Cambodia bans the acclaimed documentary ‘Who Killed Chea Vichea?’

June 7, 2010 – New York, NY – The Cambodian government has banned the acclaimed documentary Who Killed Chea Vichea?, U.S. director Bradley Cox‘s film that investigates the mysterious 2004 assassination of Chea Vichea, one of Cambodia’s most influential union leader who spent years fighting for increased wages and improved working conditions for the nation’s 300,000 garment workers. The movie, which had its European premiere last month at the Cannes Independent Film Festival, has received accolades from festivals around the world and was named one of Amnesty International‘s Top Ten Movies That Matter.

In May, in honor of International Labor Day, trade unionists attempted to hold the film’s Cambodian premiere at the very location where Vichea was murdered, but riot police raided the scene, and dismantled and seized the screens. The Cambodian government, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, immediately declared the film an illegal import and announced that it intends to prevent any screenings “wherever they are held.” Asserts one of the premiere’s organizers, “If the authorities acted like this, it means that some officials could have been involved in Chea Vichea’s murder.”

The making of the film was no easy feat.  For much of the past decade, Bradley Cox-an award-winning activist-documentarian who is currently receiving treatment for a gunshot wound in Bangkok where he has been covering the Thai military crackdown-has been living in Southeast Asia, unraveling the mystery behind Vichea’s murder and other newsworthy stories.  Cox was on the scene with his camera just moments after the fatal shots to Vichea, and conducted his own investigation over the next five years.

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Chris Rock Documentary – Good Hair

Chris Rock tackles the tangles in search of  “Good Hair” or the perception of good hair by Black women in America.

This link provides a quick interview with Rock recently at Sundance where he is questioned about Good Hair, his take on Barack Obama and his travels to Chennai India.

Seriously, a documentary on good hair? I’ve heard of writers block and being short on new material, but really?

Saving Luna – Documentary

“A life does not have to be human to be great.

It’s one of Michael Parfit’s opening lines in Saving Luna, a magical documentary he filmed with his wife, Suzanne Chisholm, about a curious young killer whale on the west coast of Vancouver Island who swam into hearts and headlines around the world for simply trying to be our friend.”

Read the complete article here, by Graeme McRanor – Calgary Sun

This looks like a fantastic story – though be forewarned that the article above gives many details that you might wish to only uncover during a viewing.

–RNW

Forgotten Woman – Dilip Mehta Documentary

Dilip Mehta offers a real world view of the life some women are forced to live in rural India once their husband dies. Dilip’s documentary, Forgotten Woman, piggybacks sister Deepa Mehta‘s Oscar nominated, Water (2005), which portrays a likeminded characterization of the life lived by the rural Indian widow, forced into poverty by her family and living in an ashram. Water is however, a story of fiction.

Daily life in a third world country, even for the affluent, can be shocking to those from first world countries, in general. Though you may drive around in a fancy car, there are people walking alongside your vehicle without shoes. You may be dressed in the finest silks, yet on every corner there is someone standing in just a cotton dhoti. Poverty surrounds you from all sides. With this in mind, I think it is difficult to be unbiased while watching a film like Water, or a documentary like Forgotten Woman.

The India of today is still the India of 100 years ago in some of the rural areas, for instance, arranged marriages still exist. By North American standards this may seem crazy, however, when dealing with two young adults (as opposed to young children who may be arranged), it makes complete sense. In a country of 2 billion people, imagine trying to find mister or mrs right. Families seek out spouses for their children, and if all are in agreement, the ‘children’ are wed. With this in mind, the wealth of a family would be passed down from father to son, so it is not so far fetched that if their son were to die, the wealth would be returned to his family as opposed to existing with his wife, who is merely an appendage of the family.

The casting out of the widowed wife by the husband’s family is where things seem to get extreme. My understanding is that if her husband has an available brother, she may marry him to retain her standing in the family, or she can throw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre (which is supposedly legally outlawed now), or she ends up cast out and at the mercy of an ashram.

Forgotten Woman follows the story of two widows in today’s era, who are trying to offer new hope to those in rural India, who have fallen at the mercy of a society who has chosen to leave them behind.

Forgotten Woman recently aired on Hot Docs, and hopefully will be rerun again. Definitely worth taking a look, helping to broaden horizons.

Indyfans and the Quest for Fortune and Glory

Indyfans and the Quest for Fortune and Glory is set to premier at the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 27th. This documentary is make by one the biggest fans of Indiana Jones, Brandon Kleyla. This is his life’s work which began at the age of 6 when he cried himself during a a showing of “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. Since then he has gathered enough memorabilia to become one of the largest collectors of Indy stuff in the world.

In the documentary, Indyfans and the Quest for Fortune and Glory, he interviews Deborah Nadoolman-Landis, Tony Baxter, Tim Kirk, legendary stunt man Vic Armstrong and his wife, Wendy Leech and ‘Crystal Skull’ bullwhip trainer Anthony DeLongis.

Click here to visit the Indyfans website