LinDa Saphan, Nate from Lowell, MA, 2016, 7:04. Courtesy of the artist.

Screening


Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll: a screening with LinDa Saphan, John Pirozzi, and Nate Hun

April 22, 2017
AAA in A, '09-'21

43 Remsen St. Brooklyn, NY

A screening of two films which examined the hidden history of Cambodian pop music during the critical decade-and-a-half from 1960 to 1975. Nate from Lowell, MA (7min) profiles Cambodian-American record collector Nate Hun who aspires to to preserve and archive the Cambodian popular music of this era. Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll (105 min) combines interviews with the surviving Cambodian musicians and rare archival material to chronicle the people who wrote, performed, and recorded these songs, and what the music and the artists meant in the lives of the pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodians who listened to it.

Following the screening, filmmakers John Pirozzi and LinDa Saphan and music coordinator/subject Nate Hun hosted a discussion about popular music as a part of Cambodian cultural heritage and the work being done by the current generation of archivists to collect these remnants of Cambodia’s unique past.

LinDa Saphan was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As a visual artist, Dr. Saphan’s work has been included in several collective exhibitions throughout Cambodia, Myanmar, Kenya, Hungary, Singapore, France, and the U.S. She is also an associate producer and head researcher for the documentary film directed by John Pirozzi Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia Lost Rock and Roll released in 2014 and directed a short film Nate From Lowell, MA in 2016. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York.

John Pirozzi is a director and cinematographer of musical documentaries, including Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia Lost Rock and Roll. His first feature documentary film, Sleep Walking Through the Mekong (2007), chronicled the California based band Dengue Fever’s first trip to Cambodia.

Nate Hun was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and has been collecting and preserving prewar Cambodian popular music and memorabilia since his childhood.

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This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.