The Peabody Award–winning investigative documentary Who Killed Chea Vichea? screens for the first time in New Zealand, in the country's premiere documentary film festival, Documentary Edge Festival 2012 ... and takes top honors in the Human Rights category!

One sunny morning, a motorcycle pulled up to a newsstand in Phnom Penh. Chea Vichea, Cambodia's most prominent labor leader, looked up from his paper and was executed on the spot. Pressured by rights groups and foreign aid donors, the police arrested two local men. They were sentenced to twenty years in prison. Were they guilty, or was their conviction part of a larger plan? Starting at the scene of the murder, director Bradley Cox's investigation leads far beyond the local police, through the courts, to the upper echelons of the ruling party. Banned in Cambodia.

In Auckland, at Event Cinemas Newmarket, 77 Broadway, Newmarket:


Tickets will be available from the festival web site. Please check out the whole list of 72 films — for multi-film passes see this page.

Labels: festivals, screenings

Vantha Kem of Radio Free Asia interviewed Who Killed Chea Vichea? producer Rich Garella about the film's winning a Peabody Award and the Cambodian government's response. The segment was broadcast on April 29, in Khmer. Garella comments:

"We read that the spokesperson for the Council of Ministers, Phay Siphan, said that the Peabody Awards were likely politically motivated. Not surprising, coming from the Cambodian government — political motivation is all they know."

listen (mp3)

Labels: press

The 26-minute documentary The Trap of Saving Cambodia will screen first, followed by Q&A with director Tim Sorel, then Who Killed Chea Vichea? and Q&A with producer Rich Garella.


The forum is organized by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Ohio University, with primary sponsorship of the Ohio Humanities Council and Arts for Ohio.

Labels: screenings

Please join the Sohbet Society for Human Rights for a screening of Who Killed Chea Vichea? at the University of South Australia on April 27. This screening is free and open to the public!

Labels: screenings

The Cambodian government reacts to Who Killed Chea Vichea?'s Peabody Award. From The Cambodia Daily:

Phay Siphan, spokesman at the [Cambodian government] Council of Ministers, who saw the documentary last year, said the Peabody Awards were likely a “politically motivated” institution” ... “It’s a campaign against the government....It’s more like propaganda,” said Mr. Siphan, adding that anyone can submit a complaint to the Ministry of Interior about the killing of Chea Vichea if they want to.

Chea Vichea Documentary Receives Prestigious Award (April 6, 2012)

In the Phnom Penh Post, the director of the Peabody Board, Horace Newcomb, and the director of Who Killed Chea Vichea?, Bradley Cox, respond to Siphan's accusation:

“This is simply not the case,” said Newcomb. “A review of all the award recipients over the years shows a concern for social issues, but also for entertainment, education, public service and so on. Such a review would show no political motivation other than our interest in excellent media production.”

“The Cambodian government has been trying to block our movie from the beginning, so it’s no surprise that they would disparage it again now, but their comments, as usual, are completely without merit,” Cox said.  

Peabody Puts Banned Film Back in Spotlight (April 12, 2012)

Speaking to Voice of America, Newcomb added “The Peabody Award is not politically motivated ... It looks for excellence in media production, excellence of many different sorts, excellence on its own terms, and that’s what we found in this documentary.” (VoA, April 18, 2012)

Labels: news, press

Loud Mouth Films is very proud to announce that Who Killed Chea Vichea? has received a George Foster Peabody Award. The Peabody is the most prestigious electronic media award in the world, recognizing "excellence, distinguished achievement, and meritorious public service." There are no categories and no fixed number of awards.

This year, 38 winners were chosen by the Peabody board as "the best in electronic media for the year 2011." Other winners this year include CNN, the BBC, Al Jazeera and Stephen Colbert.


From the Peabody site:

This investigative documentary, produced on a shoestring budget, covers the 2004 assassination of a Cambodian trade union leader and exposes corruption in one of the world’s top exporters of low-cost clothing.

And from their press release:

Who Killed Chea Vichea? "didn’t let a limited budget or official resistance derail its investigation of the murder of a top labor leader in Cambodia, a major producer of low-cost clothing."

We are frankly overwhelmed by this recognition of the years of hard work that we put into this, and by the recognition of the invaluable help from so many others and the risks taken by by so many people in Cambodia, where the film is still officially banned.

More:

• Ticket information for the May 21 award ceremony
• Announcements from ITVS (our co-producer) and MercuryMedia (our foreign broadcast distributor)
• Reaction from KBDI in Denver Post
• WHYY news story and follow-up
• Cambodia Daily article including Cambodian government reaction
• Phnom Penh Post article including response from Peabody director
• Voice of America coverage (also in Khmer, here)
• Radio Free Asia coverage (in Khmer)

Labels: news, reviews