught to be within the frame, stay within their cage, ever since they were born.

More people are starting to wonder what it’s like to not stay in the boundaries. To find their way across the border. This is why there’s a conflict between different types of people.

Thai people like to think certain things are completely wrong. That certain types of people are completely wrong, such as gays, transexuals and prostitutes.

I want people to think of these “wrong” people as human beings. If you were one of them, would you not be human?

A penis is only a body part used for urinating and reproducing. It does not come with duties. The owner of that body part has the right to choose what they want to do and don’t want to do.

I think the set duties of men and women largely contribute to a lot of world crises, like war and power struggles, because some people want to maintain their power to control society.

I feel nothing when people call me, “that katoey [transgender] director.” Gender is just a uniform that society tags us with at birth. If had to define myself I would say, I am human.

It’s really not true that Thai society accepts trans men and women. Society categorizes us as a third gender, something on the outside. They can only be comedians or colorful characters in a movie while, in real life, they can’t be a mother or father.

I am living my dream where I can make movies. I can speak what I want to say.

I don’t believe that humans can have only one love for their entire life. Do we live with someone because of responsibility or love? I feel that loving someone for the rest of your life is chaining you to suffering.

My identity won’t change if I do a big studio movie, like Hak Na Sarakham. I will do the movie that both the studio and I want. I won’t take their money and just what do I want, like some directors. That’s disgusting. I can do what I like in my self-funded movies.

Isaan movies are all about poverty or drought but this one is all about love.

Every movie has the right to be shown, even porn movies. We have to make a place for them. Movies are like people. You need to get close to really know them. Don’t expect them to be just there to entertain you.

Censorship laws are made by ignorant people who don’t know movies. Thai movies won’t go anywhere if the people in charge are all products of a Thai education system that hasn’t taught them how to think and how to critique what they’re told.

I am still optimistic that Insects in the Backyard will have its day to shine and will eventually be shown.