Don't miss it

Li-Da Kruger (left) and a potential mother, from Belonging

Tonight, 7pm at Meta House, next to Wat Botum in Phnom Penh, I'll be presenting two documentaries about the return of two women to find their family roots, their past, their heritage here in Cambodia. Belonging will give Li-Da Kruger, adopted as a baby and whisked off to the UK, a chance to find out more about her family background. Read more here. New Year Baby, received great acclaim on its release and rightly so as Socheata Poeuv returns to unlock secrets she never dreamed existed. More here.

Film poster for New Year Baby

Khmer women in the spotlight

I've seen the legendary chapei master Kong Nay perform quite a few times, but I've never seen his protege, Ouch Savy in the flesh, so to speak. I've even been to her home and chatted to her mother, herself a well-known musician, but Savy and Kong Nay were on tour at the time of my visit. In fact their touring took them to the United Kingdom where they performed at the world-famous WOMAD festival, to great acclaim, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. So I'm eagerly awaiting tonight's Joop session at Meta House, where Savy will perform as part of a multi-media show. As one of the first women to learn the chapei, Savy, in her early twenties, is a pioneer and her duet with Kong Nay - their houses were two metres apart when they lived in the Dey Krahom area until it was levelled - can be heard on the cd from Cambodian Living Arts, Mekong Delta Blues (pictured right).

Tomorrow night, also at Meta House (next to Wat Botum for those who haven't ventured there before), I will be hosting two excellent films that look at two women from the Khmer diaspora, who return to Cambodia in search of their roots and a better understanding of their past. We start at 7pm and Li-Da Kruger's return for the film Belonging will start us off. Li-Da was adopted as a baby by well-to-do parents in the UK but is still determined to track down her real family, if that's still possible after twenty-five years. For Socheata Poeuv in New Year Baby, she knows her parents, or at least she thinks she does but returning to Cambodia opens a window into a world she never knew. Both films are well worth watching.

Cambodian premiere

Tonight's film, that we kept under wraps for safety reasons before the screening, seemed to go down well with the invited packed crowd at Meta House. Finding Face was given its Cambodian premiere having only had its first ever showing in Geneva in March. The safety aspect related to the family, who are still living in Cambodia, of the film's main subject, the singer Tat Marina, who was disfigured by an acid attack in 1999. The attack on Marina signalled a spate of copycat attacks which still continue today. As for Marina, she is rebuilding her life in America and that was the heart-warming part of an otherwise at times sombre film that highlights a culture of impunity and lack of justice for victims that shows no sign of dissipating. Directors Skye Fitzgerald and Patti Duncan did a good job of telling the Marina story without over-egging or sensationalizing it. Read more here.

For the month of July, Meta House will present its usual eclectic mix of film screenings, discussions and a brand new Global Hybrid exhibition from the 2nd, with works from Khmer and US-based artists, such as Ouer Sokuntevy, Leang Seckon and Stephane Janin. My pick of the film screenings start with the evening when I will present a double-bill of Belonging and New Year Baby on Friday 10th at 7pm, in which two women return to find their roots in Cambodia. It will be the first showing of the Tamara Gordon-directed documentary Belonging here in Cambodia, the story of Li-Da Kruger, who left Phnom Penh as a baby and who returns to find the truth about her past. More here. This Friday, 3rd, Out of the Poison Tree - the return of Thida Butt Mam to the country of her birth - gets another screening, alongwith Kampuchea Death & Rebirth, a film shot after the Khmer Rouge left the city in 1979. On Thursday 9th a night of poetry, music and film includes the female chapei player Ouch Savy, while Saturday 11th will host the first ever Cambodian movie featuring a taboo lesbian love story in Who Am I? Dengue Fever's Sleepwalking Through The Mekong gets another airing on Friday 17th and Rithy Panh's film, Burnt Theater, will be screened on Tuesday 21st. And there's lots more besides.