Film
Until They're Gone
Until They're Gone is a 2018 documentary by Christopher Lockett about landmine clearance in Cambodia and the deminer Aki Ra.[1][2] It is a film about landmines, the people who remove them, and hope.[1]
Synopsis
The documentary follows Bill and Jill Morse of the Landmine Relief Fund. The couple left a comfortable retirement in California and moved to Siem Reap to raise funds for Aki Ra, a 2010 CNN Hero, and his team of deminers.[2] Before the move they lived in Palm Springs. As of 2017 they lived in Cambodia permanently.[3]
As a Khmer Rouge child soldier, Aki Ra was forced to plant landmines. In 1994 he began clearing them with only a stick and a pair of pliers. He went on to run Cambodian Self Help Demining, a team that works to international standards, and the Morses fund it through the Landmine Relief Fund.[3] The Morses also work as staff at the Landmine Museum in Siem Reap and at the Rural School Village Program, which builds schools in under-served rural areas of Cambodia.[3]
The film places the mines in Cambodia's history. By the 1990s, three decades of war, including American bombing, the Khmer Rouge killing fields and a Vietnamese invasion, had left the country with millions of landmines.[3] The people who appear in the film include David Chandler, Steve Goose, Bill Morse, Jill Morse and Aki Ra.[2]
Production and release
Lockett holds an MFA in cinematography from the American Film Institute. He has shot films, documentaries and television shows on five continents.[3] His television credits include more than 400 episodes of Big Brother and work on Naked and Afraid XL.[3] The documentary was completed in 2018 and runs 86 minutes. Indie Rights is the company listed for the film.[2] In 2017 the Cambodia Town Film Festival listed it as a Cambodia and United States production in Khmer with English subtitles.[1] The Film Catalogue lists the language as English.[2] IMDb records a 2018 United States release connected with the Newport Beach International Film Festival.[4]
The film was an official selection of the 2017 Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California. It was scheduled to screen on September 17, 2017, at the Art Theatre Long Beach, with the filmmakers taking questions afterward.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2017 Official Selection: UNTIL THEY’RE GONE (archived)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Film Catalogue, Until They're Gone (2021-04-20)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 web.archive.org, Cambodia Town Film Festival (2017-08-06)
- ↑ IMDb, Until They're Gone (2018), Release info (2025-11-27)