CMC Research Brownbag with Film + Talk
Eric Galmard’s A Tomb for Khun Srun
Nov 8 Wed 2:30 p.m.
Screening and Discussion on A Tomb for Khun Srun (Dora film, 2015)
Khun Srun was a brilliant Cambodian writer who joined the revolutionary guerillas in 1973 only to be executed by the Khmer Rouge regime in December 1978.
This film aims to bring attention to his literary voice, both autobiographical and critical, sincere and satirical. While it raises questions about the journey of an intellectual who chose the revolutionary camp (to his ultimate undoing), the voice not only resonates in the past, while interacting with archival images, but also in the present which it is able to question directly, for example when attacking land speculation or corruption.
It is therefore not only a question of reflecting the past life and work of this writer. It is the present that the film targets, as embodied by the daughter of the writer, Khun Khem, who looks into her father’s history. She’s the only surviving family member and now lives in a precarious state in Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold.
About the Lecturer
Eric Galmard teaches film at the University of Strasbourg (Faculty of Arts), France. He worked in several Asian countries (the Philippines, Japan, Cambodia) and in the Pacific region (Fiji islands), both in the university system and the French cultural network. Since 2009 he has taught film in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Strasbourg, focusing in particular on documentary cinema and Asian cinema. (http://www.dorafilms.com/
