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WEEKLY
THURSDAY - MARCH 10, 2016
Vol: 01 | Issue: 27 T h e
BehindTheCurtain
8/19/2019 The Weekly - March 10
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8,000+copies every week
600+locations in CambodiaREGULARS
Around Town
The best listings in town PAGES 8 & 9
FILMS, EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
Kool As UDesigner Kosal Ou looks
to the future
PAGE 3
Boeung Kak Rejuvenation through art
PAGE 4
PUBLISHER
T. Mohan
EDITOR:
James Reddick
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Maddy Crowell, Jonathan Cox,
Michael Light
ART DIRECTION:
Khiev Chanthara, Aim Valinda
096 217 7770 | 012 244 982
[email protected]@khmertimeskh.com
ADVERTISING SALES:
Mary Shelistilyn Clavel
010 678 324
NEWSROOM:
No. 7 Street 252
Khan Daun Penh
Phnom Penh 12302
Kingdom of Cambodia
023 221 660
PRINTER: TST Printing House
DISTRIBUTION:
Kim Steven Yoro
016 869 302
AVAILABLE AT:
Monument Books
No. 53 Street 426
Phnom Penh
023 217 6177
The Weekly is published 48 times a year
in Phnom Penh. No content may be
reproduced in any form without prior
consent of the publisher.
Cover Photo: Fabien Mouret
PAGE 6, 7 & 10
I train them not only for dance, I
train them for life, how to live as a
ladyboy. I teach everything – how to
take care of their skin, how to takehormones, everything.
Gaza ZooA zoo feels the brunt of
war and isolationPAGE 5
CabaretBackstage at the country’s
only ladyboy revuePAGE 6, 7 & 10
CoffeeA Feel Good StoryPAGE 11
xxxxxxxx
F a b i e n M o u r e t
S u p p l i e d
Step it Up Final Night
@Meta House, 37Sothearos Boulevard,6:30 PM
The nal night of theStep it Up lm festival,which showcasesthe lives of girls andwomen, brings anotherround of lms fromwomen directors inCambodia. DirectorSokyou Chea (left)will be present for aQ&A session after ascreening of her lm,“The Ride”.
THURSDAY
S u p p l i e d
For several years, the folks behind Simone Art caféand bistrot and local artists have been teamingup to try to rejuvenate the resilient Boeung Kakneighborhood. This weekend marks the secondannual art festival to celebrate, and raise money,for the ‘hood. Featuring 45 artists, including music,dancing, painting, and even Bokator, over two days,this is the place to be this weekend.
Boeung Kak Art Festival
@Boeung Kak, $5 adults, $3 students
SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Not to Miss:
A girl in her home, a oatinghouse on Tonle Sap in Kampong
Chhnang Province.
THIS WEEK WEEKLY
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THURSDAY MARCH 10, 2016
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F a b i e n M o u r e t
Pointing to the
showroom of his
new boutique
clothing store, Ou
Kosal admits that
his – a beautiful, open store with
ull clothing racks stocked with
his own designs – is just a small
part of what he has in mind for
he future.
“It’s still on the way up,” he
ays of his clothing company,
Kool As U, which is an anagram
of Kosal’s name. After opening
nearly two and a half years agoon Street 19, Kosal abruptly
closed his store in November,
citing the costs of rent and the
desire for a new location. When
a friend told him he was closing
his bar on Street 208 (between
Street 51 and Street 63), he
umped at the chance for a fresh
tart.
Now Kosal’s designs, which
are primarily casual wear using
ocally sourced materials suited
or the Cambodian heat, will be
available on the second floor of
a Khmer-style apartment. He
hopes to open on either March
25 or April 5 (“Five is my luckynumber,” he explains). Although
the store will not be visible from
the street, Kosal has already
made a name for himself as one
of the city’s up-and-coming
designers, so he expects his
clients to be able to find him.
Kosal says that his customer
base is split virtually in half
between the local middle class
and the ex-pat community.
“Many of my customers
are middle class who prefer to
have something that’s better
quality [than in the markets]and [originally] designed,” he
explains. “Some people who
have money don’t want to
go abroad to get something.”
Although the clothes made in his
showroom are more expensive
than at a normal tailor, or in
places like Central Market, the
prices are not exorbitant. A pair
of trousers is just $23, while
shorts are $15, depending on the
material and design.
Kosal’s business – which
includes a small workshop
with five employees who make
specially ordered clothes for
other companies – is remarkableconsidering his background.
A native of Kratie Province, he
graduated high school in 1999.
At the time, universities were
only offering a few degrees
in business and finance. An
education in design was unheard
of.
Instead, he got hands-on
instruction through the country’s
behemoth garment industry,
working as a merchandiser for
a factory supplying to high-
end international companies
like Prada and Burberry. For adecade, he saw first-hand the
process of ordering, design and
production. Nearly 15 years
later, he finally felt that he was
ready to start a clothing line of
his own.
“I felt like Cambodia was
starting to grow, and I thought
‘It’s time for me to start
something else,” he says. “I
wanted to do something of my
own.”
After seeing clothes made
in the country’s factories and
Made In Cambodia
The Kool As U creatorlooks to the future
MARY CLAVEL
[email protected]@khmertimeskh.com
010 678 324010 678 324010 678 324
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then exported to the developed
world, Kosal had a mission to
start a local brand. “We mainlysupply garments to the world.
