Timothy and Sreypov serve up singles wins

Hour Sreypov secured a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Bahrain’s Maram Sharif in the Junior Fed Cup tie in Colombo yesterday. Photo supplied

Timothy and Sreypov serve up singles wins

Thu, 17 March 2016

H S Manjunath

Singles victories for Tep Timothy in the Junior Davis Cup and Hour Sreypov in the Junior Fed Cup in Colombo restored a modicum of pride for Cambodia yesterday after unproductive pool performances, even as the boys went down fighting to Iraq 1-2 and the girls were seen off by the same margin by Bahrain following a heartbreaking doubles loss in a super tie-break.

From the pressures of compressed group format, the bottom-bracket draw helped the Cambodian players open their shoulders, cut down on anxiety and stay more relaxed, yet focused, on the court.

This change was quite visible in the confident way Tep Timothy handled his singles match against Saber Ali, beating the Iraqi No1 6-4, 6-4 to level the score at 1-1 after Chheang Vannasith had gone down 2-6, 4-6 to San Gafur.

While Vannasith showed marked improvement from his performance against Turkmenistan, Tep Timothy went on to demonstrate that he had learned a few important lessons from the previous matches, the most vital one being to appreciate the value of staying in the point longer than his opponent.

Consistency was the key, and Timothy resisted the temptation of being too aggressive and maintained a steady hand to come out on top.But when it came to the crunch doubles, Timothy and Vannasith could hardly match the partnership of their Iraqi rivals Gafur and Saber, who reeled off a 6-1, 6-2 victory to clinch the tie for their country.

Away at the Gymkhana Club, Ho Sreynoch warmed up in the second set to put up a stiff fight, but by then Bahrain’s Redha Nazli was cashing in on the momentum to win the first singles rubber 6-1, 7-5.

But Hour Sreypov, staying solid behind the baseline and losing no opportunity to attack, was all over Maram Sharif in a 6-2, 6-0 rout.

With the tie delicately poised, the Cambodian girls took on Sharif and Nazli in what turned out to be a tense battle. The Bahrain pair took the first set 6-3, but Sreypov and Sreynoch bounced back with a tie-break win in the second set.

But in the super tie-break that followed, Sharif and Nazli proved too hard to crack.“The girls will play against Iraq, and the boys will take on Saudi Arabia.

Hopefully they can come up with a satisfactory ending to our first Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup mission,” non-playing captain and Tennis Cambodia’s head of junior development Phalkun Mam told the Post yesterday.

“The matchplay experiences for both teams have been invaluable, and I am confident it will stand them in good stead as we continue to build.”

Read more »

Smart, Universal Music bringing Jessie J to capital

Singer-songwriter Jessie J performs in New York City’s Central Park in May. AFP

Smart, Universal Music bringing Jessie J to capital

Thu, 29 October 2015

Post Staff

UK pop idol Jessie J is to perform at a concert in Phnom Penh on December 12 hosted by telecommunications company Smart and Universal Music.

Smart chief executive Thomas Hundt at a press conference yesterday announced that the concert would be held on Koh Pich following the finale of Smart’s “Mega Concert 2015” tour and I Am the Fastest Competition which will feature a series of performances by Cambodian artists all around the Kingdom between October 31 and December 11.

Real name Jessica Ellen Cornish, the pop and R&B singer’s first album in 2011, Who Are You, landed in the top 15 on the Billboard Top 200 and had six top 10 singles.

The single "Domino" went onto double-platinum status. Her second album Alive in 2013 reached the top five in the UK Albums Chart while last year’s Sweet Talker reached number 10 on the US Billboard Top 200. According to her website, she’s sold more than 20 million singles and 3 million albums worldwide.

Jessie J will be the second big-name artist Smart has brought Cambodia in less than a year. In May, the company staged an open-air concert on Koh Pich with US pop star Demi Lovato, which was reported as being one of the biggest by a foreign artist ever in the Kingdom.

Yesterday’s concert announcement came after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Smart and six music production houses to have their artists’ music made available through Smart’s music streaming services.

Hundt said Smart was becoming an entertainment provider rather than just a telecommunications company.

He said the company’s goal was to increase respect for music copyright to ensure that songwriters were compensated for their work and that the collaboration was about making music “affordable and available everywhere”.

The concert is free, however two levels of premium areas are set aside for Smart mobile phone subscribers who activate top ups worth $2 or $20. For more details checksmart.com.kh.

