The thirty-third installment of this adventurous festival at BAM/PFA features films and documentaries from Vietnam, Japan, Iran, Cambodia, Argentina, and the United States. This spring marks the fortieth anniversary of the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge. To commemorate that tragic event, we present John Pirozzi’s up-tempo Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll, an eye-opening glimpse of music and modernization in the more optimistic days before the reign of terror. Oakland-based pop singer Bochan, a leading proponent of the neo-Cambodian music scene, will perform a short set. On the fiction front, the festival’s entries are chilling, charming, and everything between—Vietnam’s ghostly but ghastly blockbuster Hollow; Cicada, a Japanese/American hybrid about personal transformation; the thoroughly ambitious The Sisterhood of Night, an Oakland-inspired drama about a feminist autonomous zone; 2030, a beautifully rendered sci-fi feature depicting Vietnam after sea rise. CAAMFest brings great stories to light.
Steve Seid, Guest Curator
