Because of my love for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (to me, it was the Star Wars of my generation), and the conclusion of The Hobbit has marked the end of a particular moviegoing chapter of my life (... unless The Silmarillion gets adapted too), I decided to post my thoughts on The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies on Facebook.
I've been back from Cambodia for nearly a week, but due to a ghastly (and HUGE) blister on my foot, it was nigh impossible to calm myself down enough to do some writing!
Anyway, the doctor has popped the blister three nights ago, and I can finally continue writing again, especially about a particular film I caught at the Cambodia International Film Festival.
One of the gems of the festival, to me, was John Pirozzi's documentary, DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA'S LOST ROCK AND ROLL. A very comprehensive, feature-length documentary that the director spent nearly a year on. It's about a "golden period" from Cambodia's independence, to just before the country was rocked by civil war and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.
Yesterday, I caught the screening of a documentary called DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA'S LOST ROCK AND ROLL by John Pirozzi (I'll write more on the film in another post). And through this film, I became very intrigued by the late King Norodom Sihanouk, whose love for music helped create the golden rock & roll era in Cambodia. Yes, he played the saxophone and the piano.
There are lots of videos of the King, on Youtube, singing. Here's an entire playlist of videos. Of the king. Singing.
(Screenshot of NUOC 2030, NOT River of Exploding Durians!)
Yesterday was the Cambodian premiere of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS.
I took the Tuk Tuk to the Platinum Cinema in Sorya Shopping Center. Taking a Tuk Tuk to a film festival screening? I don't think I've ever done it before. What an interesting experience!
I'm currently hanging out at my hotel room in Phnom Penh. In a few hours, RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS will be screening. Technically, this is the first film festival for DURIANS after Tokyo International Film Festival, I'm pretty thrilled, this is my first time in Cambodia.
Two days after I came back from Copenhagen, I immediately headed off to a TV movie shoot that I was co-directing. Here are some photos from the Masya Alisya set.
