Three Hollywood films inspired me to go to Asia and do documentary photographic work. After seeing these films I wanted to enter these worlds and tell my own stories.
"The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982) A movie that showed the exotic and beautiful along with the tragic in Sukarno's Indonesia of the 1960s. Linda Hunt plays a male photographer character named Billy Kwan, a man who cared to much and to felt to deeply for the people of Indonesia. Billy Kwan is my favourite all time movie photographer.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086617/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL6BqLMZJyA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=462lO8cNTVk
"Under Fire" (1983) A tough but sensitive Nick Nolte playing photojournalist Russel Price. Price photographs in Africa and Nicaragua until he finally has seen enough bloodshed and decides to take sides in a struggle.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086510/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgsCN4-EP0Y
"The Killing Fields" (1984) A truly monumental and great film showing both love in friendship and the horrors of the Khmer Rouge period of Cambodian history. John Malkovic plays disillusioned but passionate photographer Al Rochoff (a real life person).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087553/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z1sj7gzpCk
Spoiler alert! The best ending to a movie ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwgHauFn9Gc
All these films locals plus the photographer characters inspired me to do what I do now.
Sometimes watching a movie can have an eerie effect on you. In 1999 I was staying at a hotel on Monivong road in Phnom Penh. At that time Phnom Penh at night was mostly abandoned and dark, candles on the streets to light night markets etc. The hotel had a small theatre where you could pay $5 USD and watch a laser disc. I chose one of my favourite all time movies "The Killing Fields" In the film Phnom Penh is evacuated by the Khmer Rouge, around 2 million people are eventually killed. The Khmer Rouge period ended about 1979, so in 1999 it was only 20 years previous. I walk into the theatre and the movie starts, so there I am sitting in a Cambodian hotels movie theatre watching "The Killing Fields" for the 5th or 6th time. Eventually a few Cambodian people from the hotel sneak in, some of them would have been alive during this period of time and experienced what was on the screen first hand. Sitting side by side with Khmer people watching that movie in Cambodia was a very surreal experience.
Two hours later after watching all that killing, all that passion, love and trajedy the film ends and I immediately walked out on to the quiet streets of Phnom Penh at night, it was pitch black and very quiet. I get onto a lone motorbike and am driven through the dark streets, no businesses open, no people around only the occasional candle flickering in the distance. I kept thinking about what had happened in the very city just 20 years previous, it was at times awe inspiring and at times just spooky, it was almost like the ghosts of the dead could see you and reach out to you.
Anyway please check out the films if you have not seen then, if you have then watch them again! Great inspiring stuff.
Note* A fourth good film to check out is "Salvador" (1986) by Oliver Stone, starring James Woods and John Savage as half crazed photojournalist John Cassady.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091886/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
"The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982) A movie that showed the exotic and beautiful along with the tragic in Sukarno's Indonesia of the 1960s. Linda Hunt plays a male photographer character named Billy Kwan, a man who cared to much and to felt to deeply for the people of Indonesia. Billy Kwan is my favourite all time movie photographer.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086617/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL6BqLMZJyA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=462lO8cNTVk
"Under Fire" (1983) A tough but sensitive Nick Nolte playing photojournalist Russel Price. Price photographs in Africa and Nicaragua until he finally has seen enough bloodshed and decides to take sides in a struggle.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086510/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgsCN4-EP0Y
"The Killing Fields" (1984) A truly monumental and great film showing both love in friendship and the horrors of the Khmer Rouge period of Cambodian history. John Malkovic plays disillusioned but passionate photographer Al Rochoff (a real life person).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087553/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z1sj7gzpCk
Spoiler alert! The best ending to a movie ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwgHauFn9Gc
All these films locals plus the photographer characters inspired me to do what I do now.
Sometimes watching a movie can have an eerie effect on you. In 1999 I was staying at a hotel on Monivong road in Phnom Penh. At that time Phnom Penh at night was mostly abandoned and dark, candles on the streets to light night markets etc. The hotel had a small theatre where you could pay $5 USD and watch a laser disc. I chose one of my favourite all time movies "The Killing Fields" In the film Phnom Penh is evacuated by the Khmer Rouge, around 2 million people are eventually killed. The Khmer Rouge period ended about 1979, so in 1999 it was only 20 years previous. I walk into the theatre and the movie starts, so there I am sitting in a Cambodian hotels movie theatre watching "The Killing Fields" for the 5th or 6th time. Eventually a few Cambodian people from the hotel sneak in, some of them would have been alive during this period of time and experienced what was on the screen first hand. Sitting side by side with Khmer people watching that movie in Cambodia was a very surreal experience.
Two hours later after watching all that killing, all that passion, love and trajedy the film ends and I immediately walked out on to the quiet streets of Phnom Penh at night, it was pitch black and very quiet. I get onto a lone motorbike and am driven through the dark streets, no businesses open, no people around only the occasional candle flickering in the distance. I kept thinking about what had happened in the very city just 20 years previous, it was at times awe inspiring and at times just spooky, it was almost like the ghosts of the dead could see you and reach out to you.
Anyway please check out the films if you have not seen then, if you have then watch them again! Great inspiring stuff.
Note* A fourth good film to check out is "Salvador" (1986) by Oliver Stone, starring James Woods and John Savage as half crazed photojournalist John Cassady.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091886/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
