Year-round documentary festival DocHouse have announced their
programme for February, bringing four compelling and revealing films to
London’s cinemas.
Red Wedding: “At least 250,000 Cambodian women were forced to marry Khmer Rouge soldiers.”
Thursday 7th February sees a double bill at the Rich Mix Cinema of two films, one recent and one classic, exploring the impact of the Khmer Rouge’s reign in Cambodia. Year Zero: The Silent Death Of Cambodia
was filmed inside Cambodia in 1979, the year the Khmer Rouge were
overthrown, and was the first piece of Western journalism to fully
reveal the devastation wreaked upon the country. Director John Pilger
lays bare the entire chain of events, from the removal of King Norodom
Sihanouk to ensuing famine and genocide under the regime. A rare chance
to see this poignant and sobering portrait of Cambodia’s recent history.
Red Wedding documents how, between 1975 and 1979, at
least 250,000 Cambodian women were forced to marry Khmer Rouge soldiers
they had never met in a concerted effort by the regime to increase the
population. Sochan Pen was one of them. Aged 16, she was beaten and
raped by her husband before managing to escape, albeit deeply scarred by
the trauma of her experience. After 30 years of silence, Sochan is
ready to file a complaint with the international tribunal set up to try
former Khmer Rouge leaders, and with quiet dignity she begins to demand
answers from the regime which caused such agony to a country and its
people. Year Zero begins at 8.00 pm; tickets are £7 (£5 concessions).
On Thursday 21st February at The Lexi Cinema, In My Mother’s Arms
tells the story of Husham, who cares fiercely for a group of 32 young
orphans in a dangerous district of Baghdad, some of whose parents have
been killed, some who have run away, but all who have been abused and
abandoned by the state.
When their landlord gives the group just two
weeks to vacate the only house they have ever felt safe in, a panicked
search for new shelter ensues. Fighting tirelessly to continue to build
on the boys’ hopes, dreams and prospects while also keeping them from
being reclaimed by the state, Husham crosses religious and racial
divides to find help. The screening begins at 6.30 pm; tickets are £7.
High Tech, Low Life: “A fascinating portrait of news-gathering in the 21st Century.”
Finally, on Thursday 28th February another double bill takes place, this time in Riverside Studios. The first, High Tech, Low Life,
introduces us to vegetable seller ‘Zola’ and bicycle-riding activist
‘Tiger Temple,’ two of China’s first Citizen Reporters. Using laptops,
mobiles and digital cameras to bypass the strict codes of conventional
Chinese media, the two risk political persecution to give first-hand,
unmediated accounts of untold stories from around the country. However,
with a 30 year age gap, their approaches differ considerably.
27-year-old Zola is on a coming-of-age journey from produce vendor to
internet celebrity, making the most of sensational urban stories to
increase his fame and future prospects. Meanwhile, Tiger Temple, an
activist in his late 50s, is committed to understanding China’s
tumultuous history, reporting on plights faced by farmers in the
agricultural hinterland. The film is a fascinating portrait of
news-gathering in the 21st Century, and also the story of two people
fuelled by idealism, all the while struggling to reconcile an evolving
sense of individualism, social responsibility and personal sacrifice.
This is followed by Who’s Afraid Of Ai Weiwei?, a
15-minute short that paints a portrait of China’s most famous
international artist immediately before his principled and costly stand
against the Beijing Olympics and the oppressive police state he claimed
it represented. High Tech, Low Life begins at 7.15 pm; tickets are £8.50
(£7.50 concessions).
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