SYNOPSIS Twice a year in Cambodia, the Tonle Sap River changes course, while life for the Cambodian people continue to flow in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth and of creation and destruction. Working in an intimate, verité style, filmmaker Kalyanee Mam (Director of Photography for the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job), spent two years in her native homeland following three young Cambodians as they struggled to overcome the crushing effects of deforestation, overfishing, and overwhelming debt. A breathtaking and unprecedented journey from the remote, mountainous jungles and floating cities of the Cambodian countryside to the bustling garment factories of modern Phnom Penh, A River Changes Course traces a devastating and beautiful story of an ancient culture ravaged by globalization. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT My first trip to Cambodia was in 1998, only seventeen years after my family fled this war-torn country. I was shocked by much of what I saw – the poverty, desperation, and corruption that plagued the country. But I was also deeply affected by the beauty that surrounded me – the beauty of the landscape, the people, the ancient culture, and the many smiles that greeted me in my journey. Over a decade later, globalization has transformed the Cambodian landscape, Dirt roads have been replaced with highways and high-rise department stores clog the city. The small streets of Phnom Penh bulge with traffic, the oversized SUVs incongruent to the narrow boulevards, its factories overfilled with young women making jeans and shirts for designer labels in the United States. In the global race for low-wage workers and natural resources, Cambodia has transformed its ancient agrarian culture to compete for international investment. I made this film to document the human cost of this transformation. And to put a human face on the beautiful traditional livelihoods that may soon be lost to the world forever. With our camera equipment and supplies, Cambodian Producer, Ratanak Leng and I traveled to three distinct parts of Cambodia – to the remote jungles of Ratannakiri in the Northeast, the floating villages of Kampong Chhnang in Central Cambodia, and the countryside of Svay Rieng just outside the capital city of Phnom Penh, to live with and document the lives of three young Cambodians and their families. THE FILMMAKERS Having escaped war-torn Cambodia in 1979, lawyer turned filmmaker, KALYANEE MAM (DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, & CINEMATOGRAPHER), seeks to engage human rights and law to create documentaries that are both captivating and inspiring. Kalyanee most recently worked on the 2010 Academy Award-winning documentary Inside Job (Director of Photography, Associate Producer, and Researcher), a film by Charles Ferguson and a Sony Pictures Classics release about the global financial crisis, hailed as a “masterpiece of investigative non-fiction moviemaking” and which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Her first documentary short Between Earth & Sky (Director, Producer, and Cinematographer) followed the hopes and struggles of three young Iraqi refugees living in Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. It was the First Place Winner for Best Directing-Short Documentary at the Los Angeles International Film Festival and received a prize for Artistic Merit from the Montana CINE International Film Festival. Kalyanee’s past work also includes assisting refugees in South Africa, documenting the atrocities committed against women during the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia, and working as a legal consultant in Mozambique and Iraq. She is currently serving on the Yale Visual Law Project Advisory Board and is an honorary member of the French-American Young Leaders Program. She is a graduate of Yale University and UCLA Law School. A River Changes Course is Kalyanee’s first feature documentary film. DAVID MENDEZ (ORIGINAL SCORE) is noted for creating innovative electro-acoustic music that combines live instruments with the ambient sounds of electronic music. A guitarist of 20 years, David Mendez studied music at San Diego State University and is skilled in classical, rock, jazz, blues and ambient music. David has since worked as a sound designer, mixer, composer and recording engineer. David designed the complete original score and sound for The Greater Meaning of Water (Sky Christopherson) and My Brother's Arms (Mark Barnet). He also composed the original score for Mojado (Angela Trevino), Track by Track (Anne Moot-Levin), and for documentary short Between Earth & Sky, which David also directed, produced, and shot. David also worked as location sound mixer for Oscar-winning documentary INSIDE JOB.
A RIVER CHANGES COURSE (WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION): FILM CLIPS (VO): " Clip #1" - " Clip #2" - " Clip #3" -
MIGRANT FILMS presents in association with The DOCUMENTATION CENTER of CAMBODIA “ A RIVER CHANGES COURSE ” a film by KALYANEE MAM 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection 83 minutes • Cambodia/USA • In Khmer & Jarai w/English subtitles • 16:9