Killing Fields documentary offers chance for reconciliation

va CAAI

By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer

Posted: 10/14/2010 

Cambodian kickboxing champion Oumry Ban ,left, talks with Rob Lemkin, one of two directors of the award-winning documentary film "Enemies of the People" at the Long Beach KHMER Kickboxing Training Center. The movie about the Killing Fields of Cambodia will be shown at the Art Theater Saturday October 16th at 1:30 p.m., where there also will be a question and answer session. (Stephen Carr/Press-Telegram) 

Cambodian kickboxing champion Oumry Ban points out familiar faces as Rob Lemkin, one of two directors of the award-winning documentary film "Enemies of the People" shows parts of his film inside Oumry's office at Long Beach KHMER Kickboxing Training Center on Thursday. (Stephen Carr/Press-Telegram)

LONG BEACH - When Rob Lemkin and Theth Sambath made "Enemies of the People," the award-winning documentary about the Killing Fields, they saw it as a strong dramatic and investigative movie.

What they hadn't necessarily seen in it was an opportunity for reconciliation and healing.

Film co-director Lemkin, who is in Long Beach for several upcoming events connected with the movie, said the idea came during a screening of the film in Utah. Lemkin said two Khmer women watched the film and asked Lemkin if he would thank two of the film's subjects who came forward and admitted to killing hundreds of people and were wracked by regret and guilt.

"We took from the responses that maybe this can be a reconciliation (film)," Lemkin said. "That there can be person-to-person reconciliation."

On Sunday, a number of Long Beach Cambodian refugees and their families for the first time will be able to engage in a live videoconference dialogue with Suon and Khoun, two of the perpetrators profiled in the movie, as well as another former Khmer Rouge official.

"This will be the first time Khoun and Suon will come face-to-face with victims," Lemkin says. "We know that three hours on a Sunday won't solve 30 years of deep trauma, but it's a good first step."

The historic video conference is a private event, but residents will have other opportunities to interact with the film-makers and view the documentary in the coming days.

"Enemies of the People" is a documentary feature that won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival as well as about a dozen other awards. The movie follows the quest of a journalist, who lost his father and brother to the Killing Fields, to locate genocide perpetrators and get them to speak on camera about why it happened and why they took part. Among the perpetrators interviewed by Thet Sambath is Nuon Chea, the right-hand man of Pol Pot under whose regime upwards of 2 million Cambodians died from mass executions, starvation and deprivation.

On Saturday, the movie will be screened at the Art Theatre, followed by a question and answer period with Lemkin.

On Tuesday, there will be a screening at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, followed by a panel discussion with genocide survivors, Thet Sambath, via video conference, and Lemkin.

greg.mellen@presstelegram.com , 562-499-1291

Want to go?
What: "Enemies of the People" screenings with post-movie dialogues.

When: Oct. 16, 1:30 p.m., Art Theatre, 2025 E. 4th St. Long Beach. $10.

Oct. 19, 7 p.m., Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. Free. RSVP required. Call 310.772.2526.