Category: Film

City of zombies

Since 1932’s White Zombie, the zombie of Haitian Voodoo’s practice of black magic has been the stuff of cinematic (and, increasingly, literary) gold. In the ’30s and ’40s, inspiration was lifted almost directly from the Haitian myth of the ‘Zombi’ (literally, ‘spirit of the dead), in which the victim would appear dead to the public eye only to be exhumed as a mindless drone completely under the control of its master. Many went so far as to directly link their antagonists to Voodoo lore.

After a long and restful slumber, the zombie paradigm shifted in 1968 with George Romero’s low-budget, black-and-white classic Night of the Living Dead, a film which instantly became the standard by which all other zombie movies are judged. Many would argue that it still is. Rather than supernatural beings controlled by a master, the enemy became us. Zombies came to represent man’s inhumanity towards man and all of the darkest acts human nature is capable of. Night dressed its monsters in normal everyday clothing as opposed to ritualistic garb. It was one of the first zombie films to give a scientific reason for the disease as opposed to a supernatural one. Almost all zombie movies which came after have followed in its footsteps, sometimes even neglecting to reveal the cause due to its irrelevance.

Once it had stumbled awkwardly though the ’70s, the sub-genre experienced an explosive revival, with gore classics such as the Evil Dead trilogy and Re-animator. While remaining faithful to the DIY aesthetic, the ’80s (as they did to so many other things) turned the gore up to 11. As the violence became more extreme, some plots fared better than others. Recognising this, filmmakers often chose to create tongue-in-cheek B-movies which sometimes bordered on the slapstick, and more often embraced it wholeheartedly.

Although it would seem that the awful zombie-themed comedies of the 1990s put the final bullet in the zombie’s head, the undead walk among us today stronger than ever. Sparked by Max Brooks’ (son of filmmaker Mel Brooks) bestselling book, The Zombie Survival Guide in 2003, as well as Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s Shaun of the Dead in 2004, the zombie sub-genre simply won’t stay dead. Even outside of Halloween time, many fans of the survival guide often discuss their z-day survival strategies, watch old zombie classics, and gladly crowd theatres to catch new releases.

The zombie begins to receive serious cultural and sociological discussion, looking back on Dawn of the Dead and others, to paint an overarching metaphor of the zombie as a brain-dead, insensate consumer who, without remorse or emotions, only desires ‘more’. Meanwhile, everything from AMC’s 2010 adaptation of The Walking Dead to the 2009 spoof novel Pride, Prejudice and Zombies finds itself in the homes of millions of people.

Springing up in the midst of all this have been several quazi-zombie movies in which the affected have greater speed, intelligence and stamina, usually due to some sort of virus. While most purists argue that these are not really ‘zombies’, the twist to the genre certainly adds more room for creative liberties. In the aftermath of Cambodia’s recent outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease, filmmaker Touch Oudom has decided to throw his hat into the ring with the upcoming release, RUN.

Drawing inspiration from the modern zombie of 28 days later, 28 weeks later, and the Resident Evil films (though “only the first two”, he makes a point of mentioning), Dom has cast the infected as his villains because their strength doesn’t lie only in numbers; they are harder to kill, and they’re way more scary in general. RUN sees Cambodia struck with a new strain which causes people to “become uncontrollable” and “lose themselves”. In addition to directing, editing, and screenwriting, Dom is also a visual artist who draws out the storyboard concepts to give the infected exactly the right look.

In order to wrangle together the necessary interest, he has created a nine-minute short also entitled RUN (which can be found on YouTube.com by typing in ‘aromfilm run’; it’s the first result). Sensing great talent, the project was picked up by WestEc Media, a local distribution company. RUN is their first local production. Using his own initiative and the support of WestEc, Dom has assembled a crew of his friends as well as professionals in the industry.

Adding something else to the production is Dom’s policy of telling the actors NOT to act. More specifically, he requests that all actors bring their own personalities, demeanours, backgrounds, and current situations onto the screen with only the names altered. He even goes so far as to have sections for personality traits, favourite hobbies, and occupation on the casting application form. The theory is that it will reduce the need for character research and role coaching while bringing out better and more natural performances from everyone involved. Because there are Khmer and expat actors performing for a similarly mixed audience, the plan is for this to be a bilingual film with bilingual subtitles running throughout.

As any true zombie lover would, Dom has chosen to forego computer effects and digital enhancement in favour of make-up, fake blood, and home-made gore. Aside from being really damn cool, this also adds another layer of fun, leaving the viewer wondering just how it was done, and serves as a worthy homage to the style’s early predecessors.

