THE WHITE BUILDING
THE WHITE BUILDING
Workshop, Screening, and Luncheon with Cambodian filmmaker Kavich Neang
April 27th and April 28th 2022
In-person for members of the Yale community - registration link below
The film “White Building,” (trailer here >>), premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2021 and won the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor. It also gathers accolades from the BFI London Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, and Lisbon&Estoril Film Festival, among others. The film follows 20-year-old Samnang and his group of friends in a landmark tenement housing block in Phnom Penh, endearingly called the White Building. By narrating the harrowing experience of the building’s residents as they navigate the destruction of their homes, the film reveals the brutal realities of gentrification and the pitfall of progress in modern Cambodia.
Wednesday 27th 2022
Film workshop for Yale students with Kavich Neang, Sreylin Meas, and Piseth Chhun
(for students to workshop their film-related projects - hosted by the Documentary Film Workshop at the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) at Yale - registration required - see below).
Time: 12:00 PM
Location: CCAM (Center for Collaborative Arts and Media), 149 York Street, New Haven
Thursday 28th 2022
Luncheon at the Asian American Cultural Center
Time: 12:00 PM
Location: Asian American Cultural Center, 295 Crown Street, New Haven
Screening of the White Building and Q&A
Time: 06:00 PM
Location: Humanities Quadrangle Screening Room (HQ L01, the Alice Room), 320 York Street, New Haven
Registration:
Please register with your Yale email address for any or all of above at:
https://tinyurl.com/WhiteBuildingatYale
Kavich NEANG (b. 1987, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) is a Cambodian filmmaker who first studied under the legendary Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh. Kavich joined Busan’s AsianFilm Academy in 2013. He co-founded the Anti-Archive film collective alongside Davy Chou and Steve Chen in 2014. Kavich joined Cannes Cinéfondation’s Residency in 2017-18. His 2019 documentary Last Night I Saw You Smiling won the NETPAC Award at IFFR, the Special Jury Prize at Jeonju, Best Image at Janela de Cinema, and two other awards at Tokyo FilmEx.
Sreylin MEAS (b. 1989, Phnom Penh, Cambodia) is an independent filmmaker with over a decade of experience in the Cambodian film industry, working with both local and international crews. Her collaborators have included producer Nicholas Simon from Indochina Productions, Mexican assistant director Batan Silva, German cinematographer Martin Ruhe, Canal +, Arte TV, BBC, and the United Nations. She has worked with Anti-Archive as first assistant director for Dream Land (2015), Turn Left Turn Right (2016) and White Building (2021), as second assistant director and acting coach for Diamond Island (2016), and as location manager for Onoda - 10000 Nights in the Jungle (2021). Meas directed California Dreaming (2019), which won awards in Singapore and Lima, and multiple TV commercials and music videos.
Piseth CHHUN (b. 1996, Kandal, Cambodia) is an actor, dancer, and musician based in Phnom Penh. In 2012, he started out as a member of the dance crew D-Man, which has since evolved into a boy band under the management of Cambodian creative talent agency, Plerng Kob. As an actor, Piseth Chhun first was cast by Kavich Neang for his 2018 short film New Land Broken Road, and was later cast in the leading role of “Samnang” in Kavich Neang’s 2021 feature film, White Building. He received the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor for this role at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, following the film’s world premiere.
The events are sponsored by the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale, The Poynter Fellowship, the Asian American Cultural Center, Yale School of the Environment, Public Humanities at Yale, the Southeast Asian Movement at Yale, Public Humanities at Yale, and the Urban Studies Program.