Dr.
Haing S. Ngor had a reasonable productive film career, but he never landed a
role that equaled his Oscar winning debut in Roland Jaffe’s The Killing Fields (although Oliver
Stone’s Heaven & Earth will have
its champions). Yet, the platform it provided Ngor to keep the memory of the
Khmer Rouge genocide alive and to criticize the current undemocratic regime was
far more important. It might have even been the reason why the actor and
activist was murdered in 1996. The late Ngor will offer his survivor’s
testimony once again in The Killing
Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor (trailer here), which screens as
part of a sidebar tribute to documentarian Arthur Dong at the 2015 AsianAmerican International Film Festival in New York.
Rarely
is an actor so closely identified with a film as Dr. Ngor and The Killing Fields. He was not a
professional actor when he was cast to play Cambodian journalist Dith Pran, but
he could identify with the role only too well. Ngor barely survived the
Communist re-education camps, but his pregnant common law (formal marriage
having been abolished) wife did not. In an environment of horrific deaths, hers
was particularly haunting.
You
might think you understand the Communist massacre, chapter and verse, but the
experiences Ngor describes in his autobiography (extracts of which are read by
his nephew, Wayne Ngor) will shock you nonetheless. For instance, even table
utensils were banned (on pain of death) as the decadent tools of western
capitalism. To illustrate his experiences during the genocide, Dong often
relies on Wilson Wu’s dramatic black-and-white animation that starkly reflects
the tenor of the times. These are not things we want to see, but they are
necessary to understand Ngor’s life and the utopian ideology he fled.
Dong
is an experienced filmmaker, who crafts Ngor’s story with great sensitivity,
but also with an eye towards the needs of history. Fortunately, Ngor’s life in
America was quite well documented. He assembles quite a bit of primary footage
of Ngor, including some unusually heavy commencement speeches. The close
participation of Ngor’s surrogate daughter-niece Sophia Ngor and his friend, Iron Triangle co-star, and non-profit foundation
executive director Jack Ong also inspire confidence. Of course, high level
Khmer Rouge officials were not available for comment, but the allegations of Kaing
Guek Eav (a.k.a. “Comrade Duch”) that Ngor was assassinated by the Khmer Rouge
are given due consideration.
