WEBVTT

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Comrade Pol Pot points out

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that he\'s the son
of a peasant farmer.

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When he was young,

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he lived and worked
on his parents\' farm.

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Then I left the countryside
to stay in a Buddhist temple.

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This was a tradition.

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I went to learn.

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I went to study.

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Altogether, I stayed in
the temple for six years.

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For two years, I was a monk.

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Comrade, you are the first
person to hear my biography.

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More than 2000 years
later we are still stitching.

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We do try to find ways
to use zippers

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or Velcro to stick it together.

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But somehow we didn\'t think

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it accomplished the fine fit
that the stitch would offer.

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Acceptable, but it should
be a little more squished.

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So this is for a star character.

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Most of the time, Pharan
is the one who wears this.

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After the Khmer Rouge era
was over,

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a lot of the costumes
were damaged.

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When people returned
from the Khmer Rouge,

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right away they established the
Department of Performing Arts

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where any surviving artist
would come and join.

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Chea Samy came and
she went there as well.

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And they were able
to help my generation

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to get the authentic training.

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I think that was the key

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how we could revive what
Pol Pot tried to destroy.

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She became the star performer
of female roles in the palace.

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And she was especially known
for her role as \"Moni Mekhala\".

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\"Moni Mekhala\" exemplifies
a woman who is innovative,

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who is educated, who is chosen
as the leader of her lineage.

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And she\'s a caretaker
of travelers on the ocean.

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As someone who\'s born and
raised in a family of refugees

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sometimes I wonder if I,
myself as a person,

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would exist had it not been
for this conflict.

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Even though I\'ve been coming
back and forth to Cambodia

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since 2008

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and even though
I relocated here in 2015,

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this is my first time here.

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Because as a second generation
Khmer American,

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I\'m tired of seeing

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only the Khmer Rouge.

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When you watch a film

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or when you read the news
or when you open a book.

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You hear so many
horrific stories

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and you see so many horrific
images associated

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with this place.

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But when you\'re here,

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you feel this peace from the
wind blowing through the trees,

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from the shadows of the
leaves dancing on the ground,

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from the sound
of the birds chirping.

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Despite all of that,

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underneath all
of this I somehow feel

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like this sticky
weight on my feet.

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Something pulling it down.

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And, it\'s...

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Sometimes the birds

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jumping through the grasses
will sound like someone

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is walking around you.

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I still feel like there
is a certain tension.

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That conflict caused my family

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and so many others
to flee to the diaspora.

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I never label myself
as a victim,

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I\'m just focused on

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how do I bring my people back
together to the power of art?

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How do I inspire
the next generation?

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She had a title in the palace,

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they used the title
\"Neak Mneang\".

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So she was officially
a consort of the king.

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And after King
Monivong\'s passing

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she was introduced to Saloth
Sar\'s (Pol Pot\'s) brother.

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You just have to...

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do it three times without
changing your hand.

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It\'s not commonly known
that Pol Pot

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was connected to the dancers.

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Even dancers themselves
rarely know that.

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I think it\'s hard for them

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to even imagine that
he could be connected

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to the dance...

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and the dancers who
for this country represent...

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our life,

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represent our highest expression
of beauty and knowledge.

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Represents our connections
to Angkor,

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represents our connection
to land and fertility...

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and renewal.

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So, you know...

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Because he\'s the face of...

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evil and destruction
and violence and trauma.

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Not many people know that
he had a very direct connection

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to the dancers
and to the palace.

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Okay, okay.

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All I know about
his time in Paris

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is that that\'s where
he got radicalized.

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When people go off to college,

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that\'s the time
of meeting new people,

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new ideas, new experiences that

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allow you to grow into the
person that you will become.

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I don\'t know if he was
introduced to communism there,

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but certainly
he was radicalized there.

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Saloth Sar
did not finish college

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and he came back and
stayed with Chea Samy

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and her husband for a little
bit and worked as a teacher.

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As...

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tensions were
brewing in the country

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and as he was beeing
summoned by the king,

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he decided
to actually disappear.

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Disappear himself in the middle
of the night

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into the jungle.

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When the Khmer Rouge
took over Phnom Penh,

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people were ordered
to evacuate the city.

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And the premise that
they used was that

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the Americans are
going to bomb the city.

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What the Khmer Rouge did is,

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they marched
these city people to...

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out into the countryside
and relocated them

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with the people they
called the base people.

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The stories that we do have
of what artists did

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during that time
in order to survive,

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like teacher Cheng Phuon
who is Sophiline\'s uncle

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and former minister of culture.

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He...

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would sneak out into the forests
to dance by himself...

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at night.

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A young Khmer Rouge

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soldier saw him and
reported him to the authorities.

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And...

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But thankfully,
the authorities just

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told the young boy to
keep his mouth shut.

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And then we have stories
about Voan Savay,

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who was the star Apsara
dancer in the seventies,

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about her being sick

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and making...

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and just finding
whatever little items

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she could have and
to make offerings.

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And also dedicating that
ceremony to Chea Samy.

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Right?
So...

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I can\'t imagine...

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the amount of strength and
will you have to have to...

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to live through just one day.

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Chea Samy was put on
kitchen duty.

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And I think as she was cleaning
the dishes.

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She...

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turned and
saw an image of him.

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I can\'t imagine
the amount of pain

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and anger,

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and sadness that

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Chea Samy must have felt, when
she realized that Pol Pot was

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her brother-in-law
that she helped raise.

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And to know that
this little brother

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is now the face of destruction.

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Destruction of so many things.

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Of religion.

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Destruction of culture,
and ways of being.

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Destruction of...

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communal relationships,

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destruction of her way
of life and her art form.

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So I can imagine
the type of anger...

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and sadness and confusion,

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and shock that
she must have felt.

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Even when the Khmer Rouge

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rejected the hierarchy
of the palace,

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they still looked to...

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royal culture...

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to imagine
their agrarian utopia.

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Part of the reason why the
Angkor was so successful

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was because
of multiple rice harvests.

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They saw rice harvests as
the key to Cambodia\'s power.

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And so they really
looked to Angkor

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and tried to mimic
that production.

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Knowing who Pol Pot was
must have been a really...

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horrible and terrifying
weight for her.

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And for her husband.

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And for the family.

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And I can imagine
that after the genocide

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that they continued to hold
a sense of maybe even guilt,

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and anger and frustration

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and a sense of betrayal.

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They must have felt so torn.

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Not just Chea Samy but many
of the dancers who survived.

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Because,

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sure, he wasn\'t a dancer, but
he was certainly one of them.

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You know?

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And he was the one who
wreaked that destruction.

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I don\'t think they ever
saw each other again.