Film
Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll
Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll is a 2014 feature documentary by John Pirozzi about Cambodian rock music of the 1960s and 1970s.[1] It tells the story of the music through the words and songs of the stars who made it, and of what happened to them under the Khmer Rouge.[2]
Synopsis
The film follows Phnom Penh's pop scene from Cambodia's independence from France in 1953 to the Khmer Rouge years of the 1970s.[3] In the 1950s, dance halls in the capital played big band music and crooners, and radio and imported records carried Western sounds into the country.[4] In the 1960s and early 1970s, while the war in Vietnam threatened Cambodia's borders, musicians took rock and roll from America and England and added the melodies and rhythms of traditional Cambodian music.[5] The film traces French, Afro-Cuban and South American influences, and it includes Khmer-language covers of songs by James Taylor, Tito Puente and Rina Ketty.[3] The female vocalists were a central part of the sound.[5] Rock bands played at rooftop parties in Phnom Penh while bombs fell around the city.[5]
Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge on April 17, 1975, and Cambodian rock and roll ended. Star musicians were targeted and killed. Record collections were destroyed, clubs were closed, and Western-style music, dancing and clothing were outlawed.[6] The film gives the number of people killed by the Khmer Rouge as two million, a quarter of the population.[5] Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron and Yol Aularong were among the stars who died.[3] The singer Sieng Vanthy survived by telling the Khmer Rouge that she sold bananas.[4]
The film combines interviews with surviving musicians, archival footage and rare songs.[7] It profiles Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Baksey Cham Krong, Liev Tuk, Huoy Meas, Yol Aularong, Meas Samon, Pou Vannary and Pen Ram, the sister of Pen Ran. Most of them died during the Khmer Rouge genocide.[1] The surviving performers interviewed include Sieng Vanthy, Mol Kamach, Mol Kagnol and members of the band Drakkar.[1]
Production and credits
John Pirozzi was filming City of Ghosts in Cambodia when he was given a copy of the album Cambodian Rocks. The album was a collection of untitled and uncredited songs by artists presumed killed under the Khmer Rouge, and Pirozzi began researching their stories.[1][8] The Cambodian-born artist and sociology professor Linda Saphan was associate producer and lead researcher.[1] Pirozzi has said that he began with a handful of singers' names and that the story took 75 interviews in four countries to piece together. He has also said that most of the archival material from the period had been destroyed.[7] Music, photographs and footage came from people connected to the old music scene.[4] In 2014 the Cambodia Town Film Festival gave the making of the film as seven years.[5] NPR gave it as ten years in 2015.[4]
Pirozzi and Andrew Pope produced the film.[2] Jonathan Del Gatto, Bradley Bessire and Youk Chhang were executive producers.[9] The film is in English, French and Khmer with English subtitles, and Argot Pictures distributed it.[7] The title comes from a song by Sinn Sisamouth.[1]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on May 12, 2015. It gives full versions of several songs heard only in part in the film. Staff at Dust-to-Digital helped find the original recordings and remaster them for compact disc.[1] The album has its own page, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (album).
Release and reception
The film premiered at the 2014 Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California, with one screening on September 7 at 6 p.m.[5] The festival called itself the first film festival in North America to show it. Pirozzi and members of the cast took part in a question-and-answer session after the screening.[5][10]
The film opened in New York in April 2015.[4] On April 22, 2015, Pirozzi held a question-and-answer session at Film Forum with the musicians Mol Kagnol, Mol Kamach, Samley Hong and Seang Tana.[6] On June 11, 2026, the Brand Associates REEL ART Film Series and Los Angeles Filmforum showed the film free at Brand Library in Glendale, California. Chhom Nimol and Senon Williams of the band Dengue Fever joined Filmforum director Adam Hyman for a talk after the show.[7]
The film received positive reviews.[1] As of 2026, Rotten Tomatoes lists a Tomatometer score of 100 percent from 24 reviews.[9] Metacritic gives it a score of 79 out of 100 from eight critics, which it rates as generally favorable.[1] A. O. Scott of The New York Times called it "an unsparing and meticulous reckoning of the effects of tyranny on ordinary Cambodians" and "a rich and defiant effort at recovery."[1] The film received one award and one nomination.[1][8]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Wikipedia, Don't Think I've Forgotten
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 ACMI, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Los Angeles Times, Review: 'Don't Think I've Forgotten' is a deft look at Cambodia's pop (May 15, 2015)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 NPR, The Nearly Lost Story Of Cambodian Rock 'N' Roll (April 22, 2015)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Cambodia Town Film Festival, DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CTFF Officially Selected 2014 (archived)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Film Forum, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Los Angeles Filmforum, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock'n'Roll (June 11, 2026)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 IMDb, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Rotten Tomatoes, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll
- ↑ Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF OFFICIAL 2014 FILM LINEUP (archived)