Why don’t we produce and sell
them here?” he asked.
Slowly, he built up a network
of loyal customers attracted
to his sleek designs, many of
which he says are inspired by
British brands like Paul smith.
At the same time, business in
his workshop, which is staffed
by former garment employees
experienced in clothing
production, has expanded
because of orders from small,
mostly international brands.
As he prepares to open his
second shop this month, Kosal
says that soon he will need tosplit up the two businesses,
with his clothing line separate
from the workshop. One day, he
hopes to open a small factory to
cater to brands who aren’t able
to order on a big enough scale
to do business with the large
garment factories.
“I don’t want to link the [two
businesses] together and I don’t
want the other designers to feel
like they’re promoting me,” he
explains. “I made a company to
support small designers and
small companies.”
By James Reddick
Kheng Sen inthe workshop.
Ou Kosal in his newboutique store.
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Most who havespent time in
Cambodia know
the story of
Boeung Kak Lake. More than
4,000 families were forced to
leave their homes to make way
for a massive development
project. While a few returned,
most relocated to the provinces.
The neighborhood became a
cheap hotbed for junkies.
“It was a fucking mess,” Marj
Arnaud, a French expat who has
been living in the Boeung Kak
neighborhood for three years,explained. “So many junkies. It
was a dark neighborhood.”
I met Arnaud at Simone Art,
a café and restaurant she co-
founded with Ludi Labille that
quietly doubles as a politicalmessage: art can rebuild a lost
community.
Arnaud discovered Boeung
Kak three years ago, while
backpacking solo through
Southeast Asia. When she
landed in Phnom Penh, she told
her tuk tuk driver to take her to
the cheapest guesthouse, and he
brought her to #10 Guesthouse,
a barren sand-colored building
that once bordered the lake.
Most guests were turned off
by the neighborhood, but for
Arnaud it became a source ofinspiration. “The eviction ruined
a lot. I wanted the neighborhood
to be reborn, to recreate it,”
she says. Now fluent in Khmer,
Arnaud has rarely returned to
her home country, in the southof France. Last year, she spent
two months in France. “So, I’m
good for awhile,” she laughs.
The idea for Simone Art came
to Arnaud during her stay in the
neighborhood, and she called
her friend Ludi Labille to recruit
her as a co-owner.
“I called Ludi, and I said,
Cambodia is nice, come see. She
came and she said, ‘Wow, it is
nice.’” Labille soon moved to co-
run Simone Art.
At the time, two years ago,
there were only two runningguesthouses. The neighborhood
was considered dangerous by
many and still had a rampant
drug problem.
Together, Labille and Arnaud
started with a campaign to clean
the streets. They recruited a
team of neighbors and expats
and wandering backpackers and
began by picking up trash and
leftover rubble.
“We started cleaning. We
added concrete pavement for
roads. We added lights. Then
two French people openedbusinesses. We wanted to
develop with art and music. We
had many walls, so we thought
– we need color.” Around that
time, a new generation of
Cambodian street artists was
starting to rise. Artists quietly
began to paint the concrete walls that enclose the area.
“People were still scared [of
the neighborhood], so we started
creating more events.”
Roughly 40 graffiti artists
began to paint from around the
world – Colombia, England,
the States, New Zealand,
France. Slowly, walls that were
overbearingly tall and white
began to fill with color. Massive,
detailed murals of smiling faces
now coat the walls.
One sign reads: “Play with
new rules.” A vintage store sellscheap western clothes. The
neighborhood is not unlike
London’s Soho or New York’s
Brooklyn – young, broke artists
who cover dilapidated corners of
expensive cities with art, which
consequently jacks up real estate
prices.
The Boeung Kak
neighborhood hasn’t quite
reached a level of high-end
investment, though. That’s still
the largest challenge for Simone
Art, which has yet to make a
profit.“We start everything with our
own money,” Arnaud said.
But for the community, the
investment seems to have been
worthwhile. The two existing
businesses have been joined
by seven others – including
an incoming lesbian barand French guesthouse. For
Lucky Somnang, one of the
few residents to have stayed
behind after the community was
evicted, the new changes have
been immense.
“People had no jobs when
the lake was gone. People were
crying. They had to go work at
factories, some working with
garbage, some selling fruits.
I stay because I had a job
here,” Lucky told me from #10
Guesthouse where he works.
“It’s in a good way now. Nowit’s clean. It’s in a good way for
us.” And for Simone Art, it’s just
the beginning.
For the second annual year,
they will host a street festival this
weekend to bring attention to
Boeung Kak’s growing art scene.
Called “Boeung Kak Art,” the
festival will feature live hip-hop,
urban art, workshops, street art,
body painting, and fire shows.
All proceeds will go to rebuilding
the community.
“It’s a political message, but
it’s also a positive message. Forsome, it’s the first time they’ve
seen art on the walls. It starts a
discussion in the community
about what’s next.”
By Maddy Crowell
F a b i e n M o u r e t
Ludi Labille shows off a poster for the upcoming Boeung Kak ArtFestival
Another chapter in the neighborhood’s cultural renaissance
A NewCanvas ForBoeung Kak
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K
han Yunis, Palestinian
Territories (AFP) – In
the Gaza Strip, where
residents face a daily
truggle to survive, animals athe Khan Yunis zoo are dying
every week and the tiger hasn’t
eaten for days.
