Cambodia
Comrade Duch: The Bookkeeper of Death, Sunday on Global Voices
The ITVS-funded documentary by Adrian Maben premieres Sunday, May 20 on Global Voices on the WORLD Channel.
Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) is a Jekyll-and-Hyde character who began as a mathematics teacher, and then became the commandant of Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia, ultimately responsible for the torture and murder of 14,000 people. Comrade Duch: The Bookkeeper of Death recounts his flight, conversion to evangelical Christianity, and how he was finally brought to justice before an international tribunal. Watch the trailer after the jump.
Next Up on Indies Showcase, New Year Baby
The documentary follows the personal story of filmmaker Socheata Poeuv, who grew up in the U.S. never knowing that her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. New Year Baby will stream free on ITVS’s Indies Showcase for three days, starting on Saturday, August 6.
Last May, Socheata Poeuv participated in a live chat about her film (airing at the time on Global Voices) in celebration of Asian American Heritage Month. Filmmaker Jocelyn Glatzer (The Flute Player) also joined the discussion, which was moderated by CAAM’s Michella Rivera-Gravage.
› Continue reading
Filmmaker Adrian Maben on Comrade Duch
By Chanel Kong
The documentary Comrade Duch: The Bookkeeper of Death examines the life of a gifted Cambodian mathematics teacher turned mass killer — responsible for the torture and murder of 14,000 people — and how he was brought to justice. Filmmaker Adrian Maben offered ITVS some background on the project, which was funded through ITVS International.
How did you come upon working on a project about Comrade Duch?
In 1999 and 2000 I worked with American journalist Nate Thayer on directing a series of films that featured the last interview of Pol Pot, recorded on camera a year before his death. Nate’s interview was a remarkable scoop. For the first time, the most secretive of all Khmer Rouges – Brother Number One – was going to talk.
On camera, Pol Pot seemed affable and managed to explain himself with ease. However, he said practically nothing of interest about the reasons for the murder and atrocities committed during his regime. He denied knowing about the mass killings because he said that he was at the top level and only knew about “important” problems!
› Continue reading
Catch New Year Baby Sunday Night on Global Voices
The documentary follows the personal story of filmmaker Socheata Poeuv, who grew up in the U.S. never knowing that her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. On Friday, Poeuv participated in a live chat — alongside fellow doc filmmaker Jocelyn Glatzer — to discuss her film in honor of Asian American Heritage Month. New Year Baby airs Sunday night on Global Voices on the WORLD Chanel.
ITVS & WORLD Host Live Chat with Filmmakers in Honor of Asian American Heritage Month
Filmmakers Socheata Poeuv (New Year Baby) and Jocelyn Galtzer (The Flute Player) will participate in a live chat at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET on Friday, May 27. The documentary New Year Baby airs Sunday, May 29 on Global Voices on the WORLD Channel.
New Year Baby follows the personal story of filmmaker Socheata Poeuv, who grew up in the United States never knowing that her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. Poeuv embarks on a journey to Cambodia in search of the truth about her family’s past.
› Continue reading
A Close Look at Who Killed Chea Vichea?
By Abigail Licad
Who Killed Chea Vichea? airs this May on public television and follows the aftermath of Cambodian labor leader Chea Vichea’s assassination in 2004. The film exposes the political frame-up behind the conviction of two men, as well as the widespread corruption in Cambodia’s existing regime. ITVS’s Abigail Licad caught up with Director Bradley Cox to ask some questions.
Why did you choose to focus the film on the two murder suspects?
I had met Vichea a week before the national election of 2003. He had just received a death threat and the police had strongly advised him to leave the country. Despite the threat, Vichea stayed. I was impressed by his courage.
› Continue reading
On the Scene at a War Criminal’s Conviction
Filmmaker Adrian Maben
The ITVS-funded film-in-progress Comrade Duch tells the story of the gifted Cambodian mathematician turned mass killer Kaing Guek Eav and the trial to bring him to justice. Filmmaker Adrian Maben was outside the courtroom last month when Duch was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
When I started to work on Comrade Duch, it was clear in my mind that this film should not be a courtroom film with heaps of legal wrangling and judicial squabbles. The central idea was to find an answer to the question of how one man could possibly inflict so much pain on his fellow citizens and justify his acts.
