Enemies Of The People
Posted by Michelle Moquin on October 5th, 2010
Good morning!
My dear friend Tracey, as in “Tracey”, Reiki healer, and wonderful wife of “Elliot” our resident film noir guy, is helping to promote an International Film Circuit documentary. “Enemies Of The People” has gotten many awards, including Sundance this year, and is coming to the Bay Area for three special showings.
Here’s a little peek:
Award-Winning Film plays Three Days Only in Bay Area
with Filmmaker in Attendance
Mon, Oct 11 @ 7pm
BALBOA THEATER
3630 Balboa St (37th Av) • SF • 415-221-8184
www.balboamovies.com/
Tues, Oct 12 @ 4p
UC BERKELEY HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER
110 Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley
http://hrc.berkeley.edu/events.html#enemies
Weds, Oct 13 @ 4:30p, 7:15p & 9:30p
GRAND LAKE THEATER
3200 Grand Ave • Oakland • 510-452-3556
www.renaissancerialto.com/
FILMMAKER ROB LEMKIN IN PERSON at ALL SHOWS
International Film Circuit is pleased to present Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath’s ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE, one of the most harrowing and compelling personal documentaries of our time. Winner of a dozen top documentary festival awards, including a Special Jury Prize at Sundance and the Grand Jury Award at the Full Frame Festival, ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE exposes for the first time the truth about the Killing Fields and the Khmer Rouge who were behind Cambodia’s genocide. It is also an intimate journey into the heart of darkness by journalist Thet Sambath, whose family was wiped out in the Killing Fields, but whose patience and discipline elicits unprecedented on-camera confessions from perpetrators at all levels of the Khmer Rouge hierarchy. More than simply an inquiry into Cambodia’s experience, the film is a profound meditation on the nature of good and evil, shedding light on the capacity of some people to do terrible things and for others to forgive them. ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE will open in New York on Friday, July 30 at the Quad Cinema, with a national roll-out to follow.
In 1974, Thet Sambath’s father became one of the nearly two million people who were murdered by the Khmer Rouge. Sambath’s mother was forced to marry a Khmer Rouge militiaman and died in childbirth in 1976, while his eldest brother disappeared in 1977. Sambath himself escaped Cambodia at age 10 when the regime fell in 1979.
Fast forward to 1998, and Sambath, now a reporter with the Phnom Penh Post, got to know the children of some senior Khmer Rouge cadre and gradually earned their trust. Then, for a decade, he spent weekends visiting the home of the most senior surviving leader, Nuon Chea, aka Brother Number Two under Pol Pot. Over time, Nuon Chea began to reveal to him about the truth of the genocide, including details of the killing. Sambath also won the confidence of lower-level Khmer Rouge soldiers, now ordinary fathers and grandfathers, who demonstrated for him how they slit people’s throats. It was the first time these murderers admitted what they had done. He taped their interactions, and together with British documentarian Rob Lemkin created this landmark film.
For Sambath, it has been an ongoing, lifelong personal journey to discover what was behind such horror; he neglected both his family and his own happiness in the search for truth with hope of reconciliation. ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE is at once a cinematically beautiful, chillingly insightful, and deeply personal piece of documentary filmmaking.
“Stunning. Inspiring. A testament to one man’s persistent search for the truth.
Extraordinary on several fronts…an intensely personal film undertaken at some risk.”
- Stephen Holden, New York Times
“One of the most GRIPPING and MOVING films I have ever seen. STUNNING. ”
– Andrew Marr, BBC Radio
“A must-see exposé. Fascinating and Remarkable.” – Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
*************
Readers: I can not boast that I have seen this film, but I am intrigued, aren’t you? And I will be attending one of the viewings. Why not support this film and join me? And then I want you to blog me and tell me what you thought of it. Sound good?
Zen Lill: My pleasure. :) The difference between sitting and chatting poli all day is that you really don’t get anywhere with it. People are either with you or they aren’t, and having a conversation isn’t going to change that. When you phone bank you will have a script; very to the point. You can knock out 60-70 calls in less than 2 hours. And you’re calling people who are already registered Dem voters. (I realize you regard yourself an “Independent”, but to my understanding, you promote yourself like you would vote like a Dem [?])