Of hundreds of animals
bought for the zoo’s 2007
opening, the only survivors are
he last deer of its herd, a pelican,
an ostrich, two porcupines
and the tiger -- hungry yet still
majestic.
All the other cages are empty
and overgrown, while a thick
tench lingers in the air. Dusty
cats weave in and out of the
chipped, green bars of the cages
as a puppy howls in its pen.
Now, after years of effort,
zoo owner Mohammed Aweda
s admitting defeat. He plans toell the tiger and the rest of the
animals and close the zoo after
eeing his dreams fail.
The tiger “has not eaten meat
R e u t e r s
R e u t e r s
By Sarah Benhaidafor four days,” Aweda tells AFP
during a visit to the deserted
zoo.
“The food costs 250 Israeli
shekels ($63) per day,” Aweda
says. “I have not managed to
earn that amount from zoo visits
in one year.” When it first opened,
families thronged to the
2,000-square-metre Khan
Yunis zoo in the south of the
Palestinian enclave to see
eagles, lions, the tiger, deer,
pelicans and even crocodiles
for just three shekels.
But between 2008 and 2014,
the Gaza Strip, ruled by the
Palestinian Islamist movement
Hamas, has experienced three
wars with Israel.
The last conflict, in the
summer of 2014, killed 2,251Gazans, the majority of them
civilians, and 73 Israelis,
including 67 soldiers, according
to the United Nations.
The animals, too, were
caught up in Israeli bombing,
with 80 killed according to
Aweda.
After the conflict “I waited
for days before entering and
the smell of death was strong. I
found carcasses everywhere.”
An open-air cemetery
Israel maintains a crippling
blockade of the Palestinian
enclave and with little in
the way of a local economy
Gaza’s residents simply don’t
have any money left to spend on
going to the zoo.
Inside, a stench emerges
from a cage where a barely
legible sign tells visitors to
respect the cleanliness of the
premises.Dessicated bodies of
crocodiles and a lion lie in the
sun, surrounded by the bones of
other animals.
The weather is fine, but the
zoo seems more like an open-
air cemetery than a place for joy.
Two other zoos in Gaza are in
similar states.
School bus driver Tamer al-
Nirab says dozens of children
used to visit the zoo every day
but now “nobody can afford it”.
Eighty percent of Gaza’s
population are reliant on
international aid, according to
the UN. At its peak, the zoo had 60
stocked cages, with Aweda and
his 13 family members living off
the profits.
But now they have taken up
other jobs just to try to obtain
enough food for the animals.
“Some of my brothers
became drivers, others have
found employment in small
businesses,” says Aweda,
standing in front of the cage
where the 180-kilogramme
(400-pound), eight-year-old
tiger paces.
To obtain the tiger was
a mammoth effort, hesays, explaining that it was
transported “from Senegal to
Egypt, then from Sinai to Gaza
through a tunnel.”
He is now hoping to sell the
beast for $30,000. After that,
Aweda says, he will sell the land,
and the small zoo of Khan Yunis
will be no more.
Palestinian Mohammad Oweida, a zoo owner, shows stuffed animalsthat died during the 2014 war
A tiger is seen inside an enclosure at a zoo in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
School busdriver Tamer al-
Nirab says doz-ens of childrenused to visit the zoo everyday but now “nobody canafford it.
IN GAZA ZOO,empty cages andlonely animals asclosure looms
IN GAZA ZOO,empty cages andlonely animals asclosure looms
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F a b i e n M o u r e t
CabaretBackstage at
Cambodia's first andonly ladyboy show
A dancer walks onstage for the openingnumber of the Fridaynight performance
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an Elizabethan period drama.
“It's her first time doing this
dance, so she's a little nervous,”
Panngoen explains.
Nervous or not, Belle goes
through her dance routine with
the coquettish grace of a pro
while lip synching to a Japaneselove song. As the curtains
close, she blows the imaginary
audience a kiss, to the applause
of her fellow dancers in the front
row.
Panngoen learned by
dancing in cabaret shows in
her hometown of Bangkok,
where she had performed since
the age of 18. Bangkok, an
international destination for
gender reassignment surgery.
has dozens of ladyboy cabarets
with names like Calypso and
Playhouse. In Cambodia thesecabarets are about as common
as hockey rinks.
In 2012 owner Wichit
Thianthongdee decided to
bring Bangkok-style cabaret to
Cambodia, building the theater
and recruiting a starting group
of dancers from Thailand. When
Panngoen first saw these job ads,
she said she wasn't interested. “Ithought, 'Why would I want to
go to Cambodia?'” she said.
Without her knowledge,
Panngoen's best friend grabbed
a copy of her headshot and sent
it to Rosana Broadway. She was
surprised to receive the job offer
from the Cambodian cabaret,
but grudgingly accepted. “At first
I didn't want to go to Cambodia,”
she said. “But now I really love,
love, love it here.”
She said planning the show
and teaching the ladyboy
lifestyle to her young protégéeshas become her life's goal.
“Every day I'm waiting for 4
o'clock [when rehearsals begin]
because I miss everybody,” she
said. “When I think about my
life, I'm very happy that I ended
up here. All of my experience – I
want to share it with all of them.”
