The Khmer Empire - officially 'The Angkor Empire' was a powerful 13th century Hindu-Buddhist state in Southeast Asia. Using sophisticated technologies to see inside Khmer temples, combined with statues, casts, and documents discovered by 19th century explorers, scientists today discover how they operated, the meaning of their architecture, and how the capital become the largest city in the world.
John Baumhackl recalls the early days of the Vietnam War when more and more troops were being sent into combat every month. In 1968, John's number came up and he was drafted into the conflict. Buying a camera at his company store before shipping off, he captured many battles while in a helicopter. John was near the front lines when President Nixon made the controversial decision to push into Cambodia. In John's view, this saved American lives.
Short documentary on the Cambodian Handicraft Association which trains and supports women who have been affected by polio, landmine injuries, deafness or mental trauma.
Exil is a visionary narration of the exile of Cambodians during the Red Khmer regime, during which the country was renamed Democratic Kampuchea.
Les Pépites
Narratives of Modern Genocide challenges the audience to experience first-person accounts of survivors of genocide. Sichan Siv and Gilbert Tuhabonye share how they escaped the killing fields of Cambodia, and the massacre of school children in Burundi. Mixing haunting animation, and expert context the film confronts our notion that the holocaust was the last genocide.
Part travelogue and part sensitive investigation, the movie tells the universal story of people who refuse to be erased, reminding us that defending the Earth means defending life.
Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
Through daily routines in a rural village, an indigenous elder couple recall their strange marriage to their grand-daughter, and sometimes to each other, in the changing rhythm of nature around them.
CAMBODIA/KAMPUCHEA draws on unique propaganda film and archival material from the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam and other sources. This is set against the grim realities of the Kampuchean tragedy. As a continuing theme, the film features exclusive interviews with Prince Sihanouk, who offers explanations for and insights into the role he has played in the fate of his luckless country. This definitive film study delves to the roots of the conflict, making sense of the madness, the politics and contradictions. It captures the epic spirit and passions of a people when a whole world is overturned.
Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy builds a multi-million dollar empire by baking America's favourite pastry: the doughnut.
In 1972, during Cambodia's civil war, a sandstone statue was torn from the age-old Koh Ker temple. Measuring 1.58m high and weighing 110 kilos, it depicts a prince and belongs to a collection that retraces the epic of the Mahabharata. The sculpture was first sold at auction in London in 1975, via a strange British art dealer based in Bangkok, and reappeared in 2011 at Sotheby's in New York with a bid of $2.5 million. A sale that was ultimately prohibited. In the meantime, experts from the École française d'Extrême-Orient, an American lawyer commissioned by Phnom Penh and UNESCO mobilized the Heritage Police across the Atlantic to denounce the theft of a cultural asset. In 2013, the work was returned to Cambodia. A captivating investigation into the international mafia of antiquities trafficking.
Angkor et Les Mystères de L'Empire Khmer
Between 1975 and 1979, at least 250,000 Cambodian women were forced into marriages by the Khmer Rouge. Sochan was one of them. At the age of 16, she was forced to marry a soldier who raped her. After 30 years of silence, Sochan decided to bring her case to the international tribunal set up to try former Khmer Rouge leaders.
After having fled Pol Pot, Rithy Panh, a 15 year old Cambodian finds refuge at the Mairut camp in Thailand, in 1979. Ten years later, now a filmmaker, he returns to the camps to film the daily life of this threatened people. The peoples he meets, eaten away by inactivity, insecutity and the fear of being forgotten, have been waiting for a possible return to Cambodia.
This short documentary chronicles the culture and arts of Cambodian Americans and the Lowell, MA community through the eyes of Sokhary Chau, the first Cambodian American Mayor in the United States. Chau immigrated to the U.S. at seven years old to escape the Khmer Rouge genocide. Through this unique story that showcases the best of Lowell—immigrant success, assimilation, history, and the development of the arts—we see a man born into a war-torn country who comes to America to be a first-in-the-nation leader.
Bomb Hunters is an engrossing examination of the micro-economy that has emerged in Cambodia from untrained civilians harvesting unexploded bombs as scrap metal. The film explores the long-term consequences of war and genocide in an attempt to understand the social, cultural, and historical context and experiences of rural villagers who seek out and dismantle UXO (unexploded ordnance) for profit. Part of a global economy, these individuals clear UXO from their land in order to protect their families from harm and to earn enough money to survive. Bomb Hunters is an eye-opening account investigating the on-going residual, persistent effects of war experienced by post-conflict nations around the globe, and the complex realities of achieving "peace".
Documentary of the S-21 genocide prison in Phnom Penh with interviews of prisoners and guards. On the search for reasons why this could have happened.
A powerful feature documentary about child sexploitation, an epidemic happening in every country around the world. Filmed over a four year period, REDLIGHT focuses on the personal stories of young Cambodian victims and two remarkable advocates for change: grass-roots activist Somaly Mam and politician Mu Sochua. Using gritty footage smuggled out of brothels and harrowing testimonials, REDLIGHT follows the plight of several current and former child sex slaves. Some are trying to regain entry into Cambodian society to find some semblance of normality after their horrific experiences. Other stories highlight the plight of victims who are attempting to bring the perpetrators to justice. Their torturous yet ultimately heroic battles to find witnesses and take brothel owners to court are dramatically brought to life in this topical and moving feature documentary.
On April 17, 1975, the face of Cambodia would forever be changed. As Khmer Rouge soldiers marched into the capital city of Phnom Penh, the unsuspecting people of Cambodia had little idea they would be forced into a living nightmare that would last nearly four years. Rain Falls From Earth is a story of courage, a story of survival and a story of eventual triumph over the Communist regime that was responsible for the deaths of over two million people. The voices of many Cambodians are heard as they convey their thoughts, ideas and emotions - the very things they were forced to abandon in the "killing fields" of Cambodia. Their stories are an eyewitness account to genocide.