Friday, 5 September 2008

Two acclaimed short films to get free screening in Phnom Penh

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Anita Surewicz
Thursday, 04 September 2008

Jason Rosette's award-winning BookWars examines the lives of street vendors, while a young rocker discovers AC/DC in Vuth Learns to Rock

TWO films, BookWars (2000) and Vuth Learns to Rock (2008), produced by Camerado, a Phnom Penh media company, will be screened in the capital this weekend.

The critically acclaimed documentary, BookWars, directed by Jason Rosette, the mastermind behind Camerado, and co-produced by Academy Award nominated producer-filmmaker Michel Negroponte, depicts the "gritty world of New York City street booksellers … told in a remarkable story that chronicles their lives, their loves, and their unique perspectives on life … see the NYPD, the University, and the Mayor try to shut them down!" states a Camerado newsletter.

Winner of the New York Underground Film Festival and IFP Gotham Award nominee, BookWars' action unfolds in New York's two bookselling hotspots, the Washington Square Park area and on Sixth Avenue, where Rosette himself began selling books in the mid-1990s.

Turning fierce

The film depicts the trials and tribulations of a diverse cast of characters including Pete, an artist who started buying used books to gather collage material and ended up selling them; Thomas, who becomes a fierce community organizer when the bookselling scene begins to disintegrate; and Rick, a young street magician and friend of Rosette.

The event will also feature a sneak preview of the new film Vuth Learns to Rock, starring Phnom Penh's own Jun "Rocker" from Zepplin Rock Cafe. This will be the first public screening of this "short rock-doc about a young Cambodian named Vuth who learns the ways of rock and roll from a Master Rocker – watch as Vuth hears the Ramones, the Kinks, AC/DC and others for the first time," says the Camerado newsletter.

The screenings will be held on the top floor of Pannasastra University, 184 Norodom Boulevard, at 3pm on Saturday. Rosette will attend to facilitate discussion and answer questions following the screenings.

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