THE Q&A: THET SAMBATH, JOURNALIST, FILMMAKER


Thet SambathThet Sambath, a Cambodian reporter, has a knack for smiling politely while speaking candidly about the Killing Fields. His smiles in no way belittle the atrocities, particularly as members of his own family were among the 2m Cambodian lives claimed by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s. What comes through in conversation is Sambath's sincerity and inquisitiveness, which form the core of "Enemies of the People" a documentary film he directed together with Rob Lemkin, which won a special jury prize at Sundance earlier this year and is now travelling the festival circuit.
 
The film, which screened in London recently during the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, follows Sambeth's patient, laborious, ten-year investigation to uncover who exactly was to blame for perpetrating the genocidal murders on Cambodian soil between 1975 and 1979. After years of persistence, Sambath manages to establish relationships with former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Pol Pot's right-hand man, and ask them the difficult question about why they did what they did.
 
The answers Sambath coaxes from his subjects take a long time to unravel throughout the film. Epiphanies are elusive, as are evident feelings of guilt, though some of the foot-soldiers interviewed seem relieved to have the opportunity to explain themselves. Orders to kill ethnic minorities came from above, they are eager to divulge. 
 
Sambath nurses hopes that the film will one day be shown in Cambodia.  He could make the case that "Enemies of the People" could offer steps towards reconciliation. After a screening before Cambodian refugees in Utah recently, several women told Sambath that they had arrived filled with resentment, but that the film inspired them to want to meet the men who confessed to the killings and hug them for finally telling the truth.  
 
More Intelligent Life spoke briefly with Sambath after a London screening of the film.
 
More Intelligent Life: What do younger people in Cambodia think about the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia's Killing Fields? Do they discuss it?
 
Thet Sambath: Young people don't believe it. They think their parents are talking lies maybe. After the courts exposed the truth about the killings, students were encouraged to learn. We have new history textbooks now.
 
MIL: Are the textbooks accurate?
 
TS: Yes. They're not detailed, but they say people died. But the whole truth is not inside. We still don't know the real costs of the killings.
 
MIL: Why did you wait ten years to reveal what you found out in all of your interviews? Why not publish some articles in the newspaper you work for?
 
TS: I had to respect these people and keep my promise, or I'm not a journalist. Writing in the paper would have betrayed them and their trust. We're very lucky that they have confessed. Otherwise all we have are accusations, and they are not the truth.
 
MIL: After all of your work, how do you see Cambodia today? 
 
TS: After all of these killings, people need to go ahead. We are working on education. People want to forget about politics; just living, and how to make money. They don't care about the politics, they just want to go forward.
 
The screening schedule for "Enemies of the People" can be found here.

~ GARY MOSKOWITZ

 

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thet sambath docu on khmer rouge & the maguindanao massacre

April 24, 2010 - 05:47 — reinaldo calaunan (not verified)

thet sambath, a kampuchean reporter-filmmaker, has done his people a service, in fact the whole of freedom-loving peoples. his prizewinning documentary on the khmer rouge has placed the rouges in their proper light.

that's almost the same thing i'd like to do in regard to the most abominable crime ever done on journalists anywhere in this world. in fact, i've sketched the outline of a documentary on the november 23, 2009 maguindanao massacre; with some help, i can flesh it out soon enough.

meanwhile, the relatives of the victims continue to suffer.

the latest almost kafkaesque twist in the most heinous crime against journalists has only confirmed the validity of my earlier observations. this is reinaldo "rei" calaunan, the filipino writer-journalist whop authored the 1986 philippine people power revolution philosophical construct (see bayaning pinoy tabloid, ,march 9-16, 2001 issue ,ro email me at reinaldocalaunan@yahoo.com for the full background of my manifesto).

one, the philippine press, in light of the november 23, 2009 maguindanao massacre, where 57 innocent, unarmed, peace-loving filipino civilians, including 32 filipino journalists were murdered, is now an inutile, castrated eunuchs, a mere paper tiger.

two, the relatives of the murdered victims should stop the charade in this veritable kafkaesque "trial" of the accused, principally the andal ampatuan pere family. you merely play into the hands of the master puppeteer. hitler was the original expert on this. nothing will come out of it because everybody on the other side is a puppet who does the master's bidding, and nothing else. as ia wrote in a major philippine broadsheet some years back, in my film review of steven spielberg's anti-nazi film, "all fascists in whatever clime and time are alike; they differ only in the degree and intensity of their brutality."

seen in this light, the ruling of (over)acting (in)justice secretary agra practically destroys the conspiracy theory that the presiding judge should have long ago foisted upon andal, sr., jr. zaldy and anwar and all the rest of the accused. now that agras has cleared zaldy and a cousin, the rest of the masterminds will follow suit in their claim.

the best way for the philippine press titans to help the relatives of the maguindanao victims and the philippine press is for them to act as if the top guns in the philippine press were the ones murdered, including the publishers themselves. if this were the context, you'd know what to do.

finally, the best way for the international media networks and press organizations to help the massacre victims' families is by putting your money where your mouths are. help them out financially, raise funds for them, do a concert, like what michael jackson and other artists did in "we are the world" concert. after all, the massacre was the worst killing done on journalists in world history, here in thjis genocide, the killers say to newsmen, "you're just one baby armalite!" ("isang baby armalite ka lang") --the gun used by the killers in mowing down the victims ruthlessly.