Panngoen certainly has
plenty of experience to share.
She has learned not only how to
organize the Rosana's intricate
dance numbers, but also how to
spot a good potential dancer in
The curtains rise on
a glittering set and
the first chord of
Frank Valli's “Can't
Take My Eyes Off You” blasts
hrough the theater. The stage
s all tight sequined dresses
and white suits, as one of the
emale dancers – statuesque and
decked with feathers – lip synchswith the music:
“You're just too good to be
rue.”
This line is a perfect opener,
because many of the women
performing on-stage at Siem
Reap's Rosana Broadway
cabaret show are indeed “too
good to be true.” Most of the
tarlets at Rosana are “ladyboys,”
o use the term popularized in
Thailand, where cabaret shows
ike this draw huge audiences.
Every night these 76 Rosana
dancers perform in the neon-it theater off National Road 6,
which can seat an audience of
842 at $30 a ticket.
Ladyboy revues may
be popular in neighboring
Thailand, but since opening
hree years ago Rosana Broadway
has been the only show of its
kind in Cambodia. Popular with
Korean and Chinese tourists,
t is still trying to draw more
ocals and Western tourists
o its own surreal, gender-
bending brand of cabaret. The
manager, Oak Sambo, said thatCambodian audiences were at
irst unfamiliar with the idea
of ladyboy cabaret stars. “Five
years ago the Cambodian people
didn't have their hearts open to
ladyboys, and didn't know about
them,” she said.
It's not surprising that
audiences might find the show
strange. For a viewer used to
the sedate pace of a traditional
Apsara dance, a Rosana
Broadway performance feels like
a fever dream.
Sets and dance styles change
with dizzying speed, from atraditional Hanuman dance set
in a deep jungle, to an intricate
routine set in a Chinese imperial
throne room complete with
giant dragons, to a hip hop
number on a glitzy set that looks
straight out of a music video by
K-Pop star Psy.
The dancers' genders change
just as quickly as the musical
styles. One performer will sport
a Clark Gable mustache in one
dance, and a pastel dress and
peacock feathers in the next.
Sometimes the gender swappingeven happens in a single
performance, with one dancer
wearing a double-sided costume
– Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
for the price of one.
Though some of the
performances are slightly
raunchy, Rosana never veers
into burlesque. Most ladyboy
cabaret shows in Thailand play
up the sex, but Rosana focuses
on dance and spectacle. “It's
not a sexy show,” said Sambo.
“It's a show of different kinds of
traditional dance.”Sambo is right that the show
is not particularly “sexy,” but it is
only “traditional” in the loosest
sense of the word. Apsara dance
blends into a fan dance, which
blends into slapstick comedy,
which blends into K-Pop. Before
each routine, a disembodied
voice announces the country of
origin: “Ladies and gentlemen,
presenting a traditional dance
from Vietnam.”
If the action onstage is
surreal, backstage is even more
so. Male dancers in Angkor-
era armor rush past ladyboys wearing flamboyant blue
gowns. Dragon sculptures loom
overhead next to silver cloth
backdrops, ready to be rolled
into place for the next song. In
the dark wings of the theater,
dancers practice their moves,
somehow balancing under the
weight of their towering feather
headdresses.
Just a few months ago, some
of these dancers were waiters
or fruit vendors in Siem Reap.
Many were recruited for the
cabaret thanks to the keen eyeof Thai choreographer Kanoklak
Panngoen.
Panngoen is the heart of the
show – managing everything
from dancer recruitment to
choreography to set design and
lighting. Slim and graceful at 43,
she walks around the set in a
yellow tank top, demonstrating
moves for her dancers and
occasionally shouting directions
in a voice that is an octave lower
than one would expect but never
harsh or severe.
Panngoen pauses to talkto one performer, Belle, in a
flouncy pink dress that looks
like it was pulled directly from
When Ithink aboutmy life, I'm
very happy that Iended up here. Allof my experience– I want to share itwith all of them.
F a b i e n M o u r e t
Ny, 18, gets ready to go on stage.
By Jonathan Cox
Namwan, 28, in the dressing room.
CONTINUE PAGE 10
F
a b i e n M o u r e t
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Conference: Archaeology inFrance
@French Institute, 216 Street 184 A presentation by DominiqueGarcia, President of theFrench National Institute forPreventive ArchaeologicalResearch.
EXHIBITIONS
PORTRAITS@Show Box, 11 Street 330
Show Box invites all regionalartists to contribute theirtalents to the next group art
exhibit: “Portraits: an explora-tion into the oldest form ofself-reflection”. Artists can
submit their pieces (prefer-ably two or more) to Show
Box by March 27. [email protected] formore information.
ONGOING
36 Views of Phnom Penh@The Plantation, 28 Street 184
Amateur of “Barang archi-tecture” and admirer of VannMolyvann as well as Khmer
modernism, Laurent drawsheritage buildings that arebeing demolished or will be.
CAFÉ ELEPHANT@French Institute, 218 Street 184
Artwork by cartoonist JiriSliva
GERMAN-CAMBODIAN ARt@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:
The German artist AlfredBanze presents “2.5 Street“,
Together with students andlocal artists he created large
drawings and video clips withthe theme: Rise and fall of aCommunity Art Space.
