‘Enemies of the People’ Sought Greater Story of Khmer Rouge, Filmmaker Says

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MczQQeyw9A

A candid look at Khmer Rouge brutality has been nominated for three Emmy awards, but not without some obstacles.

27 July 2012
Nash Jenkins, VOA Khmer

"The story [of the Khmer Rouge], as far as I was concerned, had not really been told." - Rob Lemkin, filmmaker

WASHINGTON, DC - “Enemies of the People,” a Khmer Rouge documentary that features exclusive interviews with Pol Pot’s lieutenant, Nuon Chea, has been nominated for three Emmy Awards, one of the highest accolades in American television journalism and documentary reporting.

The film has gained international notoriety for its presentation of frank and personal conversations with leaders of the regime, drawing both acclaim from critics and condemnation from Cambodian officials, for whom the topic of the genocide remains sensitive.

“We eliminated the previous system,” Nuon Chea tells journalist Theth Sambath, who spent years interviewing the reclusive Khmer Rouge ideologue. “Nothing bad remained. We introduced new progressive policies.”

Asked to justify the revolution whose course of action resulted in the systematic murder of a quarter of the Cambodian population from 1975 to 1979, Nuon Chea says: “We needed to clean up society completely.”

‘Enemies of the People’ Nominated for Three Emmys

Nuon Chea (left), "Brother Number Two" of the Khmer Rouge regime, sits with documentary filmmaker Thet Sambath during an interview.

A documentary film that sheds personal light on Khmer Rouge leaders has received nods for recognition at the 2012 News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

18 July 2012

Nash Jenkins, VOA Khmer

“Enemies of the People,” a Khmer Rouge documentary with exclusive interviews with Pol Pot’s lieutenant, Nuon Chea, has been nominated for three Emmy Awards, one of the highest accolades in American television journalism and documentary reporting.

Co-produced by Cambodian journalist Thet Sambath and British filmmaker Rob Lemkin, the film premiered at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam in 2009 and made it onto the docket for an acclaimed documentary series by the Public Broadcasting Service, P.O.V. last June, after critical acclaim at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and success at the box office the following summer.

The film addresses the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime and its residue among the Cambodian people, who, four decades later, are left facing unanswered questions. The story is also tells of the personal journey undertaken by Thet Sambath, who lost his father and older brother to regime brutality as a child and seeks through the film to understand why.

Journalist seeking truth about Khmer Rouge 'fears for his life'

Thet Sambath's first documentary about the Khmer Rouge, Enemies of the People, was shortlisted for an Academy Award

Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath says he has been followed, harassed and chased during his research

Sunday 25 March 2012

Kate Hodal in Phnom Penh

guardian.co.uk

One of Cambodia's leading journalists and foremost researchers on the Khmer Rouge has told the Guardian he fears for his life after a two-year harassment campaign by state security forces he claims are attempting to prevent him from completing his latest film about the Killing Fields.

Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath – whose 2010 documentary about the Khmer Rouge, Enemies of the People, was shortlisted for an Oscar – claims that uniformed soldiers and plainclothes "spies" working for the Cambodian government have repeatedly followed, harassed and chased him by car and motorbike, with the intention of "making [him] disappear".

"They are concerned I will reveal their true crime [through the new film] and … [that] their reputation will be destroyed," Sambath said. "I know too much about what really happened. They want me dead."

Enemies of the People Now Available on 2-disc DVD with 6-hours of Extra Footage

Dear Readers,

The documentary "Enemies of the People" is available on DVD today. The official 2-disc DVD contains over 6 extra footage. We encourage you to obtain the DVD at the following website directly to help Mr. Thet Sambath and the producer:

http://enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com

Thank you!

Screening of "Facing Genocide" at Bophana Centre on 25 February 2012

ចុចត្រង់នេះ ដើម្បីអានពត៌មានលំអិតជាភាសារខ្មែរ កម្មវិធីភាពយន្ត ប្រចាំខែកុម្ភៈ

Cliquez ici pour plus de détails sur le programme du ciné-samedi de février

Click here for more details about the Cine Saturday program of February

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http://www.box.com/s/qb8oat7n2k35p0k7xo3u

Film’s use at trial questioned

Thursday, 15 December 2011
Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post

Nuon Chea was speaking “truthfully” during a series of interviews with Post journalist Thet Sambath, the 85-year-old testified at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, but claimed that he believed the interviews would be turned into an archive for his family.