Beyond the link to Cambodia’s recent disease scare, the timing of this project becomes even more uncanny. It was during the hedonistic economic boom of the late 1970s and 1980s that zombies began to take on the role of critiquing rampant consumerism. 1978’s Dawn of the Dead unsubtly takes place in a shopping mall. The living dead – a mindless, unthinking, unfeeling herd – are consumer culture writ large and many of these films show us the extremes of what such a culture renders us capable of. Though Cambodia has produced plenty of horror films in the past, many based around local folklore, this is the first zombie movie to come out of The Kingdom. It does so just as globalisation and consumerism find their way into the nouveau riche districts of Phnom Penh and serves, just as it did in the West, as a strongly worded warning.

Filming begins soon in Gasolina, International University, Naga Clinic, the Phnom Penh ports, and Dreamland, so if you see any mutants with torn flesh roaming these parts any time soon, try not to panic.

WHO: Zombies
WHAT: RUN
WHERE: Phnom Penh
WHEN: October
WHY: They want to eat your braaaaaain

 

Modern-day slaves

The stories appear with depressing regularity in the press: young Cambodian women sent to Malaysia are abused by their employers. Overworked and underfed, sometimes they manage to return to their families; sometimes they die. Cambodian men escape after months or even years working in slave-like conditions on fishing boats or palm-oil plantations. Twenty-hour days, beatings, weeks with little or no pay at all are par for the course. Children are forced to beg on the streets or work as prostitutes.

Human exploitation comes in many forms, be it forced labour or sexual slavery, and is not limited to Cambodia. While it’s impossible to know the exact numbers, the United Nations estimates conservatively that there are 2.5 million victims of human trafficking around the world at any one time. The people and groups responsible for these misdeeds, the fastest growing form of transnational crime, earn tens of billions of dollars every year.

On June 20, Meta House continues its film series exploring the theme of human trafficking and exploitation with documentaries and discussions centred on this modern-day scourge. The 2011 short film Enslaved, produced by MTV, looks at exploitation in Cambodia and the region, featuring the voices of people who were searching for better lives but found a nightmare instead, as well as those who profited from their misery. Another short film, Beyond Borders, recounts the story of Cambodian Prum Vannak, who was held in virtual slavery on a Thai fishing boat, then on a palm oil plantation. His is a story of hunger, torture and crushing solitude. Once he managed to escape, only to be picked up by another broker. After three years, his torment finally ended.

Human trafficking takes place in more developed regions of the world as well. The extraordinary 2005 documentary Sex Slaves examines sex trafficking in Eastern Europe as one man tries to save his pregnant wife who has been sold to a pimp in Turkey. The film features interviews with traffickers, experts, police and women who were kept in sexual bondage. It contains undercover footage that gives viewers a glimpse into the frightening reality experienced by women trapped in this world.

In addition to the films, Ya Navuth, executive director of the anti-trafficking NGO Caram, will be on hand to talk about migration and how it can be made safer. “There is a lack of any kind of mechanism in place for people who find themselves in trouble,” he said. “Take for example the recent maid cases in Malaysia: the women should know who to turn to if things start going wrong.”

Due to the stubbornly high levels of poverty in Cambodia, the Kingdom’s population remains especially vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation, experts say. With a large percentage of people under the age of 20 and work opportunities in rural areas limited, the number of Cambodians desperate to earn a livelihood for themselves and their families and willing to migrate to unknown cities or countries to do so is huge. Too many fall prey to unscrupulous individuals. What’s even more tragic is that sometimes the traffickers are the victims’ own neighbours, friends or even family.

WHO: Cinema lovers with a conscience
WHAT: A rare glimpse into exploitation
WHERE:  Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 7pm July 20
WHY: Understand the nature and scale of the problem

 

Filmmaking’s new guard to celebrate Chaktomuk Short Film Contest winners

From 1960 to 1975, Cambodian directors made some 500 films, an average of more than 30 per year. But then the Khmer Rouge came and wiped the film industry out of existence. It has never really recovered. Today, maybe one or two movies make it to the screen every year.

“It’s not good,” says Seila Prum, summing up the general state of Cambodian filmmaking. “You can’t really call it an industry today.”

Prum, an independent filmmaker and videographer himself, wants to do something about that. He joined up with other film lovers to form the collective Kon Khmer Koun Khmer (‘Cambodian Film, Cambodian Youth’) to make films and show Cambodia what their country used to be able to do with celluloid.

He and his partners’ most recent project was the Chaktomuk Short Film Contest 2012, which asked aspiring filmmakers under 30 to create short films from one to five minutes. In March, an international jury chose three prizewinners. Now, the wider public will get to see those stand-outs as well as the other entries at Meta House on May 23 and get a taste of what the future of Cambodian film might well look like.

The theme of this year’s contest was ‘love’, and the films’ subjects ran the gamut from blossoming affection between two people to love found, lost and then regained for a bicycle, to a more destructive love affair with wine. Jury members, who hailed from as far away as Australia and France, looked at criteria such as scriptwriting, camera use and editing, as well as how the young filmmakers used the medium to tell their stories.