› Continue reading
Insufficient Justice: Socheata Poeuv Reacts to Khmer Rouge Verdict
Director Socheata Poeuv
Filmmaker Socheata Poeuv was outside the courtroom on July 26, 2010, as Kaing Guek Eav (aka Comrade Duch) was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years (19 including time served) by an international tribunal. The director of the Independent Lens film New Year Baby, Poeuv was born in a refugee camp in Thailand during Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, which took the lives of many of her family members. She reacts to the verdict and the sentence for Beyond the Box.
On July 26, I went to the Khmer Rouge tribunal (at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh) to listen to the judgment of Comrade Duch, the former commander of S-21 (Tuol Sleng), the Khmer Rouge’s most infamous prison and torture center. Hundreds of Cambodians and journalists also gathered to witness the historic moment.
As the judge read the guilty verdict, I was moved to hear the narrative of Duch’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. Although I had read of and heard an account of the crimes of S-21 many times in books and films, hearing the legal summary help to legitimize and validate the suffering of victims, including those in my family. I was glad this was now entering the official historical and legal record.
› Continue reading
The Trials of Comrade Duch
Kaing Guek Eav or "Comrade Duch"
Much ado about the sentencing of Kaing Guek Eav — known by his Khmer Rouge nickname “Comrade Duch” — to 35 years in prison (to be reduced to 19 considering time served) on July 26 in Phnom Penh by a United Nations-led tribunal. The verdict and sentence shocked many Cambodians who remember Duch’s reign of terror as a remorseless prison chief in charge of torturing and murdering as many as 16,000 Cambodians on the orders of the notorious Pol Pot. Many Cambodians were angry that the sentence had not been harsher, given the horrific nature of the crimes.
Adrian Maben, director of a recently funded ITVS film called Comrade Duch, is currently in Phnom Penh to document the sentencing and the reaction to it. Maben has directed three previous films on the Khmer Rouge for ARTE.
› Continue reading
In the News: The Latest on ITVS Programs
Filmmaker Fears She’s On U.S. Watch List
The name “Laura Poitras” is familiar to Oscar judges, film festival juries, and security officers at U.S. airports, which is what happens when one directs critically acclaimed documentaries that require spending months in dangerous areas of the Middle East.
Read more >>>
War Insight, Beyond Bang-Bang
At midlife, in a soft job, and nagged by questions that no one was answering, Carol Dysinger boarded a plane from New York to Dubai and then caught a connecting flight into Kabul. The answers, and new questions, emerge in her documentary, Camp Victory, Afghanistan, which she made over five years of listening, watching and asking.
Read more >>
Cambodia Vs. ‘Chea’
The director of Who Killed Chea Vichea?, a documentary about the 2004 slaying of the Cambodian union leader, is asserting that the Cambodian government has banned screenings of the film. U.S. helmer Bradley Cox says the government has been preventing showings of his film for the past month in the first banning of a politically charged film since the 1980s.
Read more >>
An Interview With The Director Of ‘The Oath,’ About Osama Bin Laden’s Driver And Bodyguard
Laura Poitras’ documentary, The Oath, … paints close-up portraits of Osama bin Laden’s driver Salim Hamdan and bodyguard Nasser al-Bahri (aka Abu Jandal). She won’t tell how she found the footage.
Read more >>
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
- #ILDocClub
- All Video
- Ask Programming
- Audio Podcasts
- Awards
- Community Cinema
- Community Classroom
- Exclusive
- Film Festivals
- Filmmaker Profile
- From the President's Desk
- FUTURESTATES
- Global Voices
- Half the Sky
- In the News
- Independent Lens
- Indie Roundup
- Inside Indies
- Institutional Updates
- ITVS Broadcasts
- ITVS Deep Dive
- ITVS Funding
- ITVS indie roundup
- ITVS Indies Showcase
- ITVS International
- Live Chat
- Minority Consortia
- New Online
- On the Road
- Producer Resources
- Public Media
- Recently Funded
- Social Media
- Social Screening
- Special Events
- Talkback
- Uncategorized
- Women and Girls Lead
Related sites
Film Blogs
Public Media Blogs
-
Get the Beyond the Box e-newsletter, sent monthly with the latest news about ITVS, funding opportunities and more. Enter your email and sign up.
-
Sign up for the Independent Lens newsletter. Get news once a week during the broadcast season (fall-spring).