International deputy prosecutor Dale Lysak questioned former Khmer Rouge Brother Number Two Nuon Chea about the interviews, which were used for Thet Sambath’s award-winning documentary Enemies of the People and were also the basis of the book Behind the Killing Fields – co-written by Thet Sambath and Gina Chon.

The prosecution argued that in parts of the interviews, Nuon Chea discusses details of the pre-1975 period that are relevant to the first trial of Case 002, which focuses on the forced movement of the population in the early months of Khmer Rouge rule.

New book launching and book signing sessions in the Pacific Northwest

Greeting, folks.

There shall be a book launching and signing for "Facing the Khmer Rouge" Nov. 2011 publication of the prestigious Rutgers University Press. There will be four opportunities to meet, greet, speak, and listen to Ronnie Yimsut in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington) toward the last week of December 2011. Dec. 28th Eugene, Oregon. Dec. 29th Portland, Oregon. December 30th Kirkland, Washington. And finally, Dec. 31st at CACO/GLEF huge annual New Year gala, the Khmer Heritage Night in Portland, Oregon. Mark your calendar! Pleas plan on joining us!

http://dreamworldtoday.blogspot.com/2011/03/facing-khmer-rouge-cambodian-journey.html

--
* * *
Ronnie Yimsut

*Author and Community Activist
*Founder and Chair, Bakong Technical College
*Senior Landscape Architect, USDA Forest Service, Technical Services Team

www.bakongtechcollege.org
http://dreamworldtoday.blogspot.com/

Re: Enemies of the People

As someone who has expressed an interest in the film ‘Enemies of the People’, I am writing to you to ask if you might willing to help me spread the word about the release of this important Cambodian film.

The film is the product of more than 10 years hard work by inspirational Cambodian journalist Thet Sambath. Sambath has been on a personal quest, because he lost his own family in Cambodia's Killing Fields. The film is his journey to discover not how but why they died. In doing so, he hears and understands for the first time the real story of his country’s tragedy. After years of visits and trust-building, Sambath finally persuades Brother Number Two, Nuon Chea, to admit in detail how he and Pol Pot decided to kill party members whom they considered ‘Enemies of the People’.

I hope you'll agree with the Wall Street Journal, which called the film 'One of the most important films about Cambodia ever made'. I have attached a flyer announcing the DVD release to this email, I would be very grateful if you would circulate the flyer to your network. If you are willing to help hand out flyers or put them on display somewhere prominent for people to pick up I am more than willing to post you printed flyers.

More Reporting Needed on Khmer Rouge: Journalist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrbeYjeqrcg

Thet Sambath was presented the Knight International Journalism award in Washington Tuesday. (Photo: VOA Khmer)

Thursday, 03 November 2011
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

“Because of them, we have an essential understanding of the tragedies faced by citizens in Mexico and Cambodia.”

Cambodian journalist Thet Sambath, whose work reporting on the Khmer Rouge over a decade was made into an award-winning documentary, was presented the Knight International Journalism award in Washington Tuesday.

But he said more work needs to be done before the secrets of the Khmer Rouge perish with the aging members of the regime.

“This is an honor for me,” he told VOA Khmer at the awards ceremony in Washington. He also acknowledged two other award-winners, Rocio Idalia Gallegos Rodriguez and Sandra Rodriguez Nieto, investigative journalists from Mexico who have reported on drug cartels.

‘Enemies’ Gathers Audience at Maryland Temple

Thet Sambath, filmmaker of the 'Enemies of the People', talking to former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea. (Photo: Courtesy of Thet Sambath)

Thursday, 03 November 2011
Pin Sisovann, VOA Khmer | Maryland

“In ‘Enemies of the People,’ I couldn’t figure out who was really behind the killing.”

“Enemies of the People,” an award-winning documentary that follows one journalist’s search for answers about the Khmer Rouge, screened at a pagoda in Maryland this weekend, prompting many questions from the audience, some of them yet unanswered.

The film follows journalist Thet Sambath as he interviews former low-level cadre and the regime’s chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, who is now facing atrocity crimes charges at the UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh.

The film screened at the Buddhikarama pagoda in Silver Spring, Md., on Sunday.

In one of the film’s most powerful scenes, a former soldier re-enacts what it was like to cut the throat of a victim. The knife he uses on a reluctant demonstration partner is plastic, but the scene is chillingly real.

