David Egan, center, joins in a standing ovation for directors Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin after watching their documentary “Enemies of the People” at the Missouri Theatre Saturday afternoon. Sambath’s father died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s, and the film explores Sambath’s search for truth about the regime’s killings. (Photo by Parker Eshelman)
Sambath (Photo: Parker Eshelman)Director’s story touches crowd.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
By Jonathon Braden
Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri, USA)
Toward the end of “Enemies of the People,” the documentary screeches to a halt when the rich soundtrack recedes, the color drains from the frames and stark black-and-white images of rotting bodies and skeletons flash across the screen.
During yesterday’s midday showing of the film at the True/False Film Fest’s Missouri Theatre venue, the crowd of more than 900 fell silent as the images from the killing fields of Cambodia screamed out on the big screen.
The loss of his family in the Khmer Rouge regime’s killing fields was what led co-director Thet Sambath on the journey that culminated in “Enemies.” He began the project more than a decade ago with the goal of finding out the truth about the Khmer Rouge’s killing of an estimated 2 million Cambodians — his father and brother included.
Sambath’s co-director Rob Lemkin said he and Sambath chose to display the graphic images toward the end to really drive home the scale of the atrocities.
“This is what these people actually did,” Lemkin told the audience after the film when True/False co-founder David Wilson asked about the sequence.
Sambath, a Cambodian newspaper journalist, had been videotaping interviews with former Khmer Rouge deputies involved in killings and with Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot’s deputy during the reign of terror, when he met Lemkin in 2006.
Lemkin went to Cambodia to document the trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, including Chea, and the two struck a deal to complete “Enemies” together.
The film was this year’s True Life Fund selection at the seventh annual True/False Film Fest.
The honor has been given the past four years to “demonstrate that documentaries create change.” A monetary award is given to help compensate the filmmakers.
Johanna Oldham, the True Life Fund coordinator, estimated that $4,000 to $5,000 had been raised. The Crossing church in Columbia sponsors the fund.
“He spent so much of his own personal time and money and effort,” Oldham said of Sambath, who through his interviews got Chea to admit culpability on film.
Sambath also sacrificed time with his young family, and that storyline also played a prominent role in the film.
Most of the picture, however, documents Sambath’s efforts to reach former murderers and get them to explain how and why they killed their countrymen.
Sambath also talked to villagers who live near the killing fields, where plants and trees now grow. One woman in the film said she bathed in the nearby water.
“I know there are bodies in there,” she said, “that’s why I don’t dare to drink.”
When the film ended, the crowd rose to give a standing ovation to Lemkin and Sambath.
“I just think it was really important for people to see that,” 49-year-old Columbia resident Monica McMurry said as tears slid down her face.
During yesterday’s midday showing of the film at the True/False Film Fest’s Missouri Theatre venue, the crowd of more than 900 fell silent as the images from the killing fields of Cambodia screamed out on the big screen.
The loss of his family in the Khmer Rouge regime’s killing fields was what led co-director Thet Sambath on the journey that culminated in “Enemies.” He began the project more than a decade ago with the goal of finding out the truth about the Khmer Rouge’s killing of an estimated 2 million Cambodians — his father and brother included.
Sambath’s co-director Rob Lemkin said he and Sambath chose to display the graphic images toward the end to really drive home the scale of the atrocities.
“This is what these people actually did,” Lemkin told the audience after the film when True/False co-founder David Wilson asked about the sequence.
Sambath, a Cambodian newspaper journalist, had been videotaping interviews with former Khmer Rouge deputies involved in killings and with Nuon Chea, who was Pol Pot’s deputy during the reign of terror, when he met Lemkin in 2006.
Lemkin went to Cambodia to document the trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, including Chea, and the two struck a deal to complete “Enemies” together.
The film was this year’s True Life Fund selection at the seventh annual True/False Film Fest.
The honor has been given the past four years to “demonstrate that documentaries create change.” A monetary award is given to help compensate the filmmakers.
Johanna Oldham, the True Life Fund coordinator, estimated that $4,000 to $5,000 had been raised. The Crossing church in Columbia sponsors the fund.
“He spent so much of his own personal time and money and effort,” Oldham said of Sambath, who through his interviews got Chea to admit culpability on film.
Sambath also sacrificed time with his young family, and that storyline also played a prominent role in the film.
Most of the picture, however, documents Sambath’s efforts to reach former murderers and get them to explain how and why they killed their countrymen.
Sambath also talked to villagers who live near the killing fields, where plants and trees now grow. One woman in the film said she bathed in the nearby water.
“I know there are bodies in there,” she said, “that’s why I don’t dare to drink.”
When the film ended, the crowd rose to give a standing ovation to Lemkin and Sambath.
“I just think it was really important for people to see that,” 49-year-old Columbia resident Monica McMurry said as tears slid down her face.
11 comments:
shit truth while you focus only on a surface, a detail, a visible form of thing and not its substance or source of thing
politically correct stuff profit only by the winners, the killers and not the voiceless or the victims
it just making more shame to the country when we'r khmer are trying to reconcile, why remeber the past horror. the truth is a fat paycheck it's their own goal, fuck u ah sombath.
Only Pouk Ah Khmer Krahorm afraid of the truth. Bravo to Sambath, good work man.
Thank you Sambath.
You are speaking for many who seek for the same truth.
Thanks for highlighting this searches of the many.
4:53
This is a part of Khmer history that must never be forgotten!
There is no shame in remembering history, this movie serves as a tribute for all those who died under the Khmer Rouge Reign. When you do not remember history, you are bound to repeat it again! When any Jews not want the holocaust to be remembered, I think not!
I applaud Thet Sambath for all the years of sacrifice that he made to make this production possible.
What you are stating is absurd and just plain stupid. You're mentality is a disgrace and only acts as a detriment to the growth and healing of Cambodia!
My family suffered as with the millions of Khmer people, losing all or some members of their family in the Killing Field. I will always remember and I will work hard to educate future generations so that they will know!
Mr Sambath, Is it possible to share your film to the world?
spectacle, just a spectacle, a cinema for some curious
4:53 am is a criminal. He deosn't want to be known, because it will show his ugly face to the world. Come out ugly and let everyone sees you. To clean one self out is to let go of all the uglyness and dirty past and the time is now!
sambath just becareful!you might be the same story like the actor who play in the movie of the killing field.never ever trust in anybody in cambodia,those people is a dirty hand no matter in the past,the present and in the future.in cambodia is always political`s motivade.
Congratulation brother, at least you make money with Nuon Chea, this killer doesn't deserve anything, he's just an idiot who killed 2 millions of his own blood and that's all. What we remember is Nuon Chea the Khmers killer.
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