Meta House Events for 15-21 Dec 2013

Meta House Events for 01-07 Dec 2013

SUN, 15.12.

4PM: A two-bit criminal gets a shot at redemption while traveling through Southeast Asia in the drama HOLLY by Guy Moshe, 2006, 114 min). Ron Livingston stars Patrick, a low-level con man who scores a gig transporting some stolen goods from Cambodia. When Patrick is sidelined at a brothel, he finds himself drawn to helping the title character, a 12-year-old Vietnamese prostitute played by Thuy Nguyen. Featuring one of the final performances by actor Chris Penn, Holly screened at the 2006 Edinburgh Film Festival.

7PM: No fatwa was issued during the making of Deepa Mehta’s epic adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s novel MIDNIGHT CHILDREN (2013, 140 min) - although parts of the production did in fact take place, for security reasons, under the cover of a decoy title. Based on the 1981 book that Indira Gandhi herself tried to censor (she successfully managed to have one sentence excised) the wildly ambitious story involves two newborns from opposite castes who are switched at birth at the very moment that India achieved independence. “Let the rich be poor and the poor be rich,” intones one of the countless quotable characters.

TUE, 17.12.

4PM: A couple of years ago, it was usual in Cambodia to say: "All what women do is moving around the stoves." Today, things are changing. We’ll screen a set of short documentaries about empowered women such as WOMEN WEAVERS FROM KANDAL, FEMALE POLITICS, DISGUISE, TWO GIRLS AGAINST THE RAIN (60 mins, Engl. subs).

7PM: Many movies lend themselves to dramatic interpretations, but none as rich and far ranging as Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. In LA filmmaker Rodney Ascher's ROOM 237 (2012, 102 min), we hear from people who have developed far-reaching theories and believe they have decoded the hidden symbols and messages buried in the late director's film. Carefully examining The Shining inside out, and forwards and backwards, ROOM 237 is equal parts captivating, provocative and pure pleasure. It gives voice to the fans and scholars who espouse these theories, reworking the film to match their ideas and intercutting it with layers of dreamlike imagery to illustrate their streams of consciousness. Sometimes outrageous, always engaging, the words of the interviewees are given full force by Ascher's compelling vision. Also featured at the 2012 Sundance, Cannes and Toronto film festivals.

9PM: THE SHINING (Stanley Kubrick, 1980, 119 min) "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- or, rather, a homicidal boy in Stanley Kubrick's eerie 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel. With wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and psychic son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker at the opulently ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. Before the Overlook is vacated for the Torrances, the manager (Barry Nelson) informs Jack that a previous caretaker went crazy and slaughtered his family; Jack thinks it's no problem, but Danny's "shining" hints otherwise. Settling into their routine, Danny cruises through the empty corridors on his Big Wheel and plays in the topiary maze with Wendy, while Jack sets up shop in a cavernous lounge with strict orders not to be disturbed. Danny's alter ego, "Tony," however, starts warning of "redrum" as Danny is plagued by more blood-soaked visions of the past, and a blocked Jack starts visiting the hotel bar for a few visions of his own. Frightened by her husband's behavior and Danny's visit to the forbidding Room 237, Wendy soon discovers what Jack has really been doing in his study all day, and what the hotel has done to Jack.

WED, 18.12.

4PM: Ian White’s docu STRAIGHT REFUGEEZ (2009, 75 min, Engiish) takes you inside the story of the forced repatriation of Cambodian-born felons in the US, back to the country of their birth. It’s not an easy transition for the returnees who have little or no memories of their mother country.

7PM: THIS IS NOT A FILM (2012, 75 min) is shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes. Acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi („Offside“, “The Circle“) depicts his day-to-day life of aduring his house arrest in his Teheran apartment. While appealing his sentence - six years in prison and a 20 year ban from filmmaking - Panahi is seen talking to his family and lawyer on the phone, discussing his plight with Mirtahmasb and reflecting on the meaning of the art offilmmaking.

8.30PM: A woman who lives in a joyous world of her own tries to share it with others in PEPPERMINTA (2009, 80 min)  - a visually inventive comedy from Swiss filmmaker Pipilotti Rist. Pepperminta (Ewelina Guzik) is a carefree young woman who described herself as "an anarchist of the imagination," and thinks it's her life mission to bringing color and texture to a flat, grey culture. Pepperminta's grandmother raised her to follow her own path in life, and as a grown up, she's set out to brighten the community around her. While Pepperminta's eccentricities include keeping both snails and strawberries as pets, she has a pair of colleagues who have joined her in her mission to turn the world day-glo -- Werwen (Sven Pippig), a chubby man who has unwittingly stolen Pepperminta's heart, and Edna (Sabine Timoteo), a footloose gal who has a passion for tulips. Pepperminta was the first feature film for director Rist, who had previously distinguished herself as a video artist; the film was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. 