Holocaust Museum to screen documentary on Cambodian genocide

October 28, 2011
By Cody Tucker
Ultimate West U (Rice University, USA)

The Holocaust Museum Houston will present a free screening of the documentary "Enemies of the People" on Thursday, Nov. 3.

The award-winning documentary discusses the 1970s genocide in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, the then ruling party in the country. In the film, Thet Sambath, an investigative journalist, goes on a quest to discover not how but why his family died, and in doing so begins to understand the real story of the country's tragedy.

The film will be screened at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum's Albert and Ethel Herzstein Theater, in the Morgan Family Center at 5401 Caroline St.

Seating is limited and advance registration is required.

To RSVP, visit www.hmh.org/RegisterEvent.aspx.

Enemy of the People - The entire documentary

Watch the full episode. See more POV.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2050822129

Documentary lays bare the banality of Khmer Rouge evil

“POV: Enemies of the People.” 11 p.m. -12:30 a.m. Tuesday. WPBT-PBS 2.

By Glenn Garvin
ggarvin@MiamiHerald.com
Miami Herald (Florida, USA)

Writing about Adolf Eichmann, the bureaucrat-in-chief of Nazi genocide, the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil.” Her point was that humanity’s most monstrous crimes have been carried out not by fanatics or sociopaths but by ordinary people who accepted the ideology of their government and regarded the slaughter of their victims as just another job.

I don’t know if I fully comprehended Arendt’s theory until I watched Enemies of the People, a documentary on Cambodia’s murderous Khmer Rouge government that airs Tuesday as part of the PBS documentary series POV. It is a singular experience to listen as former Khmer Rouge executioners reminisce about sucking on gall bladders torn from the bodies of their victims in order to cool off from all that clubbing and stabbing and shooting out in the jungle.

Enemies of the People speaks softly but carries a big stick. It does not use a lot of facts and figures to describe the reign of communist terror by the Khmer Rouge, who killed millions of their countrymen — perhaps a third of Cambodia’s 7.5 million population — in just four years. Nor is there much use of gory atrocity footage, the vast mounds of skulls and bones the Khmer Rouge left behind when they were finally driven from power in 1979.

Enemies of the People: a film that serves justice on genocide perpetrators

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiO-kcYlgLs&feature=player_embedded

Friday, July 01, 2011
By Martin Barillas
Spero News

Cambodian journalist and genocide survivor, Thet Sambath, has won the 2011 Knight International Journalism Award for uncovering the secrets the Marxist genocide during the brutal Pol Pot regime of the 1970s. His film Enemies of the People will be used as evidence at the trial of the Khmer Rouge leaders which began in Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh, on June 27.

Thet Sambath spent a decade tracking down former Khmer Rouge officials and and eliciting unprecedented confessions and is a senior reporter with the English-language daily Phnom Penh Post. He interviewed Khmer Rouge cadres who participated in the orchestrated murder of hundreds of thousands of fellow Cambodians during the Marxist regime. Among the high officials he interviewed is Pol Pot’s deputy Nuon Chea (aka Brother Number 2).

His film Enemies of the People also won a Special Jury Prize for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival of 2010 and is to air on PBS television in July. The Knight Award is given annually by the Washington DC-based International Center for Journalists in recognition of media professionals who have taken bold steps to keep citizens informed despite great obstacles. A statement by ICFJ read, “[Sambath’s film] is arguably the most important documentary about the Khmer Rouge. Within Cambodia its impact was close to home and personal. It will be used as evidence in the trial of Nuon Chea this year, and it brought Cambodians some understanding of that tragic time in their history.”

Thet Sambath to Receive Prestigious Journalism Award

Reporters Investigating Drug Lords in Mexico and Pol Pot Atrocities in Cambodia to Receive Prestigious Journalism Award

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two Mexican reporters who have investigated violent drug cartels and a Cambodian journalist who uncovered secrets of the Pol Pot regime will receive the 2011 Knight International Journalism Awards, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) announced.

Rocio Idalia Gallegos Rodriguez and Sandra Rodriguez Nieto are fearless investigative reporters in what may be the most dangerous city in the world. Despite tremendous risks, they have probed the drug wars that are wreaking havoc in Ciudad Juarez and other places along the U.S.-Mexican border.

"While others are silenced by threats and attacks, these women have stood up to the most feared and ruthless cartels imaginable to inform citizens and improve their community," said John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Jose Zamora, who made the announcement at the Newseum.