SORROWS AND STRUGGLES:WOMEN‘S EXPERIENCE OFFORCED MARRIAGE DURINGTHE KHMER ROUGE REGIME
@Tuol Sleng Museum (Building A)
The exhibition is based on
survivor oral histories re-counting personal experienc-es of forced marriages during
the Khmer Rouge regime.
THE ALTERED MIRROR: RE-FLECTIONS FROM GUATEMALA
AND CAMBODIA@Bophana Center 64 Street 200,Okhna Men
Erick Gonzalez, renownedFranco-Guatemalan artistresident in Phnom Penh since
2015, exhibits his latest cre-
ations consisting in objects,installations and paintings.
FILMS
Thu, March 10
@Bophana Center, 200 OknhaMenRITES OF PASSAGE (2013, 80MINS), 6:30 PM:
A feature length drama made
collaboratively with youngpeople who dip below thesurface of their often tough
exteriors to reveal what is go-
EVENTS
Thu, March 10
NO PROBLEM DISCO@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172
DJ Jack Malipan playing
Sexy Funky Disco HouseURBAN THURSDAYS@SHARKY BAR, 126 STREET130
DJ Niko Yu
TRIPPY THURSDAYS –WONDER WOMEN SPECIAL@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:
DJanes AJA KURATABANZAI (Japan) & SAOSOPHEAK (Cambodia).
BINGO
@Show Box, 11 Street 330, 8PM:
$1 entry per game, with cashand beer prizes.
SWING DANCING CLASS@Cloud, 32 Street 9, 6:30-7:30PM:
Monthly swing dancing class,$4 for the class, including 1drink. Social dancing is free.
KARAOKE NIGHT@Eluvium Lounge, 205A Street19, 7-10 PM:
Fri, March 11
@The Oyster Restaurant, Hi-mawari Hotel, 6-10 PM Fridayand Saturday
A buffet spread featuring
fresh seafood, barbequedmeats, local Khmer delights
and international favorites.$21++ per adult, $10.50++per child between 6 – 12years old. Call to 023 214555 ext 63 to reserve.
LIVE MUSIC@Sharky Bar, 126 Street 130, 9PM
Soundtrek Project, an11-piece French brass band,puts on its final weekend ofshows in Cambodia
OSKAR CLUB #3, @Oskar Bistro, 159 SisowathQuay
DJs Nora Haidee, DJ Dona-belle, DJ Devi Vanhon
PULSE THE HOUSE@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172
DJ Shaman & Special guestsDr Wah Wah & Bojan fromKimchi Collective.
ACOUSTIC FRIDAYS@Farm to Table, 16 Street 360,
6-8 PM:Mathias Nunberg performs,2 for 1 beer & wine from 4-7PM
DJ PARTY – FLUID@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard, 9 PM:
DJs MOUDY, DSN, BLAZIAN+ MORE
Sat, March 12
LIVE MUSIC@125 Street 130, 9 PM
Batbangers (Khmer Rock)
BOEUNG KAK ART FESTIVAL@Boeung Kak
Two-day street festival withmore than 45 artists andbands. All proceeds go to
benefit
SATURDAY TECH LOUNGE@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172
With DJ Flo, Rob Bianche &Special guest DJ Wedenski.
BACK TO THE ‘50S, ‘60S, ‘70S,‘80S
@Eluvium Lounge, 205A street19, 8:00 PM-10:00 PMFavorite songs and romanticballads from the 50s, 60s,70s and 80s
SOUNDTREK PROJECT@Cloud, 32 Street 9, 8:30 PM:
The final Cambodian showfor the 11-member brassband from France
CAMBODIAN FUSION DJ PARTY @Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard, 9 PM:
W/ MUTE SPEAKER & DjaneSAO SOPHEAK
Sun, March 13
HOUSE SENSATION@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172
DJ Shaman playing DeepFunky House music.
Mon, March 14
PULSATION@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172
Rob Bianche Playing TechFunk Breaks
Tue, March 15
@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172 Alan Ritchie dropping old-school Hip Hop, Soul Funkand B-Boy breaks.
Wed, March 16
OPEN MIC@Show Box, 11 Street 330, 8 PM:
DO WE HAVE YOPlease email all details to James.redd
THE GYPSIES10 AM-11:30 PM, 59 Street 450,
Toul Tom Poung
The only thing missing from The
Gypsies’ Spanish vibe is a leg of
smoked pig. A cozy neighborhood
pub, whose low ceiling and friendly
Hot Spotowner only add to the intimate vibe, the
recently opened bar is a prime spot to
chat with strangers. With tasty Europe-
an snacks and reasonably priced drinks,
this bar is flling the gap that Russian
Market residents have complained
about for years: the lack of good water-
ing holes. Closing before midnight, it
isn’t intended to be a late night hub,
but it’s a perfect place for neighbors
to come together over a beer. While
downstairs is cozy, the upstairs is like a
pimped out college hangout. There’s a
nice pool table and bucket chairs in an
alcove overlooking the otherwise quiet
residential street.
For this month’s Friday night buffet
at Intercontinental’s Regency Café,chef Erick Cruz has shifted to South
America, providing an authentic
Brazilian Rodizio experience.
Though Rodizios are known most
for meats, this version features wealth of options for diners lookin
for fresh and light ingredients.
