Creator

Caylee So

Caylee So is a Khmer American director and co-founder of the Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California.

Caylee So is a Khmer American filmmaker who co-directed In the Life of Music (2018) and co-founded the Cambodia Town Film Festival.[1][2] She came to directing after serving in the U.S. Army, and her home base is Long Beach, California.[3][4]

Early life and service

So was born in the Khao-I-Dang refugee camp on the Cambodia–Thailand border and grew up in Northern Virginia.[5][4] After high school she served eight years in the Virginia Army National Guard, with two tours in Iraq, in 2005 and 2009.[6][7] In Iraq in 2005, watching Million Dollar Baby with other soldiers made her want to direct films.[5][7] Between tours she moved to George Mason University and changed her major from business to English creative writing. She then earned an MFA in film directing from Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.[7][6]

Films

Her first project as director was the short Testigo Ilegal (also spelled Testigo Illegal), about an undocumented immigrant who witnesses a murder.[6][8] Her short Rupture is about breaking free of paths handed down through generations.[9] Her thesis film, Paulina, follows a Cambodian American girl drawn into gambling in Southern California. It won awards for best film, best director and best editing.[9][10][5] So has said the film is taught in film classes in Cambodia as an example of where Cambodian cinema could go.[9]

So first returned to Cambodia in 2011 to prepare her thesis film. In 2013 she went back to make a documentary for the Cambodian Health Profession Association of America.[5] The idea for In the Life of Music came on a visit in 2015.[10] That year she founded Innovision Pictures.[4] She wrote the script, and she co-directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film with Sok Visal.[9][3] It began as a film with three directors and became a project for two as the story grew.[5]

In the Life of Music is a Khmer-language drama of 92 minutes. Its three stories are set in three chapters, three generations and three worlds, across 37 years of lives changed by the rise of the Khmer Rouge.[4] At its center is the song "Champa Battambang," sung by the prewar singer Sinn Sisamouth. So was moved by how many generations knew the song without knowing where it came from.[10][9] She wanted the film to show Cambodia before the war as well, not only the war and the deaths under the Khmer Rouge.[10] Post-production took two years.[9] The film premiered on May 5, 2018, at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, as the festival's first Cambodian-produced Centerpiece film, and it was shown in Cambodia in March 2018 at the Cambodia International Film Festival.[4][1] It was Cambodia's official entry for the Academy Awards in 2018.[6][11]

So later directed The Harvest, a family drama written by and starring the Hmong American actor Doua Moua.[12] She has said she grew up rarely seeing families like her own on film, and that the story is about a family bound by cultural traditions in a changing world.[6] In February 2023 she was developing a period supernatural drama about new refugees after the Vietnam War.[6] She has told stories in five languages, and she is executive director of BeNorth Films.[12][7]

Cambodia Town Film Festival

In 2013 So and praCh Ly held the first Cambodia Town Film Festival at the historic Art Theatre in Long Beach, with a focus on work by Cambodian creators around the world.[13][2] So handled the festival's logistics, and praCh Ly was its public voice. They meant it to help second- and third-generation Khmer Americans stay connected to their roots.[5] In the Life of Music was an opening feature at the festival.[3] So is also an honorary committee member of the Cambodia International Film Festival.[6]

Recognition

  • Zonta Women in Film grant, Most Promising Young Filmmaker (2011)[7]
  • Linda Mabalot New Directors/New Visions Award, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, for Paulina (2013)[4]
  • Directors Guild of America, 18th annual Best Female Student Film Awards, Best Female Student Director[4][14]
  • Best Picture and Best Director, Cecil Awards, Chapman University[6]
  • Best Director, with Sok Visal, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, for In the Life of Music (2018)[1]
  • Best Picture, Winter Film Awards, for In the Life of Music (2019)[15]
  • 32nd annual Los Angeles County Women of the Year Award[6]

Works


See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Focus Cambodia, Made in the Shade (April 6, 2023)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cambodia Town Film Festival, About
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Hi-Lo (Long Beach Post), Podcast: Cambodia Town Film Festival; praCh Ly and Caylee So (September 13, 2019)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, In the Life of Music (2018)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Banyan Blog, Caylee So, 34, Filmmaker, Khmer-American (February 24, 2016)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 We Are Moving Stories, The Harvest (February 2023)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Phnom Penh Post, Director processes 'burden of history' via film
  8. ↑ Indiana University, Establishing Shot, Caylee So: The Compassionate Voice We All Need to Hear (2019)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Indiana University, Establishing Shot, Caylee So (2019)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 VOA Khmer, New feature film chronicles Cambodian family with melody of Sin Sisamuth song (April 19, 2018)
  11. ↑ Long Beach Post, Eat. See. Do., Podcast: Cambodia Town Film Festival; praCh Ly and Caylee So (2019)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 VOA Khmer, Cambodian American filmmaker dedicated to explore immigrant identities (October 24, 2022)
  13. ↑ AsAmNews, 10th Cambodia Town Film Festival kicks off after two-year hiatus (September 13, 2024)
  14. ↑ Winter Film Awards, In the Life of Music (2019)
  15. ↑ Winter Film Awards, In the Life of Music
Retrieved from "https://dev.khmerconnection.com/w/index.php?title=Caylee_So&oldid=7496"
This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:31.