Life And Death At Preah Vihear

FILM SCREENING and Discussion with Filmmaker, David A. Feingold:

"Life and Death at Preah Vihear"

Director/ Writer/ Producer: David A. Feingold; Director of Photography: Stanley Staniski; Editor: Sam Lee; Produced by: Ophidian Films Ltd.; Distributed by: Documentary Educational Resources (www.der.org) (2014, 51 minutes)

"The Khmer shall reach the revered space of Khao Phra Viharn over our dead bodies." -Lyrics from a Thai popular song, 1962.

"Thais have ambition, they want to cause a problem with Cambodia. They want to start a war with Cambodia" - Soy Sophead, Cambodian Political Commentator.

"I have been deployed to Preah Vihear to protect the territory. We are protecting the country from the invasion of Thai troops." - Sorn Lay, Cambodian Army Officer

"The Preah Vihear Temple issue should have been resolved over 50 years ago" -- Dr. Puangthong Pawakapan, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

"The conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, over the temple... I would say it's a sad story." - Prof Charnvit Kasetsiri, Thammasat University, Thailand.

Life and Death at Preah Vihear examines why two Buddhist countries are fighting in the 21st Century over a Hindu temple from the 11th Century because of a bad French map from the early 20th Century?

Filmed over a five year period in both Thailand and Cambodia, the film uses the conflict over the ancient temple of Preah Vihear (Khmer)/Khao Phra Viharn (Thai) to illuminate current political and cultural tensions between Cambodia and Thailand. In addition, it shows the ways in which the colonial encounter with the West impacted the concept of borders and boundaries of the Southeast Asian state. Finally, it shows the stark political divisions that have split Thailand into "Red Shirts" and "Yellow Shirts", and exposes how the dispute has influenced -- and been influenced by -- Thai internal politics.

The documentary shows the magnificence and symbolism of the temple itself. Using rare archival footage, it places the present dispute in its historical context in both Cambodia and Thailand. It contains interviews with policy makers, scholars and ordinary people on both sides of the border; some of whom see the conflict as senseless, while others are willing to fight to the death. In Thailand, both Red Shirts and Yellow Shirts are filmed, as are the street demonstrations and fighting that has periodically erupted. The film includes the most recent military coup, and concludes by examining the impact of this seizure of power on issues along the border.

David A Feingold, is an anthropologist and award-winning documentary film director. His films include Terror in the Minefields for PBS, Inside the Khmer Rouge for BBC's Assignment, Washington/Peru: We Ain't Winning for Channel Four and PBS and Angkor: Temple Under Siege for National Geographic. He has investigated political, cultural and social issues in Southeast Asia for over three decades. Currently, he's investigating the trade in minority girls and women from Burma, Yunnan and Laos to Thailand. He's previously served as International Coordinator on HIV/AIDS and Trafficking for UNESCO and been a consultant to the Select Committee on Narcotics of the US Congress and United Nations. As co-founder of Ophidian Films, he's brought important issues in the contemporary world to a broad international audience. He's produced fifteen documentary features in Southeast Asia in the last decade with subjects ranging from exclusive portraits of Khmer Rouge guerrillas, the tragic impact of landmines and the fight for cultural survival in a classical dance school on the Thai-Cambodian border. His latest offering was filmed over a five-year period in both Cambodia and Thailand, as the two countries contest the mountaintop temple.

In March 2007, Documentary Educational Resources (DER), a non-profit organization founded in 1968 for the purpose of producing and distributing cross-cultural documentary films for educational use, released a series of films on Cambodia, by David A Feingold. They were Waiting For Cambodia (1988) and Silent Sentinels, Cowards War (1995), as well as, Return To Year Zero? (1989),K'Sai Chivit: Threads of Life (1994) and Inside The Khmer Rouge (1990). Each one of these films takes an intriguing look at a facet of life in Cambodia.

David Feingold received an MA in Southeast Asia Studies from Yale University in 1964.

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