Highlights from the first cour
Advertorial
One of the 10 slicedhigh-end sliced meatson offer at the BrazilianRodizio buffet.
Brazilian Rodizio at Interc
8 WEEKLY the
Phnom Penh
Around Town
THURSDAY MARCH 10, 2016
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ing on inside.
@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:A RIVER CHANGES COURSE2013, 83 MINS), 4 PM:
The story of three families liv-ing in contemporary Cambo-dia as they face hard choices
forced by rapid development.
Step It Up Cambodia – Film Fes-ival Day 3, 6:30 PM:Chea Sokyou’s short TheRide explores the bonds of
sisterhood, with Q&A. BinMolyka’s It Burned Me,about a survivor of acid
violence, follows. MatthewWatson’s investigation of the
sex industry, Virginity Trade,finishes the evening.
Fri, March 11
@French Institute, 216 Street84Kissed a Girl (2015, 98 mins),
5 PM: Jeremie wakes up alongside
a pretty woman. But it’sthe first time for Jeremie,
normally he prefers his futurehusband Antoine.
Pickpocket (1959, 75 mins, FRw/ EN subtitles), 7 PM:
Michel is released from jailafter serving a sentence forthievery. His mother dies and
he resorts to pickpocketingas a means of survival.
@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:am Haiti (2014, 66 mins), 4 PM: A portrait of Haiti, and a vin-dication of the African roots
of the country
Anomalisa (2015, 90 mins), 7PM:
A man crippled by the
mundanity of his life experi-ences something out of the
ordinary. Charlie Kaufman’sfirst foray into stop-motionanimation
Sat, March 12
@Sa Sa Bassac, 18E2 Sot-hearos Boulevard
From The Heart of Brahma(2014, 28 mins, English w/ KHsubtitles), 6-7:30 PM, with aconversation with the artistand director:
The short doc follows
Prumsodun Ok, a Cam-bodian-American dancer
and choreographer whosepractice seeks to revive andrevitalize Cambodian classi-
cal dance, and exposes theartist’s mission to open dia-logues around tradition and
gay love, and to make his
classical art form inclusive.
@French Institute, 216 Street184
Girafada (2013, 85 mins, AR w/French subtitles), 10 AM:
Yacine is a veterinarian inthe last zoo of Palestine. In
order to save a female gi-raffe, who cannot live alone,Yacine needs to find her a
mate. But the only zoo whocan help him is in Tel-Aviv.
I Kissed a Girl (2015, 98 mins,FR w/ EN subtitles), 5 PM:
Jeremie wakes up along-
VENT LISTED?mertimeskh.com by Monday at 5pm
side a pretty woman. But
it’s the first time for Jere-mie, normally he prefers hisfuture husband Antoine.
@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:Enemies of the People (2009,
93 mins), 4 PM:
A personal journey into theheart of darkness by a Khmer
journalist, whose family waswiped out in the Killing Fields.
Inside the Belly of a Dragon(2015, 75 mins), 7 PM:
A remarkable voyage of
discovery and recoveryfor an Irish clown, HughBrown. Followed by a Q&A
with co-director Ian Wig-gins.
@Bophana Center, 200 OknhaMenSinn Sisamouth (2001, 45
mins, KH version), 5 PM: A portrait of the famous
singer.
Sun, March 13
@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:
Giovanni’s Island (2014, 102
mins), 4 PM:
Director NishikuboMizuho’s animated ode to
post-war survival
Short docs about KhmerRouge Legacy, 7 PM:
Scars of Cambodia (2014,
30 mins) features a key de-vice, or rather lack of one:There is no speech.
The Conscience of NhemEm (2008, 26 min) follows
the story of the S-21 prisonphotographer.
Cambodian Cinema, 8.15 PM:
Featuring two Khmer- American films by GregCahill, The Golden Voice
(2006, 25 min) and TwoShadows (2012, 94 min).
Mon, March 14
Tue, March 15
@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:
The Image Revolution (2014, 81 mins), 4PM:
About the birth of the inno-vative US company “Image
Comics” by former “Mar-vel” employees 20 years
ago.
Dam Documentary Night, 7 PM:
Mekong (2012, 52 min) ex-
amines the on-going struggleof local communities againstdam construction on the
upper Mekong. Dam Nation
(2014, 94 min) envisions anaturalist-friendly future in
which rivers are once moreallowed to flow freely.
Wed, March 16
@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:
Bonne Nuit Papa (2014, 95mins), 4 PM:
Tracing her father’s foot-steps, the German filmmakerimmerses herself deeper
and deeper into the historyof Cambodia’s ideologicalwars.
Sierra Leone’’s Refugee AllStars (2005, 80 mins), 7 PM:
Following Africa’s mostinspirational band.
AMY (2014, 128 mins), 8.30 PM:
The story of Amy Winehouse inher own words, featuringunseen archival footage and
unheard tracks.
A d v e r t i s e w i t h T
h e W e e k l y n o w !
C o n t a c t M a r y C l a v e l t o b o o k y o u r s p a c e
T e l : 0 1 0
6 7 8 3 2 4
included a Salada de
Frango, a fresh chicken
salad with grapes and
potatoes with a touch of
mayonnaise and mustard
and the wonderful Salada
de Morangos, an unusual
combination of fresh salad
with strawberries and wild
mushrooms.
