Film

Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll

Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll is a 2014 feature documentary by John Pirozzi about Cambodian rock music of the 1960s and 1970s.[1] It tells the story of the music through the words and songs of the stars who made it, and of what happened to them under the Khmer Rouge.[2] It had its world premiere at the Chaktomuk Theatre in Phnom Penh in January 2014.[3]

Synopsis

The film follows Phnom Penh's pop scene from Cambodia's independence from France in 1953 to the Khmer Rouge years of the 1970s.[4] In the 1950s, dance halls in the capital played big band music and crooners, and radio and imported records carried Western sounds into the country.[5] In the 1960s and early 1970s, while the war in Vietnam threatened Cambodia's borders, musicians took rock and roll from America and England and added the melodies and rhythms of traditional Cambodian music.[6] The film traces French, Afro-Cuban and South American influences, and it includes Khmer-language covers of songs by James Taylor, Tito Puente and Rina Ketty.[4] The female vocalists were a central part of the sound.[6] Rock bands played at rooftop parties in Phnom Penh while bombs fell around the city.[6]

Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge on April 17, 1975, and Cambodian rock and roll ended. In the film's account, star musicians were targeted and killed. Record collections were destroyed, clubs were closed, and Western-style music, dancing and clothing were outlawed.[7] It played for a week that spring at a cinema in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a concert by some of the film's musicians.[8] On August 16, 2024, a tenth-anniversary screening was held at the Future Forum in Phnom Penh.[9] The film gives the number of people killed by the Khmer Rouge as two million, a quarter of the population.[6] Sinn Sisamouth, Pan Ron and Yol Aularong were among the stars who died.[4] The singer Sieng Vanthy survived by telling the Khmer Rouge that she sold bananas.[5] Her voice opens the film.[8]

The film combines interviews with surviving musicians, archival footage and rare songs.[10] The surviving performers in the film include the singers Sieng Vanthy and Mol Kamach, the guitarist Mol Kagnol and Drakkar's guitarist Touch Chhattha.[8][11]

The film also speaks with relatives of musicians who did not survive.[3] The distributor's press kit lists the featured artists as Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, Bayon Band, Baksey Cham Krong, Liv Tek, Drakkar, Pen Ran, Huoy Meas, Yol Aularong and Pou Vannary.[1] The film honors Mol Kagnol for helping form Baksey Cham Krong, the country's first guitar rock band,[8] and the historian David Chandler appears in it.[3] The film ends with Cheam Chansovannary's song "Oh! Phnom Penh" over footage of people coming back to the city.[12]

Production and credits

John Pirozzi was filming City of Ghosts in Cambodia when he was given a copy of the album Cambodian Rocks.[8] LinDa Saphan was the film's researcher.[1]

The New Republic also names her as the film's head researcher.[13] Pirozzi first went to Cambodia in 2001, to work on Matt Dillon's film City of Ghosts, and a friend later sent him the album.[8] Pirozzi has said that he knew only a few singers' names at the start, and that he shot 75 interviews in four countries to put the story together. He has also said that most of the archival material from the period had been destroyed.[10] The interviews were held in Khmer, English and French.[8] Archive footage came from the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel in France and from about two hours of 8mm film of Phnom Penh found in Minneapolis. King Sihanouk gave written permission to use his own films of the 1960s.[13] Youk Chhang's Documentation Center of Cambodia did field research, helped find surviving artists and supplied archives.[9] Music, photographs and footage came from people connected to the old music scene.[5] In 2014 the Cambodia Town Film Festival gave the making of the film as seven years.[6] NPR gave it as ten years in 2015.[5]

Pirozzi and Andrew Pope produced the film.[2] Jonathan Del Gatto, Bradley Bessire and Youk Chhang were executive producers.[14] The film is in English, French and Khmer with English subtitles, and Argot Pictures distributed it.[10] The film's songs include "Kom Smang Bong Plech (Don't Think I've Forgotten)", sung by Sinn Sisamouth.[1]

Soundtrack

The Georgia label Dust-to-Digital issued the film's soundtrack album, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll. Its songs come from original recordings kept by collectors, and they are presented as they were first recorded.[15]

The music researcher Sovannet Nate Hun, an associate producer of the film, helped choose the songs.[8]

Release and reception

The world premiere was held at the Chaktomuk Theatre in Phnom Penh in January 2014, with the United States Embassy and the Documentation Center of Cambodia as sponsors. Former members of Drakkar and Baksey Cham Krong were in the audience.[3] About 800 people came, among them the architect Vann Molyvann.[13]

The 2014 Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California, showed the film once, on September 7 at 6 p.m.[6] The festival called itself the first film festival in North America to show it. Pirozzi and members of the cast took part in a question-and-answer session after the screening.[6][16]

The film opened in New York in April 2015.[5] On April 22, 2015, Pirozzi held a question-and-answer session at Film Forum with the musicians Mol Kagnol, Mol Kamach, Samley Hong and Seang Tana.[7] On June 11, 2026, the Brand Associates REEL ART Film Series and Los Angeles Filmforum showed the film free at Brand Library in Glendale, California. Chhom Nimol and Senon Williams of the band Dengue Fever joined Filmforum director Adam Hyman for a talk after the show.[10]

The film received positive reviews.[11] As of 2026, Rotten Tomatoes lists a Tomatometer score of 100 percent from 24 reviews.[14] Metacritic gives it a score of 79 out of 100 from eight critics, which it rates as generally favorable.[11] A. O. Scott of The New York Times called it "an unsparing and meticulous reckoning of the effects of tyranny on ordinary Cambodians" and "a rich and defiant effort at recovery."[11]

James Reed of The Boston Globe called it a "remarkable new film",[8] and Malcolm Thorndike Nicholson of The New Republic wrote that it "works its subtle magic".[13] A reviewer for the University of Michigan's arts site wrote that it showed the legacy and resilience of the musicians.[12] Metacritic lists an award and a nomination from the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, and a nomination from the International Documentary Association.[11]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Argot Pictures, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll, press kit (2014)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 ACMI, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (undated)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Cambodia Daily, Alice Cuddy, Rock 'n' Roll Documentary Has World Premiere in Phnom Penh (January 13, 2014)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Los Angeles Times, Review: 'Don't Think I've Forgotten' is a deft look at Cambodia's pop (May 15, 2015)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 NPR, The Nearly Lost Story Of Cambodian Rock 'N' Roll (April 22, 2015)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Cambodia Town Film Festival, DON'T THINK I'VE FORGOTTEN: CTFF Officially Selected 2014 (archived July 25, 2024)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Film Forum, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (undated)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 The Boston Globe, James Reed, 'Don't Think I've Forgotten' explores Cambodia's rock scene (April 23, 2015)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lepetitjournal.com Cambodge, Michelle Vachon, Le film « Don't Think I've Forgotten : Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll » a 10 ans (September 1, 2024; in French)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Los Angeles Filmforum, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock'n'Roll (June 11, 2026)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Metacritic, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (undated)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Arts at Michigan, Review: Don't Think I've Forgotten (January 29, 2016)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 The New Republic, Malcolm Thorndike Nicholson, "You Won't Find Anything. It's All Been Destroyed." (April 21, 2015)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Rotten Tomatoes, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (undated)
  15. ↑ Phoenix New Times, Jason P. Woodbury, Music documentary traces Cambodia's lost musical history (May 26, 2015)
  16. ↑ Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF OFFICIAL 2014 FILM LINEUP (archived July 13, 2024)
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