Sophoin on film

Following on from the YouTube video below, here's another one, filmed on the same night as the Meta House screening of The Red Sense. This time it's my very good friend Sophoin, giving her own thoughts on the film, in response to questions by yours truly. I only found these videos today, hence the delay in passing them on. Enjoy.

YouTube expose

A few months ago now, Meta House screened the movie by Tim Pek, The Red Sense, for the first time in Phnom Penh. The film's lead actor Rithy Dourng came over for the screening and in this YouTube video that I've just seen for the first time, Rithy answers some questions and there's a very short guest appearance by none other than myself. Make sure you've eaten before watching my energetic hand-waving.

Where's the sense in that?

The Red Sense will be shown next Saturday in Dandenong, Australia

A few months ago I hosted the feature film The Red Sense at Meta House for its first showing in Phnom Penh. Director Tim Pek's drama-thriller will now get another showing, next Saturday in Dandenong in Australia, for a charity event that will also include live performances from Jimi Lundy, who sang 'Cambodia' in the film, and the movie's composer Robert John Sedky. The music by the way is excellent and stands alone as a soundtrack worth getting. Amongst the projects on Tim Pek's future agenda is a film about the greatest king in Khmer history, Jayavarman VII, and strange as it may seem, posters (see below) for the film appeared recently in Sorya Market and other cd shops around Phnom Penh. The film is still very much on the drawing board and in Tim's head so to publicise it with an old poster that he made up a couple of years ago, is a bit weird. Nobody seems to know where the posters came from. Nevertheless, there's talk of a 10-minute promo film being made early next year, so watch this space.

The 7th Jayavarman film is still on the drawing board

Fantastic effort all round

The early monsoon rains that flooded the streets of Phnom Penh this afternoon and continued into the evening put paid to a full house at the Meta House screening of The Red Sense tonight but the crowd was still a good one, and an appreciative one with enthusiastic applause at the end of the film's screening reflecting their enjoyment of the movie. One of the lead actors and screenwriter Rithy Dourng was on hand to introduce the film and to answer questions afterwards and inbetween, we watched a stylish movie, excellent camera work, nice locations, great soundtrack and a story to cater to both a Khmer and western audience. When you consider that the cast had never acted before and it was Tim Pek's debut as a feature film director, this was a fantastic effort by all concerned to handle a subject close to the heart of the Khmer community in Australia, where much of the film was shot, many of whom had fled to the country from Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed. A member of the audience felt the film should be shown on local television in Cambodia and I couldn't agree more, both to show what a capable filmmaker Tim Pek is and especially as the subject matter is a hot topic right now.

Rithy Dourng and the MC for the evening (it's me if you didn't know)

Rithy answers questions about the film following the screening

Man of many talents - Rithy Dourng

Rithy Dourng in character as Max in The Red Sense

On the eve of the first screening of The Red Sense in Phnom Penh, I interviewed one of the film's co-stars, Rithy Dourng, who is in the city for a few days and who will be at tomorrow night's film show at Meta House, next to Wat Botum on Street 264, which begins at 7pm. The Red Sense, directed by Tim Pek, is a story borne out of the legacy of the Khmer Rouge and is Pek's feature debut, shot on location in Australia and Cambodia. Pek, like Dourng, is Cambodian born but moved with his family to live in Australia in the 1980s.

Q. Can you fill me in on your background? A. I was born in Cambodia in 1983, I grew up in a village called Praek Kdam as one of only two, maybe three Chinese-Khmer families there. One of my most vivid memories from my childhood is when the village came under attack, which happened a few times, from alleged Khmer Rouge rebels. I remember the terror on the night, jumping out of my bed, running for cover under the house, seeing flashes of flame and feeling the force whenever a rocket-propelled grenade was fired. My mother sought protection from the land itself, putting some dirt on her head and praying for our safety.

Q. How did you and your family end up in Australia? A. My uncle facilitated the sponsorship of my family to relocate to Australia, so we went in 1994. I am now based in Victoria, in a suburb called Springvale.

