Film
Surviving Bokator
Surviving Bokator is a documentary by Mark J. Bochsler about Grandmaster San Kim Sean and his work to save the Cambodian martial art of Bokator.[1] A genocide survivor, he trains a new generation of young instructors to carry the art forward.[1]
Background
Kun L'Bokator, a name the film translates as "to pound a lion," is a Cambodian martial art that imitates the fighting styles of animals.[2] It is thought to have begun more than 1,700 years ago on the battlefields of the Angkorian Empire.[2] The Khmer Rouge nearly wiped it out in the 1970s, and it was feared extinct.[2][3]
Synopsis
San Kim Sean escaped death during the Cambodian genocide (1975 to 1979).[1] He fled the country and made his living teaching martial arts in refugee camps and later in the United States.[4] He told the filmmakers, "I almost died three times."[5] When he returned to Cambodia in 1992, he found that young Cambodians did not know Bokator and that it was disappearing.[4] He searched the countryside for surviving masters, won their support and knowledge, and opened the Bokator Academy in Phnom Penh.[1] He then worked to persuade the older masters to bring the art back across the country.[6]
The film follows his students as they train to become Bokator's future leaders, and as a youth team sets out to win international competition.[1][7] Darith Ung, a former monk who was 29 in 2017, is the academy's star instructor and San Kim Sean's chosen protégé; he lives at the academy and sleeps on the mats where he trains.[1] Tharoth Sam, known as "Little Frog," challenges gender norms by training to become, in the festival's words, Cambodia's first female Bokator instructor; the film's site calls her goal to be its first female Bokator champion fighter.[1][4] Vath Chamroeun, who wrestled for Cambodia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and is a senior sports official, also appears as a supporter of the art.[4] As the school grows, remnants of Cambodia's past threaten the foundation Bokator needs to survive.[1]
Production and credits
The Canadian filmmakers Mark Bochsler and Sandra Leuba met San Kim Sean while visiting Cambodia in the spring of 2010.[8] Bochsler directed and filmed it in a vérité style, and Leuba produced it, with Loy Te as associate producer.[1][7][2] Ricardo Acosta, Mark Bochsler and Faisal Lutchmedial are credited as writers.[9] Kevin Schjerning, Joseph Johnson-Cami, Tamara Scherbak and Faisal Lutchmedial edited the film, and Vincent Villa was sound designer and re-recording mixer.[4][3][7] Cineboxx Film & Television produced it, with Kongchak Pictures.[7][9]
Kongchak Pictures gives the length of the shoot as five years and The Hi-Lo as more than five years; the film's site and Kinema say it was filmed over a decade.[7][6][2][3] The 2017 festival cut ran 1 hour and 25 minutes, in Khmer with English subtitles, and was listed as a work in progress.[1] The film's site lists a 97-minute version in English with a Khmer dub, and Kinema lists 1 hour and 41 minutes.[2][3]
Release and reception
The film premiered in 2017 and screened at festivals in Cambodia, Canada and the United States.[8] As an official selection of the 2017 Cambodia Town Film Festival, it played the Art Theatre in Long Beach on September 17, 2017, followed by a question-and-answer session with Bochsler and Tharoth Sam.[1] Long Beach was among its first audiences, and it screened at the Khmer Arts Academy in June 2019.[6] Kongchak Pictures dates the release to 2018, and IMDb lists a release in Cambodia on May 25, 2023.[7][9] It toured Switzerland in July 2023.[2]
Awards listed by Kongchak Pictures include Documentary Feature at the IndieFEST Film Award and Feature Film at the Asia Pacific International Filmmaker Festival & Awards in 2018; Best Documentary at the European Cinematography Awards, Best Cinematography of a Feature Film at the Asian Cinematography Award and Best Feature Film at the NYC Indie Film Award in 2019; Documentary Feature Film at the Jaipur International Film Festival and two awards at the Milano International FICTS Fest in 2020; and Best Documentary and Outstanding Achievement in Directing at the Lonely Wolf: London International Film Festival in 2021.[7] Kinema lists Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Director at the Lonely Wolf London International Film Festival, and also Best Documentary Feature at the Liverpool Film Festival, Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Movie Awards, Best Sport Documentary at the Bangkok International Documentary Awards and Best Editing at the Paladino d'Oro Sport Film Festival and a Mention d'Honeur at the Milano FICTS Sport Film Festival.[3]
UNESCO inscribed Kun L'Bokator on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022, and the filmmakers say the film was an instrumental resource in that decision.[2] H.E. Phoeurng Sakona, Cambodia's Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, called it a unique and important historical record of one of Cambodia's major traditions.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2017 Official Selection: Surviving Bokator (archived)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Surviving Bokator, The Martial Arts Film (2025)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Kinema, Surviving Bokator (2025)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Surviving Bokator, Cast & Crew (2024)
- ↑ TRT World, The resurgence of Cambodian martial art 'kun bokator' (May 9, 2023)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Hi-Lo, In Pictures: Star of 'Surviving Bokator' brings the martial art to life (June 10, 2019)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Kongchak Pictures, Surviving Bokator (July 20, 2023)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 VOA Khmer, Documentary Filmmaker Focuses on Cambodia's Martial Art (November 14, 2018)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 IMDb, Surviving Bokator (2018)