Cambodian journalist Thet Sambath took a decade to produce arguably the most important documentary about the Khmer Rouge. As a child, he lost his parents and his brother, who were killed by the brutal Pol Pot regime. He made it his mission to find out why this genocide took place. He tracked down and won the confidence of the No. 2 man in the Khmer Rouge, Nuon Chea, who granted Sambath scores of interviews.

Premiere Screening of "Red Wedding " on 02 June 2011 at Chenla Theater

Premiere of FACING GENOCIDE in Cambodia at Meta House this Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Khieu Samphan in Facing Genocide

What:

“FACING GENOCIDE”

NEW FILM ABOUT KR LEADER KHIEU SAMPHAN

When:

WED, 18/05 at 7PM

Where:

META HOUSE PHNOM PENH

IS THE GERMAN CAMBODIAN CULTURAL CENTER.

Address: #37, St. Sothearos Blvd, Phnom Pehn. Cambodia

Tel: (+855)10 312 333

Email: mesterharm@gmx.net

Synopsis:

Khieu Samphan was one of the closest collaborators of Pol Pot and the one the fronted the KR movement. He has succeeded in living his life without being held accountable for the Khmer Rouge crimes, until his arrest in 2007. Swedish filmmakers D. Aronowitsch & S. Lindberg have followed him two years before his arrest. FACING GENOCIDE (94 mins, 2010) is a search into the personality of Khieu Samphan. The film gives insight into his mindset and his close relation to Pol Pot. It is a unique story about an ex-leader, the time before his arrest and before he is put on trial. Film is presented by lawyer/book author Theary Seng, one of the film’s protagonists.

Documentary gives Khmer Rouge convict his say at Cannes

Rithy Panh at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival (AFP/File, Martin Bureau)

Monday, May 16, 2011
AFP

CANNES, France — Duch, who oversaw the deaths of 15,000 people as a Khmer Rouge prison chief in the 1970s, portrayed himself Sunday as a victim of circumstances in a documentary screened at Cannes.

Cambodian director Rithy Panh filmed Duch a few weeks before the commander of Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, became the first Khmer Rouge cadre to be tried by a UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh.

Panh apologised Sunday for turning down interviews about "Duch: Master of the Forges of Hell", saying a decision was imminent on Duch's appeal of a 30-year jail sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"I don't have the right to set out my opinions" while the appeal process is under way, said the film-maker, who was a child when his family perished under the Khmer Rouge.

Premiere of FACING GENOCIDE in Cambodia at Meta House this Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Khieu Samphan in Facing Genocide

What:

“FACING GENOCIDE”

NEW FILM ABOUT KR LEADER KHIEU SAMPHAN

When:

WED, 18/05 at 7PM

Where:

META HOUSE PHNOM PENH

IS THE GERMAN CAMBODIAN CULTURAL CENTER.

Address: #37, St. Sothearos Blvd, Phnom Pehn. Cambodia

Tel: (+855)10 312 333

Email: mesterharm@gmx.net

Synopsis:

Khieu Samphan was one of the closest collaborators of Pol Pot and the one the fronted the KR movement. He has succeeded in living his life without being held accountable for the Khmer Rouge crimes, until his arrest in 2007. Swedish filmmakers D. Aronowitsch & S. Lindberg have followed him two years before his arrest. FACING GENOCIDE (94 mins, 2010) is a search into the personality of Khieu Samphan. The film gives insight into his mindset and his close relation to Pol Pot. It is a unique story about an ex-leader, the time before his arrest and before he is put on trial. Film is presented by lawyer/book author Theary Seng, one of the film’s protagonists.

Watch 2 films for the price of 1 in Long Beach

April 14: Long Beach, California

The first of two chances to see Who Killed Chea Vichea? in Long Beach, home of the largest Cambodian community in the United States, is at the historic Art Theatre of Long Beach.

A three-film series starts on Wednesday April 13 with the world premiere of Daron Ker's Rice Field of Dreams (see facebook for info).

On Thursday it continues with the Long Beach premiere of Who Killed Chea Vichea? and a return engagement of the award-winning Enemies of the People:

Thursday, April 14

7:00pm: Who Killed Chea Vichea?

Q&A with producer Rich Garella

9:00pm: Enemies of the People

Art Theatre of Long Beach

2025 East 4th Street (map)

Tickets are available at the box office, online, and at the door. This is a double feature -- one ticket is good for both films!