Cambodia Film Festival: Revival of Royal Movie House in Kampot by CamboFest - History of Cinema
Kampot Festival, #Cambodia Film History: Old Cinema House, the Royal #Movie Theater rediscovery and revival by CamboFest Cambodia #Film Festival in 2009, a part of the social history of Cambodian cinema in Southeast Asia. CamboFest rediscovered and revived the old venue under extremely challenging conditions and with minimal, grass-roots funding - yet the vintage movie hall is now being used regularly by art, cultural, and festival events in Kampot on a regular basis.
But that wasn't always the case: prior to CamboFest, the Royal cinema had lain dormant since 1990, and was being used as a warehouse for industrial water jugs. Searching for a local venue in Kampot, CamboFest staffers happened upon the old structure while investigating the nearby '7 Makara cinema' which was an early choice for a venue but far too dangerous and dilapidated inside.
Although now obviously a vintage Asian standalone cinema hall on first glance, the Royal exhibited distinct architecture of a movie exhibition hall: a wide and prominent overhead marquee area would have been used for large banners, and dual side-panels flanking the front doorway included recessed areas typical of spaces for movie posters.
After locating the Royal, CamboFest staffers went into the hall and introduced themselves to the family who used to run the cinema and who still lived in the venue. There was significant skepticim and initial reluctance by the proprietor, Mr. Chea Sokun since the old movie hall had suffered a long and slow decline from its heydey, due to the advent of the VCR.
After numerous visit to the family (20-25 visits in total) by CamboFest producer & filmmaker/educator Mr. Jason Rosette, it was finally agreed that the Royal might be brought back to life.
At the time - since the old cinema hall had not been used for so long and had been essentially 'forgetten' except by long time Khmer residents of Kampot - the process to gain permissions from the provincial governor and Ministry were extremely challenging. There was no workflow or process: this had to be created from scratch. On a teacher's salary, and with no outside support initially, Mr. Rosette proceeded to meet with local provincial and Sangkat officials in order to attempt to secure permisson to hold the film festival event at the Royal.
However: the local Minister of culture and the provincial governor both had an interest in the other vintage cinema hall in Kampot, the Makara 7, and attempted to force the use of that venue instead - even going so far as to surreptitiously change the name 'Royal' to 'Makara 7' in the memorandum of understanding.
Eventually, the CamboFest staff were able to demonstrate that the Makara 7 was too dangerous to be used as a vintage venue, and the only option was to use the Royal.
Even so, troubles didn't stop there: local foreign movie pirates in Phnom Penh and foreign rivals in the art and culture sector interfered with the event planning to a significant degree - even placing Fake Ads (Fake News) in the local papers in an attempt to derail the event.
However, the event was held as planned and was a resounding grass roots success. With sponsors including the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, the Royal was brought back to life with a custom fitted screen and all-digital projection, and was the first cultural or arts event of any kind to take place in the Royal since 1990.
Read more about the fascinating revival of a piece of Cinema history, the Royal movie hall, on the CamboFest blog and site at
Southeast Asia Cinema Hall 'Royal' in Kampot, Cambodia: A Project to Restore THE ROYAL
Cambodia Film Festival History: In 2009, for the 3rd season of CAMBOFEST: Film and Video Festival of Cambodia (cambofest.com), Cambodia founder Jason Rosette, along with co-organizers Phun Sokunthearith, Suong Sambath and other staff rediscovered and successfully resurrected 'THE ROYAL', a vintage Cambodian movie house which had been shut down and partly destroyed during the Cambodian civil war and subsequent Khmer Rouge regime. (see pix @
The 'Royal' had been briefly used again as a venue from 1985-1988, when it was finally shuttered...until the CamboFest event, the old cinema house had lain dormant, unused, and forgotten by all but a few local Cambodian old timers.
See more pix and video on the CamboFest blog @
CAMBOFEST: Film and Video Festival of Cambodia
cambofest.com
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Old Royal Vintage Cinema in Kampot, Cambodia - 360 Video Lunch with Owners & Family!
