The Academy Award®nominated The Conscience of Nhem En will have its television premiere on HBO2 onJuly 8, 2009 at 8pm EST (check your television listings and hbo.com for repeat showings and on-demand availability). It is the haunting story of a young soldier who took ID photos of thousands of innocent people before they were tortured and killed. The deeper theme of the film is silence and complicity, what it means to stand-by and say nothing in the face of genocide.
From 1975 to 1979 during Pol Pot’s reign of terror, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians, about 25% of the population. Thirty years later, the nightmare continues to haunt the country and its people, even on to the next generations. Only now are people stepping forward to talk about what happened.
The unforgettable photographs of the men, women and children who were sent to the notorious Tuol Sleng Prison, also know as S-21, are among the most powerful historical documents ever made. 17,000 people were photographed, many just moments before their torture or death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Nhem En, one of the photographers, and three survivors tell their remarkable stories.
Producer/director Steven Okazaki says, "I was unprepared for the experience of seeing the photographs, meeting the people, hearing their stories, and making the film. In many ways, it's the most challenging thing I've done."
The Conscience of Nhem Enwas filmed in Phnom Penh in January 2008 with Associate Producer/Sound Recordist Singeli Agnew, Production Coordinator Han Ong and Interpreter Sok Chamrouen. It was produced for HBO Documentary Films with Consulting Editor Geof Bartz, Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein and Executive Producer Sheila Nevins.
Coming Soon
on DVD!
Farallon Films is pleased to announce that the Academy Award® nominated The Conscience of Nhem En will be released on DVD for both home and educational use in October 2009.
Watch this website for further details. Thank you to Teresa Tauchi for her terrific design work, Doug Niven for the use of the S-21 photographs and HBO Documentary Films for making it possible.
The Academy Award-nominated Unfinished Business, which tells the inspiring story of three men who resisted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, is available at a special low price from Docurama, on-line or by calling 1-800-314-8822.
Lisa News:
Devon Morf, lead singer of All You Can Eat and inspirational star of The Lisa Theory (see Mark Gorney, Avel Sosa and Bucky Sinister in our web clip) has turned forty! This landmark moment reminds us that if you stay positive and keep your integrity, adults are still allowed to have fun. Check out Devon’s new band Conquest for Death here.
Okazaki's Fourth
Oscar Nomination!
Steven Okazaki arrives at the 81st
annual Academy Award ceremony.
January 22, 2009
Steven Okazaki's Academy Award® nomination for "Best Short Documentary" for the The Conscience of Nhem En is the filmmaker's fourth nomination. In 1985, his groundbreaking film Unfinished Business was nominated for "Best Feature Documentary." In 1990, he won the Oscar for his short documentary Days of Waiting, the story of Estelle Ishigo, one of the few Caucasians to be interned with the Japanese Americans during World War II. In 2005, he was nominated for The Mushroom Club, which looks at the city and people of Hiroshima sixty years after the atomic bombing.
The Conscience of Nhem En is also the fourth film in Okazaki's series of short personal documentaries, Journeys, which includes The Mushroom Club, the unreleased Nikkei Style and Hunting Tigers, a quirky look at Tokyo pop culture.
White Light/Black Rain
Wins Primetime Emmy
Steven Okazaki accepts the Emmy statue along with Executive Producer Robert Richter and Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein.
September 13, 2008 White Light/Black Rain won a Primetime Emmy, television's most coveted prize, for "Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking."
Accepting the award, producer/director Steven Okazaki stated that the film "honors fourteen Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors who remind us of the irreversible horror of nuclear weapons." He thanked HBO Documentary Films, Executive Producers Sheila Nevins and Robert Richter, and Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein, who also received Emmy statues.
2008 was a great year for White Light/Black Rain. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Prize for "Best History and Biography Program" and the "NHK Best Asian Program" Prize at the Banff World TV Festival’s Rockie Awards held in Alberta, Canada.
The critically acclaimed HBO Documentary Films production was broadcast on HBO in August 2007 and on NHK in Japan in August 2008. It also had a successful theatrical release in Japan, released by Zazie Films and Siglo.
