Review of Sleepwalking Through the Mekong

Directed by John Pirozzi, 2009 (in English with some subtitles; premiered in L.A. on 3.30.09)

There’s a very unique L.A. band called Dengue Fever (pronounced ‘din-gay’), whom you might have heard on NPR. The Holtzman brothers who formed the band hired a strong-voiced Cambodian singer, Chhom Nimol, who was famous there before immigrating to the U.S., having sung for the royal family. Their music is actually covers of famous Cambodian rock singers, who, due to the massacres committed by the Kymer Rouge regime, sadly did not survive that turbulent era. They play a unique sixties-based U.S-filtered Cambodian rock, which they say was derived from surf music, but you couldn’t tell from what Dengue Fever puts out: it sounds closer to psychedelic rock with some almost Garcia-like guitar . They are keeping this music alive in the world, and in this film they take the music back to its people.

Director John Pirozzi has filmed an engrossing documentary of Dengue Fever as they travel to Cambodia for the first time to perform what is essentially that culture’s modern music, and for singer Nimol, it’s a homecoming after five years absence. Pirozzi often shows the band’s performances from a close and wide-angle view, viewers feel that they are seeing the music live themselves, sometimes from onstage, sometimes as part of the crowd.

Rather than concentrate on just the band, Pirozzi also shows many wonderful images of Cambodia and its people, successfully using a montage effect at times, like traveling is shown in classic films. Since the entire country seems to get around on motor scooters, a hand-held camera is often used from a scooter in the middle of the traffic so we get a feeling of how chaotic the streets are there. However, everyone seems safe enough that no one wears helmets, not even entire families of 4-5 people on one scooter. The band was lucky enough to be there during the Water Festival, celebrating the end of monsoon season when the Mekong River actually changes direction, so we get to see what looks like their Mardi Gras, as hundreds of thousands pour into Phnom Penh from the countryside for a festival of fireworks, music, water sports, and food.

Pirozzi includes encounters with local Cambodian music masters, and we see some of the effort being made with young people to keep this culture alive, which barely survived the war years and in some cases has a lone surviving instrumentalist. Some of these instruments appear very primitive, as if they've been there for thousands of years. The Cambodian people appear very outgoing and friendly, a friend of mine who lived in Thailand said as much. Director Pirozzi has created a wonderful film of cross-cultural meetings that created immediate friendships and lasting impressions.

The film is a little short at 65 minutes, so thankfully, Pirozzi added about another 45 minutes of short films to the dvd so viewers won’t be disappointed. In fact, one song, " 1000 Tears of a Tarantula " , is a wonderful jazz excursion that blends the best of both American and Cambodian music into one ethereal musical journey. Reminiscent of the Allman Brothers, with Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie's sax, this is the best music on the dvd, and should have been included in the film. If you like the music, there’s an excellent soundtrack to the film on CD released as part of the dvd package. We need more music films this rare, stories that show good music, a joyous cultural exchange, and a window into a society that’s been overlooked far too long by the rest of the world.

Jose Sinclair, Worlds Best Films and 1000 Dvds To See

» left by Leah Gag Cartoonist⁽⁵⁷⁷⁾ (3 years 35 days ago.)

Excellent review - thank you! I look forward to reading more from you.

 

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» left by Jose Sinclair from Pine Mountain, Ga (3 years 35 days ago.)

thanks a lot.. hope you have a chance to catch this dvd, or hear the band! very unusual sound, and the female singer from Cambodia is hypnotic and addictive.. Thanks for the comment!

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