Read more »

Festival an opportunity for Kingdom’s young filmmakers

A still from Chap Somchanrith’s "Cambodian western" short "A Fistful of Pebbles", which will screen as part of this weekend’s Chaktomuk Short Film Festival. Photo supplied

Festival an opportunity for Kingdom’s young filmmakers

Thu, 5 November 2015

Audrey Wilson

The fourth Chaktomuk Short Film Festival begins on Friday with a bigger lineup of homegrown shorts than ever before.

Twenty-two Cambodian shorts and 25 more from abroad will be screened during the three-day festival at Aeon Mall’s Major Cinema and the French Institute. All the films on the program are under 30 minutes long, and fictional rather than documentary.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, festival director Sok Visal said the event would enable Cambodian short filmmakers to interact with producers and gain visibility – and, eventually, to increase the quantity and quality of local content.

“I believe that Cambodia is [full of] young filmmakers; so as long as they can showcase their works through our film festival, they can reach out to a wider crowd,” Visal said.

The festival will open with a ceremony and screening of the award-winning Colorful Knots by Ly Polen on Friday at Aeon Mall’s Major Cinema.

Prum Seila, one of CSFF’s co-founders and the president of arts collective Kon Khmer Koun Khmer, believes the festival demonstrates that the short film format is important, especially for filmmakers early in their career. “They just need the floor,” he said.

Seila said there were more Cambodian submissions to the festival than ever before and, for the first time, organisers received submissions from the provinces.

Recurring themes and subjects include family, LGBT issues, science fiction and animation.

Seven Cambodian films have been nominated to compete for the festival award – $3,000, to be awarded by a panel of judges – and for an audience award of $700.

Rin Sokreth, a 23-year-old graduate of the Royal University of Phnom Penh, produced and directed one of the nominated films, Spool. He said he hoped to one day direct feature films.

“Directing the young generation to produce short films is the first step,” said Sokreth.

Sokreth’s film – which served as his thesis project at RUPP this year – focused on the plight of a young garment worker. He said CSFF was a motivation for him to produce the film and share a fictional story about the subject.

Chap Somchanrith, a filmmaker who works for BBC Media Action, directed, produced and wrote one of the other nominated shorts, a seven-minute film he describes as a “Cambodian western” called A Fistful of Pebbles.

His film has been shown at international film festivals and took third prize at the Tropfest Southeast Asia short film festival this year.

“We wanted to do something different from what young Cambodian filmmakers make these days,” Somchanrith said. “There are so many stories to tell in Cambodia.”

The Chaktomuk Short Film Festival is sponsored by Cellcard, and supported by the Ministries of Culture and Information.

Read more »

Cambodians getting a taste of Japan’s film legacy

A still from "Snow on the Blades", a 2014 Japanese film directed by Setsuro Wakamatsu, being screened in Phnom Penh as part of the first Japanese Film Festival in Cambodia. Photo supplied

Cambodians getting a taste of Japan’s film legacy

Fri, 6 November 2015

Audrey Wilson

The Japanese Film Festival in Cambodia, which runs until Tuesday, will bring a singular focus on Japanese cinema to the Kingdom for the first time.

Organisers will screen 16 feature films over six days at Major Cinema in Aeon Mall and Legend Cinema at TK Avenue Mall.

The film festival – organised by the Embassy of Japan in cooperation with the Japan Foundation – opened last night with a ceremony at Chaktomuk Theatre and a screening of the award-winning film Departures that was attended by the Minister of Culture.

Held to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Japan-Cambodia Treaty of Amity, the festival represents the first standalone festival of Japanese cinema in Cambodia, though Japanese films have been screened as part of larger events before, according to festival organiser Lomorpich Rithy.

“The rationale behind bringing this festival to Phnom Penh is to connect the people of Japan and Cambodia,” Rithy explained. She said that organisers hoped to promote Japanese culture in Cambodia, as well as to expose Cambodian film fans and filmmakers – especially from the younger generation – to a different cinema tradition.

The selection of films traverses Japan’s cinematic history: from films released this year to anime features to the 1954 classic Twenty-Four Eyes.

Notable films on the schedule include sports drama 100 Yen Love, Japan’s entry for Best Foreign Language film at the 2014 Academy Awards; the 2005 romance Tokyo Tower; and the film adaptation of Rebirth, which won 10 awards at the 2011 Japan Academy Prize.

“The history of Japanese films has a very strong history and foundation,” Rithy said. She believes that this legacy will connect with a Cambodian audience.

“In the big picture it’s different, but in some details, Cambodian and Japanese culture, it’s very similar,” she said.