Old Royal Vintage cinema (cinéma cambodge) in Kampot, Cambodia - // 360 degree Asia video tour and traditional lunch with Mr. Chea Sokan and his family, resident-owners of the vintage cinema house, the 'Royal' in Kampot Cambodia.
Seen here with long time family friend, filmmaker and producer Jason Rosette (founder of Cambodia's first film festival, CamboFest cambofest.com), who rediscovered and revived the old movie venue with his team for the 3rd edition of the festival in 2009.
The 'Royal' standalone vintage cinema house was rediscovered and revived by Mr. Rosette and his team for the 2009 edition of Cambodia's first film festival, the CamboFest, Cambodia Film Festival event.
Since that time, many other filmmakers and arts groups have followed suit in utilizing the Royal for their activities, thus providing an even greater boost to the local Kampot art and culture scene!
Stop by 'The Royal' when traveling in Asia, and explore a bit of Cambodian cinema history!
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The Royal - Cambodia Documentary
In 1975 the Khmer Rouge began the systematic murder of over 2 million Cambodian people.
This film looks at how arts and culture were destroyed, how the genocide stills affects the people of Cambodia and how a couple who lived through it came to reside in the Royal Cinema in Kampot.
Produced as part of Epic Arts' 'Come Back Brighter' theatre show and filmed in Kampot, Cambodia at the Old Royal Cinema.
Epic Arts - Come Back Brighter Show - Kampot, Cambodia (Trailer)
A trailer of the Come Back Brighter Dance show produced by Epic Arts and performed in the Old Royal Cinema, Kampot.
Interior Demolition of the Makara 7, a Southeast Asian Vintage Cinema Hall in Kampot, Cambodia
↪SUBSCRIBE! :: The old Makara 7 vintage movie house in Kampot, Cambodia is being transformed into...not sure yet, but active construction can be seen in the video clip.This was one of our shortlisted venues Camerado sought to restore for the pioneering movie event, CamboFest, back in 2009, but even then it was just too broken down inside and would have posed a risk to guests.
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As it turned out, we refitted another nearby vintage cinema house, the Royal, with a custom screen and digital projection system and the event went well: that historic event demonstrated the first restoration of a vintage, formerly defunct cinema hall in Southeast Asia to an ongoing, patron ready condition. (see for pix and video of the effort).
To this day, the Royal is continuing on as an occasional all-purpose art venue, with local arts group Epic arts being the most recent to use it as a creative space; the front lobby is now a sort of vintage trinket shop, rented out by one of the many Kampot hipsters and artists who have relocated here recently.
I'd encourage more Southeast Asian vintage cinema houses to follow our lead, because a lot can be done on even a modest budget, as seen back in 2009. I'd estimate our budget to revive the Royal to a guest ready, workable condition - done very modestly, and grass roots and indie style, with individual contributions, a small grant from the US Embassy, Phnom Penh, and a smattering of business level contributions - was at the most 1/1000 that of a state-level or UNESCO level event.
Anyway, after a recent trip to Saigon, where I noted and photographed some vintage movie houses, despite the stratospheric rate of development, it's nice to see some of the old movie halls still around in one form or another.
Regarding the Makara 7, which I passed by yesterday and saw active construction inside, as seen in the video. Will update folks soon with further info.
Old Khmer Movie Preview
Somlaeng Ttrao Khmae starring: Pbisitt Pbilikga,Hum Chora, and Neay Kgrum...
-just a preview from the early 1990s
Cinema of Cambodia
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Cinema in Cambodia began in the 1950s, and many films were being screened in theaters throughout the country by the 1960s, which are regarded as the golden age.After a decline during the Khmer Rouge regime, competition from video and television has meant that the Cambodian film industry is a small one.
