When the Cambodia Town Film Festival began, it offered a stage for filmmaker voices, highlighting a community often underrepresented on screen; this year, it will continue that tradition in Long Beach.
Taking place Sept. 12-14 at the Long Beach Art Theatre, the 2025 edition features stories of artifact smuggling, cultural traditions and the Cambodian American experience.
The film festival has brought the Cambodian community together, creating a space where audiences can see their stories reflected on screen. For its 11th anniversary, the goal is to take viewers on a journey of remembrance, healing and cultural resilience.
“We wanted to focus on the Cambodian genocide, which happened in 1975, so it’s felt like a big year for us to kind of get the community involved,” said Caylee So, co-founder of the Cambodia Town Film Festival. “We have some really good short films, which we are very, very lucky and very happy that we’re still curating good stories.”
Apart from the screenings, So and other organizers also prepared the Ice House Arts Complex in Long Beach for a VR experience of “Stay Alive My Son,” giving spectators a chance to experience the perspective of a Cambodian father making a life-or-death decision during the genocide.
“It’s more of experiencing the short film through VR,” So said. “When I was in a virtual reality world with this film, it didn’t feel traumatizing. It felt more like healing than anything.”
The virtual experience is just one part of the festival’s lineup, which has focused on innovation since its return in 2024 after a two-year break. For its upcoming run, it will bring the short documentary “The Healing Circle,” which will introduce new audiences to Cambodia’s history through the voices of genocide survivors.
Filmmaker Thavary Krouch said she worked on the film to highlight stories long shared within the Cambodian community, passed down through generations.
“It’s personal for me because these are stories I grew up with, whether or not they’re publicly shared, and usually they’re not,” Krouch said. The film, she said, is a way to “encourage the sharing of these stories so that we can help ourselves heal and help each other heal.”
Krouch’s film stems from stories that have stayed with her for years, focusing on personal experiences of survival. For her, presenting them at the festival creates an opportunity for reflection and conversation.
“Maybe we need help in facilitating these conversations because it’s not easy to have conversations about ‘oh, what happened to you?’ during that time,” Krouch said. “You know, to spark conversations. I think films like this are important for that.”
Apart from Krouch’s documentary, the festival will present a screening of “Meeting with Pol Pot,” followed by a discussion with author and journalist Elizabeth Becker, giving audiences a chance to hear from someone who witnessed a brutal part of Cambodia’s history.
Becker, who spent two years reporting on the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian Civil War, will attend the festival in hopes that younger generations understand that these screenings are a good way to move forward.
“I’m honored to do it. It’s their story. So that the Cambodian community can understand and move beyond it is good,” Becker said. “What I also like is that it’s followed in the evening by ‘The Killing Fields,’ which remains the great film about the Khmer Rouge.”
Like Becker, festival organizers have made an effort to make this year’s event about more than history, focusing on healing while honoring those roots.
One of the festival’s key goals is to create a space where the Cambodian community can see their stories represented on screen, and according to So, it’s doing exactly that.
“We feel very proud being able to give that to the next generation,” So said.
The Cambodia Town Film Festival kicks off Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. Tickets are available online.