For more details about the Japanese Film Festival in Cambodia go to jffcambodia.com.

Read more »

Angelina Jolie Pitt accepts presidency of film fest panel

Bophana Center founder Rithy Panh gives actress Angelina Jolie Pitt a tour of the centre earlier this year as part of research for the adaptation of First They Killed My Father. Bophana Center

Angelina Jolie Pitt accepts presidency of film fest panel

Wed, 25 November 2015

Post Staff

The Cambodia International Film Festival received the endorsement of one of Hollywood’s biggest stars yesterday with the announcement that actress Angelina Jolie Pitt had accepted the presidency of the festival’s newly formed Honorary Committee.

The festival’s sixth edition will run from December 4 to 10 showcasing more than 130 films from 34 countries in eight screening venues across Phnom Penh.

The Honourary Committee was established this year “gathering professionals in cinema who support the development of the Cambodian film industry”, a CIFF press release said.

“Its members, originating from different backgrounds and continents, share the will to contribute to producing or promoting meaningful films in Cambodia, to see Cambodian cinema rise nationally and internationally.”

Jolie Pitt’s acceptance of the presidency was a “great honour for Cambodia and an encouragement for the new generation of filmmakers”.

The actress and filmmaker was quoted in the press release as saying:

“I’m proud to support the Cambodian International Film Festival and Cambodia as a home for vibrant and innovative filmmaking.

Cambodia’s rich history, long culture and talented people mean it has a huge amount to offer the region and the world.

I am honoured to be part of the 2015 Festival Committee, and looking forward to the exciting mix of Cambodian and international films we will be sharing with you this year.”

Other CIFF Honourary Committee members include filmmakers Rithy Panh, Kalyanee Mam, Sok Visal, Caylee So and James Gerrand, producer Nicholas Simon and film festival curator Park Sungho.

Jolie Pitt’s relationship with Cambodia stretches back to 2000 when she starred in the action adventure film Tomb Raider, which helped put Angkor Wat on the global tourism map.

She later adopted her son Maddox from the Kingdom and after establishing the Maddox Jolie Pitt Foundation wildlife sanctuary was given Cambodian citizenship.

She is currently filming an adaptation of the Khmer Rouge biography First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap and Battambang for Netflix.

For more details on the Cambodia International Film Festival check: cambodia-iff.com.

Read more »

Takeo woman tried to slip fake cash to investor

Police yesterday inspect counterfeit money that a Takeo province woman allegedly gave to an investor in a purported antiques business. National Police

Takeo woman tried to slip fake cash to investor

Thu, 17 March 2016

Morn Vanntey

A Takeo province woman has been accused of fraud after she allegedly tried to pay off an investor in a purported antiques business with $500,000 in counterfeit “spirit money”.

According to police, since 2013, garment worker Sun Nary, 38, had received a total of $10,500 in two payments from 58-year-old Koh Thom district television repairman Touch Phann to buy and sell antiques.

On Tuesday, Nary hired a Highlander taxi to drive to Kandal province where she was to meet Phann in Sa’ang district’s Koh Khel commune and share the profits of the business, which she claimed was $500,000 packed in a locked metal box.

However, before handing the money over, Nary demanded $4,000 to pay for the taxi.

Suspicious, Phann agreed to hand over $2,000 but demanded the pair first count the $500,000 at a nearby police station, where the counterfeit nature of the money was discovered and Nary was arrested.

“All of the money was fake,” said Sa’ang district police officer Seng Socheat.

“The suspect has cheated the victim twice already and yesterday she intended to do it again,” Socheat added.

The suspect and the fake money were sent to Kandal Provincial Court yesterday afternoon. A representative of the court could not be reached yesterday.

Read more »

Food project targets women

A woman harvests vegetables on a farm on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last month. A new project is aiming to educate women in agricultural and environmental-friendly practices to increase their crop yields. Pha Lina

Food project targets women

Thu, 17 March 2016

Yesenia Amaro

USAID is spending $1 million on a project the aim of which will improve nutrition across four provinces by training women in farming practices that have higher yields, produce more nutrient-rich vegetables and require less resources.

The Women in Agriculture Network Cambodia project – covering Siem Reap, Battambang, Pursat and Kampong Thom – will also help boost women’s participation in local and regional markets in order to raise household incomes.

Women in the Kingdom are expected to raise a family while also farming, said project leader Rick Bates, a horticulture professor at Penn State University,

“That’s why it also makes sense to work with women and to help them adopt technologies that are going to make their jobs easier,” he said.