Alongside a passion
fruit caipirinha, which
is $6 per glass or $10
for bottomless cockails,
this is the perfect way to
start a meal. Next up is
the Assado, a dish with
brisket, potatoes, carrots,
and onions. Throughout the
restaurant staff bring aroundum cuts of meat, which are
tableside.
ese include boneless lamb
leg, chicken breast wrapped with
bacon and top sirloin, among many
other options. Having already
eyed the dessert display, I stopped
myself from indulging in more than
one helping of the assado and the
cuvee.
Alongside a mint caipirinha,
I tried the lemon meringue, a
passion fruit mousse and mango
sorbet. These were all divine and
all made in house–as is everything,
including a fresh baked assortment
of breads. Try the rodizio every
Friday evening in March and check
back for upcoming buffet specials
in the café. Prices are $28++ per
person, plus $10++ for bottomless
caipirinha.
Available every Friday night in March from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM at
296 Mao Tse Toung Boulevard. For
more information call 023 424 888.
ntinental’s Regency Café
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the unlikeliest places. “I saw one
boy at a restaurant,” she said. “He
was carrying food to a customer
and I thought – he has a good walk.
He has movement!”
Panngoen took the busboy
with the good walk aside for a
conversation. “He said he wantedto be a lady, but he didn't know
how,” Panngoen said. “So I said
come, follow me. The first day
the other dancers laughed at him
because of his curly hair and dark
skin... But he wanted to work in
Rosana. He wanted to be a girl.
Now she is a superstar.”
This superstar is the 22-year
old Belle (the wearer of the flouncy
pink dress) and she has been with
the revue for three years now. “All
my life I wanted to be a beautiful
girl,” Belle said, “I feel very happy
now to be able to perform.”Like many other dancers,
Belle – who was originally named
Nao Narith – started as a costume
worker backstage at Rosana
before getting her moment in
the spotlight. Panngoen helped
her not just to learn to dance,
but also helped her through the
difficult transformation process of
hormone therapy and surgery.
“I train them not only for
dance, I train them for life, how to
live as a ladyboy,” said Panngoen.
“I teach everything – how to take
care of their skin, how to take
hormones, everything.” Rosana
helps the dancers find skilled
surgeons in Bangkok who can
give them breast implants or facialsurgery.
To put the “lady” in ladyboy,
Rosana's dancers can spend
as long as one and a half hours
applying makeup backstage. The
time is well spent – even from good
seats at the front of the theater, it is
not always easy to tell male from
female.
Despite her accomplishments,
Panngoen was humble about
the quality of the show. “It's not
perfect – not the same as theladyboys in Thailand,” she said,
pointing out that finding ladyboys
with long, beautiful legs has been
a challenge. “Expectations are
a little lower in Cambodia,” she
explained.
If the show did not quite meet
Thai standards, the audience
didn't care. Mostly Chinese and
Korean tourists, they clapped
along, waved to the dancers, and
gasped audibly when Gangnam
Style played. Most were so eager
to record the spectacle that they
flagrantly broke the rule againstfilming the show, raising their
smartphones to shoot video.
For young Cambodian
men who dream of becoming
women, there are few chances
to be the object of this kind of
attention. “Rosana is the dream of
Cambodian ladyboys,” Panngoen
said, “because there is nothing
else... If the Khmer ladyboys didn't
have Rosana what would they do?
If they wanted to be a lady – to have
long hair and a dress – they would
have nowhere else to work.”
Rosana gives dancers the
chance both to earn a living and to
live out their gender identity, even
if they come from poor families. “If
you want to be a beautiful woman
you will spend a lot of money,”
said Ms. Sambo, “but a lot of them
[the dancers] come from a poor
family. Now they can earn a little
money...they can afford makeup,
they can afford a motorbike.”
The dancers at Rosana have
the chance to be more than just
performers. Some have also
gotten desk jobs, the kind of job
that several performers said is
usually off limits to ladyboys,because of a common prejudice in
Cambodia that transsexual people
are uneducated.
One of the dancers, Ker Mao
Rath, who goes by Mong, used
to be a dancer in a bar, until she
was recruited by Rosana. Now
Mong, who speaks Chinese, Thai,
and English, works a second job
as a sales assistant at the cabaret.
'Rosana gave me the opportunity
to do office work,” she said. “In
other companies they wouldn't
accept us [ladyboys], even though
we can do the work. They dislikedladyboys.”
She said her two salaries
have made her life better. This
is evident in at least one way:
she has made enough to buy an
iPad, on which she plays a game
of Mortal Kombat in the makeup
room as she waits for the night's
show to begin.
An hour later, Mong is
onstage in sequins and feathers
at the end of her dance. She
steps backwards as the curtains
close in front of her. Just before
the curtains close, she blows akiss to the audience, and the
lights go out.
FROM PAGE 07
Choreographer Kanoklak Panngoen watches Belle practice her routine during rehearsals before the evening show.
Emm, 36, puts on her headdress backstage. And, 21, puts on her makeup backstage.
