(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)November 8, 2010

(MAHWAH, NJ) – Rob Lemkin, director and co-producer of the film “Enemies of the People,” winner of the World Documentary Special Jury Price at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, screened and led a discussion of the film at Ramapo College of New Jersey on November 8. In the meantime, “Enemies of the People” has joined 10 other films on the short list for an Academy Award in the full-length feature category.

The film centers on Sambath, a journalist whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge, who spends a decade making friends with the people who perpetrated the Killing Fields. He obtains groundbreaking accounts from the notorious Brother Number Two and grassroots killers and gains a new and terrifying perspective on the genocide. He is also the documentary’s co-producer.

From the foot soldier perpetrators to Pol Pot’s right-hand man, the notorious Brother Number Two, Sambath records shocking testimony never before seen or heard. Having neglected his own family for years, Sambath’s work comes at a price. But his is a personal mission. He lost his parents and his siblings in the Killing Fields. Amidst his journey to discover why his family died, we come to understand for the first time the real story of Cambodia’s tragedy. Moreover, as Lemkin pointed out during Q&A, In slowly discovering the truth of what happened in Killing Fields may serve justice and the people of Cambodia better than courtroom trials of elderly perpetrators whose chief defensive strategy is silence.

Rob Lemkin is the founder and director of Old Street Films. He has produced and directed over 50 documentaries for BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Sky, The History Channel (US) and Arts & Entertainment. He has won numerous awards in Britain and abroad, and his work has appeared in major documentary strands for C4, BBC and ITV. He has made several films about the history and politics of Asia including “The Real Dr Evil” (BBC/Arts & Entertainment 2003), “Who Really Killed Aung San?” (BBC2 1997), “Malaya: The Undeclared War” (BBC2 1998), and “China: Handle with Care (C4 2001) Bearers of the Sword” (C4 2002).

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