A research component of the project would help understanding of women’s role in the country’s agriculture, said US Embassy spokesman Jay Raman.

It “complements other US government-funded programs in the agriculture sector to find ways to break down the barriers that women face”, he said.

The project is in its early stages, and involves researchers from various universities, who are due to begin work over the course of 2016, and local NGOs.

The training component would see women learn about sustainable practices, like the trickle irrigation system, which drips water only in the area surrounding the plant to stop excess water use, Bates said.

If the women mainly grew seasonal rice, they would learn about which other vegetables are in demand during the course of the year and when they should be grown to best utilise their land year-round.

Participants would also learn about vegetables that are nutrient-dense so they could also use them to improve nutrition in their home, Bates said.

Nearly half or half of the population in the four provinces were found to be under acute food insecurity, according to a 2015 Council for Agriculture and Rural Development report.

Cambodia was among the countries in Southeast Asia where people consumed the least vegetables, said Stuart Brown, from the World Vegetable Center, which will provide nutrition training as part of the project.

“The goal is to have an impact over the long period to reduce stunted children and to introduce households to vegetables and nutrition,” he said.

But nutrition expert Dr Frank Wieringa said encouraging women to grow vegetables wasn’t enough. “It’s not really about growing them, it’s about cooking them,” he said.

Women also needed more time to prepare meals and better diets that included meats, such as fish and chicken, Wieringa said

Read more »

Fight back on for UNESCO recognition

Practitioners perform a kun l’bokator demonstration in front of Angkor Wat for Khmer New Year in 2013. Koam Chanrasmey

Fight back on for UNESCO recognition

Fri, 26 February 2016

H S Manjunath

The government is throwing its weight behind a joint initiative by the Ministry of Culture and the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia to re-submit its plea to UNESCO for recognition of kun l’bokator as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a status three other Cambodian Angkor-era traditions have enjoyed since 2008.

The renewed bid, which is to be made in the coming months, conclusively addresses several issues UNESCO had raised after NOCC’s first attempt in 2012 to seek recognition for this nearly 1,000-year-old martial art, which ranks among the world’s most ancient fighting techniques.

“There is a total conceptual and strategic change in the way we are presenting our case to UNESCO this time. The Ministry of Culture coming into this is very significant as is the steadfast support from the World Martial Arts Union, of which Cambodia is a member,” secretary-general of the NOCC Vath Chamroeun told the Post in an exclusive interview.

Alive in the consciousness

The cornerstone of Cambodia’s submission to UNESCO is that kun L’bokator was an extremely popular cultural activity among the people of the Khmer empire and that its empirical and historical value has to be preserved forever.

Kun l’bokator has been described as not just a fighting technique, but also a way of life. Top right: A depiction of kun l’bokator found at Angkor Wat. Photo supplied

In support of its case, the Kingdom will present a 10-minute video that graphically captures the nuances of kun l’bokator while throwing light on embedded depictions of this fighting style in the Angkor Wat temple complex, which is a UNESCO-declared World Heritage site.

But more importantly, the Kingdom will bolster its appeal by outlining several progressive steps it will take in the ensuing years to keep kun l’bokator alive in the collective consciousness of the people.

Among the major initiatives that has been planned for the promotion and preservation of this ancient martial art is its introduction as a subject in schools countrywide, besides encouraging its spread among personnel in the army and police.

The NOCC has already included kun l’bokator as one of the 22 disciplines in the first ever National Games to be held later this year, with the logical next step being its entry to the SEA Games as a medal sport when Cambodia hosts the regional mega event in 2023.

“The thrust of our argument is that kun l’bokator was not just a fighting technique – it was a way of life and tradition. So this rich cultural inheritance dating back hundreds of years will have to be passed on down the generations, especially so since it was nearly wiped out during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror," Chamroeun said.

A conference of kun l’bokator activists, administrators, practitioners and historians held in Phnom Penh last month overwhelmingly endorsed this fresh initiative to approach UNESCO for what was generally perceived as “historically due to the people of Cambodia”.

The Cambodian narrative this time, backed as it has been by a wealth of historical evidence, is the closest to UNESCO’s definition of Intangible Asset of Humanity in that it is all about the living experiences of a country’s ancestors to be preserved and passed on to their descendants.

In the past eight years, UNESCO has recognised three of Cambodia’s most admired traditions: the Royal Ballet, sbek thom (shadow puppetry) and teanh prot (a tug of war ritual to mark a new agricultural cycle and bring an abundant harvest).

