10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll (2015 Feature Film)

John Pirozzi | Cambodia, USA, France | 2014 | 107 min | English, French, Khmer

While war was raging in Vietnam, youth culture in Cambodia blossomed to the beat of local imitations of rock, chansons, and even hippy psychedelics. This lively music scene came to an abrupt end with the brutal takeover by the Khmer Rouge. After many years of research, a unique sound has been revived.

The documentary Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll is an history lesson on the music scene in Cambodia in the 1960s.

Inspired by Western musicians such as The Beatles and the Bee Gees, one great record after another was released by Cambodians. But this blossoming music scene was annihilated when the Khmer Rouge took power in April 1975. Because dictator Pol Pot didn’t like music, musicians were among the first to be killed. His dictatorship finally cost the lives of a quarter of the population of Vietnam.

Director Pirozzi took seven years getting to the bottom of this powerful music history lesson. In this documentary realised thanks to crowdfunding, he talks to people involved and has events re-enacted by actors. The final result is not only confrontational; thanks to the beautiful music, this documentary is also an homage to a forgotten crop of top musicians.

Place: The Cinemas 6

Date: 03/26/2015

Time: 16:45:00

Duration: 02:00:00

Place: The Cinemas 4

Date: 03/27/2015

Time: 14:30:00

Duration: 02:00:00

Place: The Cinemas 6

Date: 03/28/2015

Time: 18:45:00

Duration: 02:00:00

Year in
Festival

2015

Director

John Pirozzi

Camera

John Pirozzi

Country

Cambodia
USA
France

Editor

Daniel Littlewood
Greg Wright
Matthew Prinzing

Language

English
French
Khmer

Length

107 min

Music

Scot Blackwell Stafford

Producer

Florian John Pirozzi
Andrew Pope

Production Company

DTIF Cambodia LLC

Sales

CAT&Docs

Sound Design

Evan Benjamin

Year of Production

2014

Website

John PIROZZI has been around the film world for a long time. He worked on the set of Bad Lieutenant in 1992. In 2006, he was involved in making I’m Your Man, a documentary and concert film with and about Leonard Cohen. As a cameraman, in recent years, he has worked on the American television series Suits and the Hollywood film Pitch Perfect 2. Pirozzi has also made music videos for Queens of the Stone Age, Calexico, Vic Chesnutt and Victoria Williams. Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodian’s Lost Rock And Roll is his second documentary.