Big changes in small places. This is Uncle Tui in his home town of Chiang Khong in Chiang Rai province, Northern Thailand. Things are changing in this peaceful village. But Uncle Tui's conservation group 'Love Chiang Khong' works with the people for a better future.

My name is Sunsanee. I'm Australian but my my mother is Thai. I'm a PhD student in my final year of what has been a lengthy, challenging but interesting endeavour. I come from a background in science (astrophysics- one of the less 'people' oriented disciplines) but made a switch to humanities after a Masters in Asia-Pacific studies really opened my eyes to the interesting people and places that I wanted to understand more about.

A field trip to the Lao-Thai-Myanmar borderlands inspired me to quit my job and accept a PhD at Melbourne University where my topic "Crossroads at the periphery: Chinese influence in the Mekong region" looks at the complex interactions between different people living in a rapidly changing region, as they try to negotiate, subvert and resist the changes being driven by transnational organisations and state governments. From 2013 to early 2014 I lived and studied in Northern Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and China.

I love documentary films. I want to tell stories about people living in all kinds of circumstances around the world - like Tui's story, there are people out there doing incredible things even if their lives seem ordinary at first glance. I always wanted to make a film about my research, but the process from conception to implementation has been challenging and fraught with distractions (thesis). This is my first film. I want to travel. I want to be a documentary filmmaker. Columbia would be an amazing first step in this direction.