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Article available under a Creative Commons license
Image source in video
Trip to Kampot province, My hometown
Kampot (Khmer: ក្រុងកំពត) is a city in southernCambodia and the capital of Kampot Province. It is situated at the Praek Tuek Chhu river southeast of the Elephant Mountains and around 5 km (3 mi) from the Gulf of Thailand.[1] Kampot was the capital of theCirconscription Résidentielle de Kampotunder French rule and Cambodia's most important sea port after the loss of the Mekong Delta and before the establishment of Sihanoukville.[2] Its center is unlike most Cambodian provincial capitals composed of 19th-century French colonial architecture. The region and town are well known for the high quality pepper, which is being exported worldwide.[3] It is also known for its Kampotfish sauce[4] and durian.[5]
History of KAMPOT: Under 19th century French colonial administration Kampot became a regional administrative centre with the status of a state border district as a result of thedelimitation of the Kingdom of Cambodia. TheCirconscription Résidentielle de Kampotcontained the arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong-Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey.[6][7]
In 1889 French colonial census reports a multi-ethnic community: Kampot town consisted of Cambodian Kampot on the Prek-Kampot River and Chinese Kampot on the right riverbank of the west branch of the Prek-Thom River. Nearby was also aVietnamese village, called Tien-Thanh and another Vietnamese village on Traeuy Koh Island. A Malay also existed on Traeuy Koh Island. Additional villages of mixed ethnicity are listed.[8]
Tourism: Kampot is the base for trips up the Dâmreiand Bokor Mountains.
Bokor Hill Station (in Khmer: កស្ថានីយភ្នំបូកគោKosthany Phnom Bokor) refers to a collection of French colonial buildings (hotel & casino, church, royal residence etc. ), constructed as a temperate mountain luxury resort and retreat for colonial residents in the early 1920s atop Bokor Mountain in Preah Monivong National Park, about 37 km (23 mi) west of Kampot in southern Cambodia. Abandoned for long periods of time, modern infrastructure has made the location easily accessible as re-development is taking place. It was used as the location for the final showdown of the movie City of Ghosts (2002) and the 2004 film R-Point.[1] To the north-east are the Povokvil Waterfalls.
CAMBODIA FILM FESTIVAL: Discovery of 2nd lost vintage Cambodia cinema house in Cambodia
CAMBOFEST, Cambodia (cambofest.com) staffer Vuth Tep of 'Vuth Learns to Rock' presents on mobile phone video the vintage 'Santapheap', (Friendship) cinema one of the four original cinemas in Kampot, Cambodia, lost and forgotten by the general public until today.
Only three of the four old pre-Khmer Rouge cinema house structures remain in Kampot: the '7 Maraka', the 'Royal' (re-discovered and brought back to life for the 2009 edition of CamboFest - see cambofest.blogspot.com) and this, the third, the Santapheap.
Get more information about CAMBOFEST: FIlm and Video Festival of Cambodia at
Fighting the Khmer Rouge! Interview with Mr. Chea Sokan (Part 2) of the Royal Cinema in Kampot
360 degree video interview with Mr. Chea Sokan, proprietor of the Old Royal cinema house in Kampot, Cambodia, Asia. Mr. Sokan describes his time fighting against the encroaching Khmer Rouge in Kampot, his time spent in a forced labor camp, and how he and his wife decided to re-start the Royal cinema after it had fallen to ruin during the civil war and KR takeover.
Golden Temple Historic Movie Theater • CAMBODIA • Battambang • ក្រុងបាត់ដំបង
A tour inside the Golden Theater in Battambang, Cambodia - one of Southeast Asia's last standing historical movie theaters.
Phallay Chey lives in Battambang and remembers watching on the big screen Cambodian stars like Ampor Devi (អម្ពរ ទេវី), Sam Vichea (សំវិជា) and Tep Rindaro (ទេព រិនដារ៉ូ).
Battambang once had six historical movie theaters. The Golden Temple is one of only two total left standing.
