Cambodia’s arts, culture, cuisine and more will be on full display in Long Beach this weekend during an Asian World Film Festival event at the Aquarium of the Pacific on Friday, Nov. 17.
The Asian World Film Festival, which celebrates and showcases Asian cinema from across the globe, has been underway in Culver City since Nov. 8.
But besides film screenings, the event, which ends Friday, also includes standalone showcases of cinema and arts from specific Asian countries.
Long Beach’s vibrant Cambodian community, which is the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of the country itself, will be featured for the second year during the AWFF’s Cambodia Day on Friday.
The event will feature several arts-focused showcases, according to Visoth Tarak Ouk, a local chef who goes by “Chef T” and is an associate producer of the event. Those showcases will include a fashion show, a film screening, traditional Cambodian dancing and martial arts.
“Surviving Bokator,” a multi-award-winning 2018 documentary by Mark Bochsler, will be featured at the Friday event.
It documents the story of a Cambodian Genocide survivor who works to preserve the country’s ancient martial art, Bokator — an art that was nearly lost during the Khmer Rouge’s reign over the country, according to the film’s website.
The communist Khmer Rouge seized control of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city, on April 17, 1975 — and went on a brutal killing campaign. By the time the regime fell in 1979, about 2 million people had died by the Khmer Rouge’s hands, in what is now known as the Cambodian Genocide.
“The film that we’re showing is representing our martial arts from the beginning of time,” Chef T said. “The whole film is documentary, and honors all the teachers that were behind (Bokator) and shows what the Cambodian legacy is.”
The event aims to showcase Cambodian culture and heritage to the broader Long Beach community, Chef T said, which has proven difficult in the past.
In the past, local community leaders have organized the Cambodia Town Film Festival — but found drawing folks from outside the Cambodian community challenging, Chef T said.
“Cambodian people in the community knew about it, but like outside, we don’t get enough hits on it,” Chef T said. “Everyone else is not educated about Cambodian cuisine and culture — and that’s why I tried to make this movement to get Cambodia out there, on the map.”
Besides helping organize Cambodia Day, Chef T also organizes several other events — including Cambodian Restaurant Week, which had its inaugural iteration last year.
Cambodia Day, meanwhile, is open to the public. The event will take place at the Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, on Friday, Nov. 17. Tickets cost $100.
