A River Changes Course

A River Changes Course is a 2012 documentary by Kalyanee Mam about three young Cambodians whose lives change as the country rapidly develops. It was Mam's first film as director, and it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Film details
Director	Kalyanee Mam
Format	Feature
Film type	Documentary
First released	2012
Running time	83 minutes
Screened at	Cambodia Town Film Festival
Subjects	Film & Moving Image
Creator pages	Kalyanee Mam

Synopsis

Twice a year, the Tonle Sap River in Cambodia changes course. The film moves from the mountain forests and floating villages of the countryside to the garment factories of Phnom Penh. Its original Khmer title, Kbang Tik Tonle, names the practice of dipping both hands into water and drinking from them, an act that connects people to water, nature and life.

Sav Samourn is a young mother from one of Cambodia's 23 Indigenous groups. She lives in the mountains of northern Cambodia, where companies are clearing the forests her community depends on, and in time she too sells land to logging companies.

Sari Math is 14 when the film begins, fishing with his father from a floating village on the Tonle Sap. His days are given to fishing, Islamic tradition and school. As the fish catch shrinks, he leaves school to help support his family, and his father sends him to work on a Chinese-run cassava plantation. By the end of the film he is 16.

Khieu Mok leaves her village outside Phnom Penh to work in a garment factory and help pay her family's debts. She is torn between the factory and her aging parents at home, who need her help with the harvest. Across the three stories, the film links changes in Cambodia's forests, rivers, rice fields and capital with changes in the hopes of its people.

Production and credits

Mam, a lawyer with no formal training as a filmmaker, decided to make the film after a visit to Cambodia in 2008. She spent two years in Cambodia filming in an intimate, verité (observational) style. She said she wanted to show the struggle of Cambodians today and to help both the public and the government understand what development was doing to the country.

Mam directed, produced and filmed the documentary. Ratanak Leng was co-producer and Youk Chhang executive producer. Chris Brown edited the film, David Mendez composed the music, and Zach Martin and Angie Yesson recorded the sound. Migrant Films, the Documentation Center of Cambodia and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation presented the film. It was made in Cambodia and is in Khmer.

Release and reception

The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2013. That year it also won the Golden Gate Award for documentary feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Filmmaker Award at Full Frame, the Human Rights Award at RiverRun, and Grand Jury Prizes at the Atlanta Film Festival and the Environmental Film Festival at Yale. At the 2014 SIMA Awards it won Best Cinematography and the Stylistic Achievement Jury Prize.

A Cambodia Town Film Festival tour screening on April 19, 2013 included an introduction and a question-and-answer session with Mam. The film was then shown at the Art Theatre as part of the first Cambodia Town Film Festival in September 2013. That year, Mam planned to screen it in villages and universities across Cambodia to open discussion about the country's future.

The New York Times named the film a Critics' Pick during its theatrical run. In the Los Angeles Times, Sheri Linden wrote that "Mam's camera work is exquisite in its immediacy and agility." As of 2018, Mam was planning a sequel following Sari, who had become a migrant worker in South Korea.

References