Both the Ministry of Culture and NOCC are optimistic that kun l’bokator will join this illustrious list. Though previously it was referred to as just “bokator” in common parlanceIn its historical context, kun l’bokator, which roughly translates as “to fight a lion”, was an ancient technique involving various weapons and was introduced to Khmer civilisation from India.

While it went through several local improvisations in Cambodia, the fighting style made its way to several other countries such as China, Japan and South Korea and assumed different shapes and forms.

Cambodian legacy for 1,000 years

Kun l’bokator Grandmaster San Kim Sean. Uy Nousereimony

So the underlying argument by Cambodia is that this style of fighting, which took root in Khmer society, is as old as, if not older than, many other martial art styles credited to other countries.

A few years ago kun l’bokator was voted as the No1 martial art in the Hong Bang International Martial Arts Festival in Vietnam over claims from 25 other countries from Asia and Europe.

Grandmaster San Kim Sean, who has been instrumental in reviving the sport after its near destruction by the Khmer Rouge, is of the firm opinion that the country should preserve what he calls the empirical legacy that has been built into the lives of Cambodians for 1,000 years.

“To achieve this goal, UNESCO recognition is very important. It ensures that this cultural treasure is never lost to humanity,” said San Kim Sean, who runs the country’s first Bokator Academy in Siem Reap.

Meanwhile, experts acknowledge the vital importance of yuthakun khom, a similar martial art practised by the warrior class during the Angkorian period.

“We attach equal importance to both these styles and it is not a matter of preference of one over the other. As is historically evident, yuthakun khom was widely used by soldiers guarding the kings whereas kun l’bokator was practised by the common people,” Chamroeun said.

“We are eager to have it listed because we have to preserve our cultural identity,” he said.

Read more »

Faldo Series tournament set to tee off

Six-time major champion Nick Faldo. Photo supplied

Faldo Series tournament set to tee off

Mon, 29 February 2016

H S Manjunath

The 10th Faldo Series Asia Grand Final, one of the most coveted amateur golfing events in the continent, will hit the greens at the Nick Faldo-designed Mission Hills in China on Wednesday.

“There is always a tremendous sense of excitement and anticipation heading into the Grand Final and more so this year because it is our 10th anniversary” said six-time major champion Nick Faldo, the host of the tournament and the series mastermind, in a statement made available to the Post.

“It gives me great satisfaction to see the Faldo Series Asia continuing to grow and prosper with more tournaments in more countries - a sign of healthy state of elite junior golf in Asia Pacific.”

The previous nine Faldo Series Asia Grand Finals have produced seven overall champions representing four countries. India’s Rashid Khan and Japan’s Masamichi Ito are both winners who are making their way into the professional world. The only two-time female champion is Hsieh Yu Lin of Chinese Taipei.

Spanning 11 months, the 2015-16 Faldo Series Asia season included 21 events in countries including Cambodia and - for the first time - Australia. Also taking part in the Grand Finals are the Champions from the Faldo Series in Europe, Japan’s Yumi Kudo, England’s Jack Yule and American Kaitlyn Papp.

Read more »

MND down Naga as Boeung Ket win big

The Armymen's North Korean striker Choe Myong-ho. Sreng Meng Srun

MND down Naga as Boeung Ket win big

Mon, 29 February 2016

H S Manjunath

The second week of action in the Metfone C-League created a mild flutter after Ministry of National Defence pulled off a 1-0 win over last season’s runners-up NagaWorld at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday, even as Boeung Ket Angkor produced a 6-0 blow-out of Western Phnom Penh at the same venue in an evening encounter.

Earlier on Friday, National Police bounced back after their 1-4 defeat last week by the Army by holding defending-champions Phnom Penh Crown to a goalless draw.

After a barren first half, NagaWorld were undone by a set piece that was cleverly exploited by the Armymen with their North Korean striker Choe Myong-ho nodding home from a corner for the only goal of the match in the 64th minute.

The narrow defeat for NagaWorld followed the side’s 1-1 draw with Western Phnom Penh, while the Army outfit recorded their second win in two weeks.

The in-form Samuel Gbenga held out an ominous warning to Western with a 12th minute solo effort and Boeung Ket Angkor kept stretching that lead. Goals by Sok Sovann and Khuon Laboravy came within a minute of each other and Yuya completed the first-half tally of 4-0 just past the half hour mark.

While Chan Vathanaka notched up Boeung Ket’s fifth goal as a substitute in the 62nd minute, Gbenga was back to complete a well-deserved double with another strike of quality in the 82nd minute to give Coach Prak Sovanara’s side a commanding victory.

Read more »