Read more:
• Ampor Devi at:
• An article in the Phnom Pehn Post which inspired this video: phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/relics-cambodias-cinematic-golden-age
• The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Blog by Philip Jablon:
• Map of Historical Movie Theaters in Battambang
Cambodia: THE FORCED LABOR OF ANGKAR LUE/CAP TREN 1975-1979 (3/11) [KH-EN]
In fact, the liberation of Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975 with the secret helps of Vietcong who I have already mentioned before and later. Prince Norodom Sihanouk also tells extremely clearly that Cambodia was liberated from 1970 on was all Vietcong who were secretly behind all Khmer resistances, but the Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot, who didnt want to serve Yuon as the slaves of Indochinese Communist Party, unlike Laos that has been swallowed up completely in 1975, also tried to get rid Vietcong out of Cambodia:
Was it the fact that the Khmer Rouge subjected their own people and even their own followers to genocide, massacres, forced labor, slavery, concentration camps, and political purges horrified the entire world and the drove DK deeper into isolation each day in the countryside?
Let me reiterate that the Vietnamese were behind the Khmer resistance effort from March 18, 1970 on, an important factor in the eventual victory over the U.S. and Lon Nol. The historic truth is that Kampuchea was liberated with Vietnamese help, and not that Saigon and South Vietnam were liberated with Khmer Rouge help. In fact, between 1970 and 1975 the Khmer Rouge did everything in their power to trip up their Yuon comrades!
Summers concludes, in the same fashion as her first article, Cambodia: Consolidating the Revolution, by returning to the realm of foreign policy and Kampuchea's position vis-à-vis its historical enemies. She notes that the new regimes posture towards Vietnam is cool, but that with its Indian brothers to the west and north, Thailand and Laos, respectively, relations have improved.
Nowhere is the romance with revolutions more obvious than it is here. Porter and Hildebrand expect revolutionaries to bend and to be humanitarian because their indoctrination had taught that revolutions were good. Phnom Penh was in the jaws of starvation when the Khmer Rouge liberated it, so they argued, and that there was no other alternative than to evacuate everyone.
More rigorous analyses supported by actual evidence suggests a rather more cynical desire to shut the economy down, reverse class order, and enslave the urban population. The controversy over the evacuation continues despite compelling evidence that suggests it was unnecessary and provoked numerous deaths.
Summers abridged translation intended to offer the world a peek into the mysterious Khmer Rouge and their plans for Cambodia.
According to estimates of the services of American information, at the time of the coup d'etat, the Khmer Rouges had less than three thousand men and women under the weapons. Few of these guerrillas had undergone a serious military drive, and they were seldom gathered in units more significant than the section. Their knowledge of the Marxism-Leninism was surface, and the international aspects of the movement escaped the majority of them. At the beginning of 1970, they were scattered in small bands in the wooded frontier areas of the provinces of Kompong Speu, Kampot, Battambang, Kratié, and in the North-East of Kampuchea.
While Brother number one was in Vietnam and in China in 1969-1970, Nuon Chea had replaced it at the HQ of the party, in the North-East of the country. Ieng Sary was responsible for the secondary base of Rattanakiri. Little after the coup detat, and return of Saloth Sar, Vietnamese officer had come to the camp from Sary to require the assistance of the Khmers. Let us quote the confession of Kheang Sim Hon: They asked support for their combatants, of the assistance for their frameworks on all the levels, and our assistance to build a hospital. [Ieng Sary] tried to reject these requests, but that did not go; a Vietnamese divisional commander, who affirmed being in permanent relation with Saloth Sar, spent the night at the base, and did not want to leave. After having reached the requirements of the Vietnamese, the Khmers allowed them to involve their soldiers. In other areas, the Vietnamese took less gloves. Without same consulting the local Communists, they mobilized whole Kampuchean villages to fight for Sihanouk, and their officers framed the young recruits. They wanted to benefit from the popularity of Sihanouk, and owing to the fact that the population was under the shock of the coup detat to improve safety of their bases and lines of supply in Kampuchea. During this first stage of resistance, like Ben Kiernan writes it, the revolutionary administration was essentially a creation of the Vietnamese Communists and Khmers cooperating... with them.
