Long Beach Rapper Highlights Cultural Heritage with Film Fesival

By Samantha Katzman

Prach Ly, a Cambodian hip-hop artist living in Long Beach, has been rapping about the struggle of his homeland since 1999. Now, he is making the move to highlight the culture in a different way, with the first annual Cambodia Town Film Festival.

We lost our heart
but found the strength in our soul,
words can't describe,
but the stories must be told
the fields, the jungles
the mountains of death
the struggles continues
but we're gonna make it.

These lyrics from “The Great Escape,” off Prach Ly’s second album, Dalama . . . The Lost Chapter, echo the painful history of its performer and the people of his native Cambodia. Born in a Khmer Rouge internment camp, Ly moved to the US as a refugee in 1983 at the age of four. After immigrating, Ly became fascinated with the books and films destroyed by Khmer Rouge in their social cleansing of the country.

In 1975, the Communist Party of Kampuchea emerged from Cambodia's struggle against colonization from the French. More commonly known as the Khmer Rouge, the group took power over Cambodia and ruled until 1979. Its governance was kept secret for the first two years, and its policies repressed human rights, banned religion and resulted in mass genocides in what is referred to as the killing fields.

Ly’s lyrics are meant to highlight the struggle of these Cambodian immigrants, and the social problems that still face the community today.

But in recent months, Ly has been working on his newest project — the founding of the inaugural Cambodia Town Film Festival, will be held in Long Beach Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s like a baby to us,” he said.

The film festival is something Ly thought of about a year ago after going to festivals such as Sundance in Park City, Utah, and others around the country. He felt it was important to pay homage to some of the great Cambodian films of the past, but also to showcase some of the community’s newer talent.

“It’s not just a festival,” he said, “It’s highlighting our culture as well.” 

The festival, held at the Art Theatre, 2025 E. Fourth St., will showcase a different type of genre each day. Saturday will be exclusively dedicated to new films, music videos and other short films, while Sunday will be solely older films as a tribute to the older generations.

 “You will definitely see all the Cambodian themes throughout the whole thing,” Ly said. 

Cambodian Town Film Festival’s team of directors all have impressive industry credentials, including Caylee So, who was named Best Female Student Filmmaker by the Directors Guild of America, Ly said couldn’t be happier with what he has built.

“Imagine the ego in the room,” he said. “I’m honored to be working with them.”

The Cambodian community was skeptical at first, saying they were happy with the New Year parade, cultural arts festival, and other things put on by the Cambodia Town Initiative, Ly said. But he worked hard to gain the approval and support of the Long Beach community, and over time, they began to share his vision for the festival.

“Once they started seeing the people involved once they started seeing the stuff we were doing on the side, they started backing us up. So now we have the endorsement of all these Cambodian organizations in California and abroad,” Ly said.

It took the community 13 years, two mayors, and three councilmembers to gain official Cambodia Town recognition for the roughly one mile long business corridor along Anaheim Street between Atlantic and Junipero avenues, he said. Now, Congressman Alan Lowenthal, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, University of Connecticut, Brown, and Harvard universities are just some of the politicians and organizations backing the project. 

Cambodia Town Film Festival is held at the Art Theatre fromt 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Pass range from $30 to $50 and there are individual screening tickets available. For more information, visit www.cambodiatownfilmfestival.com