That being said, you will get many answering machines, but the people you do talk to are usually very nice and appreciative that you are volunteering for the cause. And most importantly, stats show that if they weren’t going to vote, and they make a commitment on the phone to you that they will go to the polls and vote, they most likely will. Simple – That’s grassroots baby. Thanks for giving it a go. :)
Peace out…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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October 5th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Hi Misch, I’ve always wanted to have a visit with a Reiki healer : ) someday…
I saw Killing Fields many moons ago and when I lived in Singapore I read many books about the plights of people all over Asia, not just Cambodia, though I read 2 books of personal accounts during the Pol Pot era, which was not very long ago, I remember being stunned that this genocide was occuring during the 70′s, wow, that means that people in their 40′s basically have seen either torture/murder or were forced to be part of it (much the way parts of Africa – Congo and others – are operating now)…hard to fathom, isn’t it?
Yes, I’m a registered Indy, did not know I would be calling on a list of Dems, good to know, that makes it worthwhile, I’ll be dealing with a receptive audience : ) you know, I went back to early archives here just for kicks – to see the change in characters here (including my own ‘voice’) and I was actually kind of missing Howie and Al. It seems Madaleine and others thought I was a full on Repug or just not for women at the time when really I just didn’t want Hillary in office, hahaha…I think I’m fairly independent in thought, and whenever I hear ‘fiscal repug and social dem’ out of peoples mouths now (mostly women married to men making bank) I just think hmm, can’t we protect what’s ours financially without throwing everyone else under the bus? That’s not a white/OTW q, that’s just a general q.
Gotta roll, revamping (more zenification…love that word, just realized it ryhmes with…!) we’re making my office now known as the ‘wealth womb’ reach into the outdoors it overlooks, that’d be the deck turned extended ww where there will be plants, a heater, and who knows what else, I’ll send before and after pics, it’s all been a very interesting process. I love the concept of living inside with elements of outdoors and outdoors with the comforts of indoors…
p-Luv-ness, Zen Lill
October 5th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Michelle
I’d love to see the film. Hope to catch you there.
October 5th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Challenging Your Brain
Cynthia R. Green, PhD
Games on your cell phone are better for your brain than crossword or sudoku puzzles. Reason: They have a timing component.
As you age, your brain faces more challenges with short-term memory and the cognitive tasks of paying attention and juggling multiple abilities.
It’s important to challenge these skills, and playing games against a clock provides a better brain workout than puzzles and board games.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Cynthia R. Green, PhD, president, Memory Arts, LLC, Upper Montclair, New Jersey. http://www.memoryarts.com
October 5th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
A victorian maiden named Newell
Had a box she’d embroidered in crewel
And maintained on display;
To a viewer she’d say,
“It contains, sir, a clittering jewel!”
October 5th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
I can make the Berkeley event. Love to see you their.
October 5th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Zen Lill
I could be wrong but the word is out that Anonz will attempt to purchase a pink diamond that goes on sale Nov 16th in Geneva.
I say it is Anonz because some members of the European Girlz have been following information about a super hero operating in the Sudan and Southeast Africa.
It was rumored that he suffered 73% burns to his body a few months ago in a huge skirmish with the Chinese military.
It is rumored that the Chinese military has a $8,000,000 dollar bounty on his head dead or alive. There are no pictures of him. But he is listed as a white american, 6’6″ to 6’68″; 240 to 260lbs and criminally violent.
The rumor is that he has put a crimp in China’s efforts to control the natural resources of the Darfur region. The US Embassy has received a complaint about an american who has according to China murdered more than a thousand of their troops who are not stationed in Africa.
So how did he do that? No explanation. But it is known that he did meet with 3500 Chinese and arab armed militia during the encounter that left many of his insurgents dead or wounded.
An attempt to rescue 300 women and children that were flushed out of an encampment after the UN were ordered to leave the area resulted in Anonz and the 93 soldiers he commands surrounded by camp’s
Nora.
October 17th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Michelle
I started watching it but it was too horrible for me to continue. I left about half way through. I want to see it again because those who stayed said I should have.
I had very bad dreams afterwards. Men are so violent. They look for reasons to kill others. God, country, whatever excuse that they can use to do what they would do anyway, they use.
I look at my husband and I love him dearly, but if there were a Madaline that gave me the option to live without men and that meant he had to die.
So be it.
Bennie