There were undoubtedly clashes occasional and not premeditated between Kampuchean communist forces and Vietnamese, But the Khmer Rouges continued to need the military aid and the technical aid of Vietnam; without forgetting that the forces Vietnamese were much more powerful than the units of guerrilla of the Khmer Rouges, and then they were by no means in a hurry from to go away.
Helicopter cambodian civil war 1972 1975
Description
Cambodian market fire movie
After July 31 fire destroys their Flint area Cambodian market, couple starts rebuilding while needing funds to buy goods.
Cambodia Film production (Movie Outtakes) TEP NIKOR PRODUCTION
31.07.2017 - Ich besuchte die Tempel von Tonle Bati. Zur gleichen Zeit fanden dort Dreharbeiten für einen Kinofilm statt. Schlussendlich verbrachte ich die meiste Zeit mit der Filmcrew. Es war ein sehr amüsanter Nachmittag.
CAMBOFEST, Cambodia International Film Festival: Vintage Asian Movie House in Cambodia
Visitors to Kampot, Cambodia can now take a look inside one of Cambodia's original vintage cinema halls, the 'Royal': look for the sign outside the old Royal!
The kindly owners will make a fresh cup for only $1, which goes to the family living there, giving visitors a chance to experience one of the living relics of Asian cinema
From CamboFest, Cambodia Film Festival cambofest.com
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► ABOUT CAMERADO
Camerado Movies and Media produces compelling and award winning movies, music and media of all kinds including: factual, scripted, documentaries, branded and web videos, 360 Videos, VR / Virtual Tours, and other interactive and digital media.
Our production effort has been in existence since 1996, when filmmaker, writer-director and educator Jason Rosette first began shooting the internationally acclaimed New York City urban documentary, 'BookWars' ('Terrific' - LA Times * 'Superb' - New York Film Critics Circle) At that time, Youtube wasn't even around! But you can see the Youtube version of 'BookWars' here at
A few years after the release of 'Bookwars', Camerado produced the '21st Century Cloning Road Movie', LOST in NEW MEXICO, one of the 1st indie films to be made in New Mexico, USA, after the introduction of state production incentives.
Again, Youtube wasn't around yet - or we woulda' show some clips and trailers before our release ;) The completed feature can be seen on Youtube at:
After producing that feature, Camerado founder, filmmaker Jason Rosette (jasonrosette.com), relocated to SE Asia to live with lower overhead while editing and completing 'Lost in New Mexico'
From 2005 to 2016, Camerado operated primarily in the ASEAN (SE Asia) region, while producing projects for NGOs, private sector businesses, and producing an ongoing range of independent films.
The internet was pretty shaky in Cambodia from 2005 to 2010 or so, and it was a challenge indeed to upload large movie files on a regular basis.