Q. How did you get into acting and what have been your experiences to-date? A. Would you believe me if I told you I used to have stage fright? It's true, I would always try and blend in and not standout from the crowd too much, so appearing on stage or in front of a camera would be the last thing you'd catch me doing. This went on until I got to Year 11, then a theatre director visited my school to recruit students to perform in a series of theatre productions known as Theatre of the Oppressed and guess what? I signed up and have loved acting ever since.
Acting-wise, I have appeared in two feature films; the first is The Red Sense with Tim Pek directing. My character is one of the lead roles and is called Max. I had a speaking part as Heng in the Michael James Rowland-directed film Lucky Miles, which won the best film award at the Sydney Film Festival in 2007. I also had a lead role as Kevin in a short film called Chhay, which was directed by Michael Blogg. Other appearances have included music videos like Who?, Why Is Love Like This?, Butterfly and I Miss You, on stage with fashion shows and student ceremonies, I was on Cambodia's TVK television very recently as a presenter of Cambodian New Year in Australia and I've also done voice-overs for Radio Australia.

Q. How did you get involved in The Red Sense? A. By chance really. Tim Pek and I have always wanted to make a film together so it was just a matter of time before it happened. One November day, I'd just come out of my final exam when Tim texted me saying he was going to make a film. We then spent many nights staying up late to develop the story, create the characters and basically pull everything together. For The Red Sense, I played multiple roles, in front and behind the camera, as co-writer, screenwriter, actor, assistant director and subtitle editor.

Q. Any insights into your role as an actor in the film? A. As one of the creators of this project, acting in the film was, to some extent, easier than if I was to act in a film written by someone else. This is because I created the character, I wrote the dialogues, everything was there in one package in front of me. I didn't have to spend time studying the film, putting two and two together, trying to understand the character.

Q. What do you want the audience to take from the film? A. I just want to share one simple message with the audience; and that is to let bygones be bygones, it's not easy I know but more often than not, it's probably one of the best things to do in life.

Q. Will a Khmer audience view the film differently to a non-Khmer audience? A. The message in the film is universal, I mean anyone, anywhere can relate to loss, suffering and trauma, so in that sense I don't see how views would differ much between a Khmer and a non-Khmer audience. However, it is important to acknowledge that this film portrays a piece of Cambodia's history and the lives of Cambodians abroad, so in that sense, a Khmer audience can feel that the story belongs to them. For them its personal, they may not have been directly affected by it, but they will know that 'this is what my parents, grand-parents, aunties, and uncles went through.'

Q. How do you see this film contributing to the genre of Cambodian filmmakers? A. A film is a film regardless of its genre, what's important is how well it's made and that it works. Part of the aim of this film is to contribute the different aspects in the whole film-making process, the sound, the visual, the camera angle, the subtitles, etc. Bearing in mind that the film started roughly five years ago, we would have been the first Cambodian filmmakers to introduce these standard aspects to the Cambodian film industry.

Q. What does the future hold? A. Since working on The Red Sense, I appeared in an Australian film called Lucky Miles, as I mentioned before, which was well received and for the time being, I will continue with my acting and see where that takes me.
Link: Find out more about The Red Sense here.

Can you sense its nearly Friday?

I was asking myself, have I given the screening of Tim Pek's The Red Sense this Friday at Meta House enough coverage on my blog. Of course I have, but it doesn't do any harm to give it some more. The screening starts at 7pm, Rithy Dourng, one of the main actors, the screenwriter and director of photography will be there to answer any questions you have and having listened to the movie soundtrack a million times already and caught a few glimpses of the film, I'm very very keen to see the whole movie in all its glory. Roll on Friday 7pm.

