To scholars of Thai film history, director Ratana Pestonji (1908-1970) needs little introduction. Born on 22 May 1908 at Rongmeung Road, Bangkok, Thailand, Ratana was of South Asian origin and spent time studying in both India and the UK. Exhibiting a strong interest and talent for photography and filmmaking from an early age, Ratana graduated from the UK in 1932 with a degree in mechanical engineering and continued to enter and win amateur photography competitions throughout his studies. Returning to Thailand in the late 1930s, Ratana then further explored his interest in filmmaking by taking photographs and recording short film reels in Thailand during World War II, later collecting an award for his short film Tang (Pestonji, 1937) at a film festival in Glasgow, resulting in a now-infamous picture of him receiving the prize from Alfred Hitchcock in 1937. History then records his ‘big break’ as cinematographer for director Prince Bhanu Yugala, a keen pre-World War II filmmaker who founded the production company Thai Film Company. Ratana eventually branched out alone, founding the Far East Film Company Ltd around early 1953 and making a small number of highly lauded films throughout the 1950s and 1960s before his death in 1970.