THU, 19.12.

4PM: The classic documentary CHILDREN OF KROUSAR THMEY (1993, 54 min) by Marcus d'Arcy follows 32 orphans in the Thai refugee camp “Site 2” and their return to Cambodia;

7PM: At home with rock 'n' roll monster Ginger Baker, Cream's legendary scarlet-maned, hell-raising drummer. BEWARE OF MR. BAKER (2012, 100 mins) is a no-holds-barred, sad, and hilarious portrait of the man referred to as rock's first great drummer (and perhaps still its best) lets him tell his own story, intercut with footage of his continent-hopping life, from London to L.A., Nigeria, Italy, South Africa, and (way) beyond. Baker may have broken the mold musically, but his violent, dyspeptic mood swings, fueled by a multi-decade heroin addiction, went a long way to making him persona non grata even among the music greats who still revere his work. Eric Clapton, Johnny Rotten, Charlie Watts, and Lars Ulrich, Baker's 4 wives, and 3 grown children all have something to say about him: "He's a force of nature," "he's the greatest drummer any of us had ever heard," "he's mad," and "he's fairly consistently horrible" are just a few of them.

9PM: Chill out music emerged in the early and mid-1990s in "chill rooms" at dance clubs, where relaxing music was played to allow dancers a chance to "chill out" from the more emphatic and fast-tempo music played on the main dance floor. The genres associated with chill-out are mostly ambient, trip-hop, nu jazz, ambient house, New Age and other sub-genres of downtempo. Phnom Penh’s only ambient trance live project ELECTRIC UNIVERSE blends electronic DJ beats with live improvisations. DJ Nicomatic (decks), Tim King (guitar) and James Speck (Kaossillator) regularly invite Cambodian and foreign musicians to jam with them.

FRI, 20.12.

4PM: WHEN THE FLOOD RECEDES (2001, 55 min, Engl. subs) by German fisheries expert and environmental filmmaker Peter Degen deals critically with the issue of Cambodian fishing concessions.

7PM: To the Nazis he was Codename: Alaric. To the British he was simply Garbo. To the world he was a mystery. But 30 years after the facts and fiction, the cloak of mystery that kept him hidden and tied to Alaric and Garbo finally started to unravel. For the documentary GARBO THE SPY (2009, 85 min), Nigel West, noted English Spy novelist, started out on a journey to expose the truth about the man born Juan Pujol and uncovered a story so amazing that it could only be true. The man who the world thought to be dead and buried in Angola in 1949, a man that died a hero to both the British and the Nazis, looked pretty spry when discovered in South America 35 years after his burial.

9PM: To celebrate the launch of phnom-penh-underground.com, the definitive guide to the Phnom Penh clubscene, we bring to you he very best of the city's underground DJ talent with host DJ Sequence and very special guests Danbeck (Kimchi Collective), Mercy & Tonle Dub (Tech-Penh) and special guest (tbc).

SAT, 21.12.

4PM: Narrated by Lucy Liu, REDLIGHT (2009, 72 mins, Cambodian/Engl. subs) is a powerful feature documentary about child sexploitation, an epidemic happening in every country around the world. Filmed over a four year period, REDLIGHT focuses on the personal stories of young Cambodian victims and two remarkable advocates for change: grass-roots activist Somaly Mam and politician Mu Sochua. Both have since been nominated for the Noble Peace Prize.

7PM: Gregory Crewdson's riveting photographs are elaborately staged, elegant narratives compressed into a single, albeit large-scale image, many of them taken at twilight, set in small towns of Western Massachusetts or meticulously recreated interior spaces, built on the kind of sound stages associated with big-budget movies. BRIEF ENCOUNTERS (2012, 77 min) is Ben Shapiro's fascinating profile of the acclaimed artist. Novelists Rick Moody and Russell Banks, and fellow photographer Laurie Simmons, comment on the motivation behind their friend's haunting images.

9PM: The successful party concept SWAGGER is brought to you by the Phnom Penh-based INVISIBLE AGENT Record Label. DJs: Cab, Salmon Allstar, Phatt Controller, Ebauche, Warren Daly; live performance by Chhan Dina.