Here are some screen grabs from the film with Sarina Luy and Rithy Dourng in shot

Red Sense Soundtrack

I had the pleasure of listening to the complete film soundtrack to The Red Sense for the very first time this evening. Now I'm an old-hand at listening to film soundtracks, having been a connoisseur of Ennio Morricone's work for a long while, and the 13-track CD for the Australian-made film based on the fall-out from the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia that will get its Phnom Penh premiere at Meta House this coming Friday at 7pm (24th April) fits snugly into the thriller genre. Composed by Robert John Sedky, it has suspenseful music oozing from every pour, high-pitched vocals and tinkling of the sort that Morricone himself made famous in his spaghetti westerns. By the third listen I was hooked, especially with the main theme songs, Svaeng Rouk Pop Tmei (aka Walk to Freedom), sung by Khmer pop starlet Meas Soksophea and Phoeurk Chantha, and Jimi Lundy's plaintive Cambodia, both of which add a welcome, albeit wistful, break from the tension and anxiety imposed by the preceding tracks. It's Sedky's debut film score, which he composed in 2007, and sets a high bar for his future work to reach. It's also another feather in the cap for filmmaker Tim Pek and his debut film, which was premiered in Melbourne, Australia in March 2008.
The CD tracks are: My Father; Brother's Remorse; The Lost Son; Law of Nature; Memories of All Mothers; River of Two; Farewell My Daughter; Through My Heart; Train of Thought; Svaeng Rouk Pop Tmei, aka Walk to Freedom; Cambodia; Showdown; Final Solution. Where can you buy it? At the moment the CD soundtrack is not available as I was given a pre-release copy. Keep your eyes open for release information.

Red Sense screening - a week away

A week tonight, on Friday 24 April at 7pm, The Red Sense will get its first screening in Phnom Penh at Meta House, near Wat Botum. Everyone is welcome. You can see the poster for the film here. The film is a Khmer story, played by Khmer actors with dialogue in the Khmer language, with English subtitles. It is set in Australia and Cambodia and deals with the legacy of the Khmer Rouge, so it's very timely, with the KR Tribunals currently taking place here in Phnom Penh. The film's Battambang-born director Tim Pek can't make the screening in person, so I asked him a few questions by email in order to provide more of an insight into his debut feature film and filmmaking in general.

Q. As the director, what do you want the audience to feel and take away, from your debut film? A. As the director, I really want to give the audience something to think about when they leave their seats and share my knowledge. Many directors do a short horror as their debut film as I guess it's a good way to explore their passion and show the audience an array of creativity. That crossed my mind also, but I wanted to extend myself and use my abilities, so I decided to go with a drama-thriller genre film, with a sense that everyone can relate to this universal theme.

Q. How do you think a Khmer audience will view the film differently from a non-Khmer audience, and has that been evident so far? A. So far we have had a lot of positive testimonials and feedback from Australian audiences, but I think it's going to be very different from a Khmer audience in Cambodia. Our work will be different for them, we use real voices, no dubbing, we have written an original soundtrack and theme songs, and used dolby surround sound, etc. And the story is quite fresh and unique as well. I hope they will follow the same path in making their films in the future.

Q. How do you see your film contributing to the genre of Cambodian filmmakers, old and news? A. We know what sort of genre Khmer audiences expect to see, ie. ghost or period pieces, which is the reason we are taking a different approach, hoping they will be interested in our vision and begin to move away from the genre they are stuck in. We really want to bring our film industry back on track like they used to produce in the early 1960s and '70s.

Q. Is it important to make a feature film on the life and times, and impact on Cambodian history, by King Jayavarman VII? Is it important to concentrate on history, or to produce films that focus on today and provide a current dialogue? A. Due to the reconciliation issues we are facing currently and plus the Khmer Rouge Tribunal which is happening in Phnom Penh right now, I am hoping to pass a message through my film and help to heal some wounds suffered by the Khmer survivors as well as bring it to the fore of the younger generation. To follow in the footsteps of our greatest King, Jayavarman VII is the ideal task for a filmmaker, and which I would love to bring to the screen. Most importantly, it is about awakening the Khmer spirit to love each other and to protect our territory, as we are doing currently with the Preah Vihear situation.

Q. What is your next film project? A. I have two projects at the post production stage right now: Bokator, The Great Angkorian Martial Art and Annoyed, Dead Messenger. I must admit that both projects have been in post production for a while now, I haven't forgotten them though, and hope people will be a little more patient and hang in with me, as I need a bit more time for research and finding resources. They will be released this year.