None of the contest participants are professional filmmakers, and while some of them had semi-professional equipment, others were armed only with small digital cameras with a video function. The results speak to their enthusiasm and love of the craft.

“Our goal is to reach people who want to make films and encourage them to do it,” said Seila. “A lot of them simply lack confidence.”

Seila acknowledges that the Cambodian film scene still has a long road ahead of it. There is a serious skills deficit, he says, and then there’s the money issue. Seila is realistic enough to know that Cambodian films aren’t going to see big international distributors knocking on the door anytime soon, but he does think some of these young people, given the right encouragement and mentoring, could get future films on the festival circuit. Who knows, next stop Hollywood?

The important thing, Seila says, is to nurture that early spark to see where it leads. “People who submitted to the contest are continuing to make their own films and try new things out,” he said.

A big turnout at Meta House could go far in giving budding filmmakers a little boost to keep on going. Viewers might just get a glimpse of the early work of a Khmer Jean-Luc Godard or a Steven Spielberg. Now that would be something to tell the grandkids.

WHO: Aspiring filmmakers
WHAT: Entries of the Chaktomuk Short Film Contest 2012
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 7pm May 23
WHY: The next generation of Cambodian filmmakers at work

The first casaulty

The stack of human skulls piled high at Choueng Ek stands as gruesome testimony to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Thousands of black-and-white portraits at Toul Sleng offer yet more affirmation of the regime’s brutality. Then there is the court. The testimony. The tears.

Proof, it seems, could not be more conspicuous. But for the post-holocaust generation born after 1979, the stories of their elders are often too horrible to believe. Questions linger.

Is it really true?

That is the question posed by a group of Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) students from this year’s graduating class. In a collection of short films of the same name, students from the department of media and communications explore life after the war, as lived by survivors.

“I would like to show these films abroad,” says Dr Tillman Baumgärtel, a visiting professor at RUPP Department of Media and Communications. “They give a different picture. It’s not the international filmmaker who comes here and shoots a movie in three weeks. It’s an on-the-ground perspective.”

For years, talk of the Khmer Rouge remained taboo. Prime Minister Hun Sen famously said the country should dig a hole and bury the past. The Extraordinary Courts of Cambodia, for all its failures, brought conversations about the country’s past into the fore. It proved a catalyst for bringing Khmer Rouge history into the high-school curriculum. The first history books to include Democratic Kampuchea landed on school desks in 2010. Until then, students had learned nothing of the brutality their parents endured.

Is it really true? answers the question not with documentary reportage but with short feature films. Some last only a few minutes, others longer. They strive for the same unbiased tone of television news, while tugging to unwrap the humanity of their protagonists.

In Grandma’s Story, the filmmaker’s grandmother tearfully recounts the day four Khmer Rouge soldiers came to take her husband away.  They said he could have the same job he held under the Lon Nol regime. He left in a horse cart, and she never saw him again. Not all of the stories are so heart wrenching. Two films explore music, Khmer Music After Year Zero and The Chapei Saved My Life, which tells the story of chapei master Prach Chhoun.

In A Concrete Memory, filmmakers Ith Sothoeuth and Em Sopheak travel with historian Henri Locard to the abandoned airstrip at Kampong Chhnang, where they find an old-timer by the name of Som Chhamom. He is thin with sharp features and thick, calloused hands. In deliberate, unemotional sentences, he recounts the airport’s construction with the unhurried pace of the old. “Those soldiers still did most of the work manually,” he says, a long ribbon of concrete runway stretched out behind him. “They cleaned up everything here and filled in the holes.”

Under Chinese direction, Khmers built the 2,400-metre runway plus an elaborate underground tunnel network and above ground water storage facility – virtually all of it by hand. Estimates of the dead range from 10,000 to 50,000 – no one knows for certain. “The Chinese had further ideas about this place,” explains Locard. “We suspect it was to be not just a Khmer Rouge air base but a Chinese air base.” Some speculate that it was the nearing completion of the runway that finally prompted Vietnam to invade in early 1979, thus bringing an end to Pol Pot’s era of homicidal mania.

Only recently have Khmer artists, and the country at large, began to address the past in earnest. “I think the students learn a lot from it,” says Dr Baumgärtel. “Their generation already talked about this issue in school, but not at great length, so for them, they learn new things.”

Speaking from the runway in Kampong Chhnang, Som Chhamom offers his own ruminations. “[The] next generation should take care and keep it for future interest,” he says, the red krama around his neck fluttering gently in the afternoon breeze. He is talking about the airport, and the toll it took to build, but he could easily be talking about the modern state and its caretakers.

“Don’t let it get more damaged,” he says, “because this was not an easy thing to build.”

WHO: RUPP Department of Media and Communications graduating class
WHAT: Short films exploring life after the Khmer Rouge
WHERE: Meta House, 37 Sotheros Blvd.
WHEN: Friday May 11
WHY: KR tales told by survivors, not outsiders