Camerado’s first movie on Youtube, 'The Commute', is a motorcycle POV driving to work through (then) busy Phnom Penh traffic. That DIY action cam film, preceding GoPro's appearance by half a decade, was uploaded in 2006 and can be seen here:
► RECOMMENDED Movies, Music & More by Camerado
'BookWars' - Award winning feature documentary (Terrific - LA Times)
'Freedom Deal' - Supernatural historical drama made in Cambodia set in 1970 along the Vietnam-Cambodia border during the Vietnam war (section)
'Lost in New Mexico: The Strange Tale of Susan Hero' - Indie road movie made in New Mexico, USA..a '21st Century Cloning Road Movie'
'The Crunch' [Debut Album by alt-rock singer songwriter, 'Gone Marshall']
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● CamboFest: Film and Video Festival of Cambodia - Cambodia's first international film festival since the end of the Khmer Rouge Regime, founded by Camerado Movies and Media in 2007. His Majesty the King-Father asked me to thank you on His behalf. He read with great interest your report about your activities in reviving the cinema industry in Cambodia. - From the cabinet of H.M. The King-Father Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia | Get info at cambofest.com and facebook.com/CAMBOFEST
● Bangkok IndieFest - The regional counterpart of CamboFest, the Bangkok IndieFest was launched by Camerado in 2010; it was the first cultural event to take place in Bangkok following the deadly 2010 'Red Shirt' protests, and was hailed by CNN Go Asia Pick facebook.com/bangkokfest
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former King Sihanouk's summer palace
old royal retreat of King Sihanouk left in ruins and covered in a strange orange moss on the top of Bokor hill 'cliff near Kampot town -Cambodia
Cambodia: THE ILLEGAL BOMBING OF CAMBODIA [EN]
In early 1967, an insurrection broke out in the area around Samlot in Battambang, a province long noted for the presence of large landowners and great disparities of wealth. Local resentment focused on tax collections and on the decision of the revenue-starved government to expropriate land to build a sugar refinery near Samlot. In January 1967, irate villagers attacked a tax collection brigade--an incident that recalled the 1925 murder of the French resident in the area. With the probable encouragement of local communist cadres, the insurrection quickly spread through the whole region. Sihanouk was on one of his frequent sojourns in France, and Lon Nol, the prime minister, responded harshly. After returning home in March 1967, Sihanouk personally supervised counterinsurgency measures. He later mentioned, in an offhand way, that the effectiveness of the royal armed forces had restored the peace but that approximately 10,000 people had died.
The insurgency was not suppressed completely. It spread rapidly from Batdambang to the southern and to the southwestern provinces of Pouthisat (Pursat), Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Cham, Kampong Speu, Kampot, and the central province of Kampong Thom. By the end of 1968, unrest was reported in eleven of the country's eighteen provinces. The Khmer Loeu regions of Mondul Kiri (Mondolkiri) Province and Ratanak Kiri Province fell almost entirely under KCP control by the end of the decade.
United States bombing of enemy troop dispositions in Cambodia - particularly in the summer of 1973, when intense aerial bombardment (known as Arclight) was used to halt a Khmer Rouge assault on Phnom Penh -bought time for the Lon Nol government, but did not stem the momentum of the communist forces. United States official documents give a figure of 79,959 sorties by B-52 and F-111 aircraft over the country, during which a total of 539,129 tons of ordnance were dropped, about 350 percent of the tonnage (153,000 tons) dropped on Japan during World War II. Many of the bombs that fell in Cambodia struck relatively uninhabited mountain or forest regions; however, as declassified United States Air Force maps show, others fell over some of the most densely inhabited areas of the country, such as Siemreab Province, Kampong Chhnang Province, and the countryside around Phnom Penh. Deaths from the bombing are extremely difficult to estimate, and figures range from a low of 30,000 to a high of 800,000, with UN and CIA estimates of 600,000 or more and others 100,000. Whatever the real extent of the casualties, the Arclight missions over Cambodia, which were halted in August 15, 1973, by the United States Congress, delivered shattering blows to the structure of life in some of the country's villages, and, according to some critics, drove the Cambodian people into the arms of the Khmer Rouge.
The bombing was by far the most controversial aspect of the United States presence in Cambodia. In his book Sideshow, William Shawcross provides a vivid image of the hellish conditions, especially in the months of January to August 1973, when the Arclight sorties were most intense. He claims that the bombing contributed to the forging of a brutal and single-mindedly fanatical Khmer Rouge movement. However, his arguments have been disputed by several United States officials -including the former ambassador to Cambodia, Emory C. Swank, and the former Air Force commander in Thailand, General John W. Vogt - in an appendix to the second volume of the memoirs of then Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.
Come Back Brighter 2017
Back by popular demand for the second year running 'Come Back Brighter'. Produced by Epic Arts in the Old Royal Cinema, Kampot.
Opening night January 3rd 2017
Every Tuesday & Friday
03/01/2017 - 24/02/2017
Kampot
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