Q. Finally, what are the frustrations, and joys of being a filmmaker? A. That's a good question. To balance it out, not much frustration for me, I view it more like joy, which helps keep my momentum going and inspire me to produce the best quality work I can. Perhaps the downside of filmmaking is choosing the right talents and mundane stuff like getting permissions for locations, and not to mention editing, etc. The joys are one word - Result - that's when we know our limits and can learn from it as a filmmaker, but also we can make people happy with our work, as well as make them think.

My thanks to Tim for his replies. His co-screenwriter, director of photography and co-star Rithy Dourng will be at next Friday's screening and will introduce the film, as well as be available to answer any questions afterwards. Make sure you come and meet Rithy in person. Find out more about The Red Sense here.

Pek on Pek

In the run up to the first screening of The Red Sense in Phnom Penh - it will be screened at Meta House, next to Wat Botum, on Friday 24 April at 7pm - here's a brief interview with the film's director Tim Pek (pictured), a Cambodian now relocated to Melbourne in Australia, where he combined shooting his debut film with a number of scenes shot in Cambodia. Three years in the making, he employed Khmer actors, speaking in Khmer, with English subtitles. Find out more about the film here.

Here's the interview:
'I was born in Battambang and raised in a decent family, we ran a mixed business back in Cambodia, but unfortunately I only lived there for 8 years. So not much in the way of good childhood memories, moreso I recall seeing those terrified survivors from the Khmer Rouge regime, literally a hell on earth. And still haunting me, which I have never forgot.

A few years after the civil war, my family decided to leave everything and escaped to Khao-I-Dang camp as refugees in Thailand for 4 years before settling in Australia, and now living in Melbourne, one of the best cities in the world in my opinion.
Before getting heavily involved in The Red Sense project, I got motivated and inspired by a few short films back in the early 2005, from friends in Melbourne. I'd been very interested in this medium and always had dreams to make films since I was in my teens, but back then it was quite impossible to do so, everything were so expensive and was simply too hard to achieve when I was at college. In early 2000 I got myself a job and gained an abundance of designing and video skills which then gave me the confidence to make a film in such scale, and ironically its my debut film.
I urge all Khmer people living everywhere to pay respect and support to those hard-working Cambodian film directors and producers to make more films, as you know our film production is in rapid decline. I believe they can make good films so please support them and lets get back to making films like we did in the golden era of the 60s and 70s.

Finally, I have other two projects in post production, Bokator and Annoyed, hopefully they will be available on DVD later this year and can be searched in google.com.'

Click to enlarge

It makes sense

I've some news hot off the press for you: the first-ever Phnom Penh screening of Tim Pek's feature-film directorial debut, The Red Sense, will take place on Friday 24th April at 7pm at Meta House, next to Wat Botum. After receiving a Cambofest award when it got its first Cambodian screening in Siem Reap in December, Pek's made-in-Australia film about revenge and forgiveness when a women discovers the identity of the Khmer Rouge cadre who killed her father, will be very timely considering the ongoing Khmer Rouge Tribunal that begins again today in Phnom Penh. There were fears that the film's topic was too sensitive for some to be screened here, but it will now be shown afterall. You can find out more about the film here and I'll be bringing you additional news from The Red Sense camp closer to the screening date.

This Wednesday night (1 April) at Meta House, to coincide with the start of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, journalist/author/filmmaker Tom Fawthrop will present his rarely-seen documentary, Dreams & Nightmares: Cambodia Ten Years After Pol Pot, which he directed and produced for Channel 4 in 1989, and other films focusing on the Khmer Rouge legacy, beginning at 7pm.

Cambodia by Jimi Lundy

Jimi Lundy is a Cambodian-born singer who writes and sings great songs and ballads. His debut album, Steal My Heart, containing this track, Cambodia, came out in 2004 and it's definitely time we had album number two. Jimi has also contributed music to the soundtrack of The Red Sense and images from the film run through this video. He lives and works in Australia.

A taste of Red Sense

Director Tim Pek's The Red Sense movie received its premiere in Melbourne, Australia a year ago but has only been screened in Cambodia once to-date, at the CamboFest in Siem Reap in December. I'm now hoping to get it screened in Phnom Penh, so in the meantime, to whet your appetite, here's a trailer from the feature-length movie.