F a b i e n M o u r
e t
In othercompa-nies they
wouldn't accept us,even though we cando the work. Theydisliked ladyboys
F a b i e n M o u r e t
F a b i e n M o u r e t
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Sophorn Panna
was born poor in
1988 in a small
house in Takeo
province. He described his
ather—drafted into the
Cambodian military at 18
during the Khmer Rouge
imes—as “lost” by the
ime he was old enough
o start remembering him.
Sophorn’s mother raised
him and his seven siblings
on her own. By the timehe was 14, Sophorn was
working. His first job was
picking the young leaves
off tamarind trees to bring
o a local market for sale.
He picked palm fruit for
a few months and was
excellent at climbing trees.
“Then I was a
isherman,” he says. “In
he nighttime, during the
ight season, sitting by
a small river with a net.
Cambodia was different
hen.” He’d come homeearly in the morning
carrying 10 kilograms
of fish. Then, he would
get himself ready to
go to school. He was
By Michael Light
Sophorn Panna mixes coffeebeans at Feel Good Coffee
discouraged first from
attending high school
and then college, but
did both anyway. With
financial help from one
of his sisters back home,
he’d eventually move
to Battambang to study
information technology
and finance at the
university there. Living
with an aunt in the city, he
never stopped working—
when he wasn’t in class he was cleaning her house,
or working as an admin
at the school, or picking
up shifts at a restaurant,
which is where Sophorn
first made a cup of coffee.
Now, at 28, as the
head roaster at Phnom
Penh’s Feel Good Coffee,
he is one of the most
important figures in
Cambodia’s burgeoning
industry, a seminal part
of the promotion and
advancement of the qualityof the Kingdom’s coffee.
Feel Good, a self-
described social
enterprise, was established
in 2013 by industry
veterans Marc Adamson
and Jose Rivera—who
had previously worked
in coffee in the US, New
Zealand and Australia—
in hopes that it would
eventually develop into
a provider of sustainable
employment, education
and opportunity for its
Cambodian staff. In its
two years, the business,
which initially consisted
of a single cafe employingfive young Cambodians,
has grown into two cafes
with a combined staff of
thirteen—and even now
those spaces aren’t big
enough.
With clients
throughout the country—
from small coffee shops
to large hotels—the
demand for Feel Good’s
coffee is only growing;
this year they purchased
more green coffee beans,
the unroasted seeds ofcoffee cherries that after
being cleaned and sorted
and roasted and ground
become a cappuccino,
than ever before. And
although Sophorn admits
that the Cambodian coffee
industry is currently seeing
a period of rapid expansion
in step with the rest of
the growing economy,
he and Feel Good are far
less concerned about the
quantity of clients they
deliver beans to or the
number of customers that
trundle through the doors
of their shops. While those
things are important, sure, what Sophorn really cares
about is quality.
“When I was 18,” he
says, “I could not drink black
coffee without sugar. In
Cambodia, we drink coffee
when we meet with our
families, when we celebrate,
in the morning, at nighttime,
in our offices and at
funerals. The most popular
preparation is coffee with
sweet milk and ice.”
Most of that imported
coffee from Vietnam, heexplained, “tastes terrible.”
Coffee can pretty simply
be split into two literal
family trees—the Arabica
family, which is known for
its quality, and the Robusta
family, whose beans comes
from easily-cared-for trees
that generally end up being
freeze dried and packed
into containers of Nescafe.
A lot of the coffee being
bought and consumed by
Cambodians is Vietnamese
Robusta, which is easily
imported and costs nearly
nothing per kilogram—$6
at the lowest. For reference,
the world’s most expensivegreen coffees, generally
belonging to the Arabica
family’s Gesha variety
grown in Panama, can cost
upwards of 36 times that.
Part of Feel Good’s mission
is to source all its green
beans from Southeast
Asia. They import high
quality coffees from places
in Thailand, Laos and
Vietnam. But, as Sophorn
explains, Feel Good is also
committed to promoting
Cambodian-grown coffee.To learn that a coffee
crop even exists in the
country is surprising
to some, but as it turns
out there are quite a few
farmers in
Mondulkiri
g r o w i n g
a hybrid
C a t i m o r
( A r a b i c a )
variety. The
majority is
bought up by
large-scaledistributors
in Phnom
Penh, but the
coffee also shows up as 10
percent of Feel Good’s
signature blend, which is
otherwise made up of Lao
and Thai coffees.
“The main thing is that
in Cambodia, there is an
environment conducive
to growing coffee—there
are waterfalls and high
elevation and lots of shade
for the trees to grow in. We
hope that buying and using
coffee from Mondulkiri will promote Cambodian
coffee as a whole, and
encourage farmers to pay
attention to the quality of
the coffee they’re growing,”
Sophorn says.
But the representation
of Cambodia’s crop doesn’t
end within the country’s
borders. Last year, Sophorn
traveled to Kuala Lumpur to
compete in an international
barista competition.
Stacked against a strong
field of competitors, hehighlighted the Cambodian
notes in his coffee by
serving it alongside dark
chocolate—which the
drink itself carries deep
notes of—and tamarind.
He was docked few points
by judges, and although he
ultimately received second
place it was a major victory
for Cambodian coffee.
“Since 2008, they’ve
opened 700 new
restaurants and cafes in
Phnom Penh,” Sophornsays. “Coffee around the
world is big. In Cambodia
it’s getting bigger.”
THE HUMBLERoots of Cambodian
Coffee
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