John Pilger - more than a messenger

I knew nothing of the plight of Cambodia until I watched a documentary on 30 October 1979 that was to change my life. That documentary was produced by investigative journalist John Pilger and director David Munro for ATV and it was called Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia. Coupled with his follow-up documentary a year later called Cambodia: Year One, it so aroused my interest in Cambodia that it led to an involvement with pressure groups and finally my first trip to the country in 1994. I've been back every year since. Fortunately, I've had the opportunity to tell the man himself of the impact his films have had on me. Its a tale he's heard many times after producing a shed-load of hard-hitting films and articles on topics such as Australia's Aborigines, Vietnam, Palestine, South Africa, Nicaragua, Burma and East Timor. However, it's been Pilger's expose of Cambodia in the following documentaries that have caught and held my attention:
1979 Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia
1980 Cambodia: Year One
1989 Cambodia: Year Ten
1990 Cambodia: The Betrayal
1993 Cambodia: Return to Year Zero

The DVD for his first Cambodia documentary, Year Zero is due to be released in mid-September and you can find out a lot more about Pilger and his work by logging onto this ITV website at www.johnpilger.com.