2017 Special World Premiere
The worldwide premiere of the documentary “Who Killed Jim Thompson The Thai Silk King,” with the filmmakers attending, was staged at Lane Community College to the benefit of students, media arts faculty and the community, Friday, October 20, 2017. Producer Barry Broman and Paris based Director Neil Hollander also headlined an LCC Media arts Visiting Artist Series Talk prior to the screening of their film that evening.
Broman and Hollander present their solution to “Who Killed Jim Thompson The Thai Silk King” in this engaging documentary. It was a mystery that had remained unsolved for 50 years. Research into the case on their part was meticulous and supported by diverse resources. Jim Thompson was a spy﹣an OSS agent highly regarded in the clandestine services for his spycraft. He became known worldwide to motion picture costume designers, home decorators and high fashion manufacturers for his Thai Silk Company. But Thompson’s frequent and lavish dinner parties attended by celebrities and world leaders at his home in Thailand made him famous and newsworthy.
After dinner for four at a mountain resort one evening in 1967 he disappeared without a trace when he stepped out for a walk. The authorities with support from students numbering in the hundreds searched for clues. They found nothing.
Director Neil Hollander is famous for his emersion filmmaking. Going to the front lines under fire in war zones and riding the rails across America to tell the story of hobo camps, missions and dumpster diving are common assets of his filmmaking. Orson Welles so liked his adventuresome spirit that he narrated Hollander’s film “The Last Sailors: The Final Days of Working Sail.”
LCC student Jason Dallas described his first impression of Hollander as seeing in him “…a swaggering young man with a James Dean style of rebelliousness in his nature.”
The EIFF is grateful for the support provided by Lane Community College, LCC Media Arts, the City of Eugene Airport, Imagination International Incorporated, Direct Travel, and UplinkSpyder for making this premiere possible. The Associated Press published the Jim Thompson story following its premiere at LCC. Media outlets around the world numbering in the hundreds including the BBC, The Washington Post, The Bangkok Times. The Australian, The Taipei Times and many American broadcasters carried the story.
New film claims to have solved Jim Thompson Mystery
By Grant Peck
October 21, 2017
BANGKOK (AP)﹣A new documentary is set to stir fresh debate over one of Asia’s most enduring mysteries: What happened to Jim Thompson, Thailand’s legendary silk king.
The former American intelligence officer turned textile tycoon went for a walk in the Malaysian jungle 50 years ago an never returned. Despite a massive search, no trace of Thompson was ever found. One of the most prominent Westerners in Asia had simply vanished.
