Film
I Am Chut Wutty
I Am Chut Wutty is a 2015 documentary by Fran Lambrick and Vanessa de Smet about the Cambodian forest activist Chut Wutty and the communities he led.[1][2] Chut Wutty was shot and killed by military police on April 26, 2012, and the film is dedicated to him.[1]
Synopsis
Chut Wutty led the Prey Lang Network, a group of forest activists. Its members visited logging sites with cameras to record the damage, the abandoned equipment and the piles of cut timber.[3] The activists came from 330 villages, and their direct action included burning timber that had already been cut, to wipe out the profits and raise the costs of the loggers.[4] Beginning in late 2011, the film follows Prey Lang Community Network patrols in the shrinking forest as members try to stop land-concession companies from cutting trees illegally.[5]
The communities depend on the forest to live, including on resin trees.[3][1] The film says that rubber companies cut the resin trees illegally; the companies argue that rubber brings jobs and development to the area.[1] More than 400,000 resin trees had been felled, and no one had been paid for them. The activist Mao Chanthoern says that losing the trees would mean losing everything.[3]
At a rubber plantation concession in Prey Lang, in Kampong Thom province, armed military personnel attacked Chut Wutty, and community members rescued him.[6] He later turned to the Cardamom Mountains, where he believed yellow vine was being used to make drugs. He was shot dead while trying to leave a yellow vine site in April 2012.[3][1] The film includes footage of Chut Wutty from his last months and accounts from witnesses and colleagues.[7][6] In it he speaks of the support he received from the network's activists and says that fear could stop others from carrying on his work.[5] After his death, the network struggled to continue without him.[3] The film traces the activists' work from the Prey Lang forest to the Cardamom Mountains.[3]
Production
Fran Lambrick, a British filmmaker, made the film as part of her doctoral research at Oxford University on community forestry in the Prey Lang region.[4] She wrote, directed and produced it, and Last Line Productions was the production company.[2][7] It is a production of the United Kingdom and Cambodia, in Khmer. The documentary uses animation and runs 57 minutes.[2] Voice of America gave its length as 50 minutes.[5]
Release
The film was scheduled for release in the United States on April 5, 2016.[2] It had its Long Beach premiere at the 2016 Cambodia Town Film Festival, with one screening on Sunday, September 4, at 5 p.m.[1]
In Cambodia, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts stopped a public screening planned for April 20, 2016, at Meta House in Phnom Penh.[5] A ministry spokesman, Thai Norak Satya, said the film had been made and was to be shown in Cambodia without permission.[8] The ministry also said the film had not passed a content check.[4] Lambrick said the government should allow it because it shows a Cambodian hero fighting deforestation, and her crew asked the government for permission for a later screening.[8][5] Nicolaus Mesterharm, the founding director of Meta House, called the film a window onto events in the forest.[4]
After the ban, private screenings took place across Cambodia. Police interrupted one at Solidarity House in Phnom Penh, attended by Lambrick, 30 minutes after it began, then let it continue.[4] On April 26, 2016, the anniversary of Chut Wutty's death, Radio Free Asia posted the Khmer version on its Khmer website with the makers' permission, and an English-subtitled version for 24 hours.[7][5] Lambrick later made the film available to stream and invited people to host screenings.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2016 Official Selection: I AM CHUT WUTTY (archived)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 IMDb, I Am Chut Wutty (2015)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Journeyman Pictures, I Am Chut Wutty (August 19, 2015)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Hyperallergic, Cambodia Censors Screening of Film About Slain Environmental Activist (May 3, 2016)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Voice of America, Filmmaker to Post Banned Documentary About Cambodian Logging Activist (April 26, 2016)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Wikipedia, Chut Wutty
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Radio Free Asia, RFA Features Banned Film on Murdered Cambodian Rainforest Activist on Website (April 25, 2016)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Voice of America, Film Director About Chut Wutty Said Her Film Should Not Be Banned (April 20, 2016)