Bio
Chheangkea is a Cambodian-American filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in architecture from MIT and is currently in his thesis year as a Dean’s Fellow at the NYU Tisch Graduate Film Program, focusing on writing-directing and cinematography. His previous short film, SKIN CAN BREATHE, is a finalist for the HBO Max APA Visionaries competition. It has screened internationally and is distributed by Max.
Chheangkea is currently developing his first feature film, LITTLE PHNOM PENH, chronicling three decades of a Cambodian woman's life post-Khmer Rouge. The film has been selected for the HamptonsFilm Screenwriters Lab and the 2024 NYU Purple List. His upcoming short film, GRANDMA NAI, is in post-production and supported by the Fonds Image de l'Organisation de la Francophonie. Currently, Chheangkea is a fellow in the Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film.
As a cinematographer, Chheangkea has worked on award-winning short films that have played at festivals worldwide. His cinematography works enable him to collaborate with other talented directors and further refine his visual language and storytelling.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
One fall day in 2016, I tagged along with my single mother to her workplace in Massachusetts—having realized that after one decade in America away from Cambodia, I still did not know what she did to provide for our family. As I watched her pull metal wires and solder, I overheard Khmer words spoken as if I were in the bustling Olympic Market in Phnom Penh. Glancing around at the faces that spoke those words, I was struck that I was sitting in a room full of Cambodian women, all of them an ocean away from their birthplace. I realized that it wasn’t mere coincidence that had brought these women into that room. The genocide had denied each of them the chance to their own full lives from the very start. I understood then that my mother’s story was not solely her own, but part of a larger narrative encompassing an entire generation of Cambodian women dealt a cruel hand by fate. LITTLE PHNOM PENH is a meditationon the journey that led them to America.
The character of Danet is an accumulation of the women who have shaped my life, including my mother, aunts, and older female cousins. As a queer little boy, it was through their words and choices that I learned about the world. Their gossip, stories, delights, and disdains informed my 6-year-old self of what was right and wrong. As I watched them live their lives making decisions by putting family first, I saw them chipping away at their own lives and desires. With LITTLE PHNOM PENH, I want to honor their sacrifices and more importantly, remind them of all the beautiful complexities of their humanity.
SYNOPSIS: LITTLE PHNOM PENH
Phnom Penh, Cambodia - 1983
17-year-old DANET navigates abandoned Phnom Penh homes and unkempt streets—remnants of the Khmer Rouge regime. She spends her mornings at school and her afternoons with MA at her shop. One morning during recess, she meets a boy named SAM with whom she begins an afterschool walking affair where they exchange their young innocent daydreams and outlooks for their war-torn country. But one afternoon, Danet shows up to Ma’s shop to find that her mother has another plan for her: she is to become a wife.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia - 1993
Now a wife to CHHAY and a mother to a 6-year-old daughter, DA, and a newborn baby boy, Danet runs a communications service, connecting displaced Cambodians abroad to their family at home. Ten years into their marriage, Chhay has become absent, often coming home late and reeking of alcohol. One morning as she opens her service, Danet picks up an unscheduled work call to discover that Sam, now living in America, is on the other side of the line. Both married and an ocean apart, the call sparks a secret relationship once again between the two over the phone.
Long Beach, California - 2003
After her marriage ended, Danet now lives a quiet American life with a now-teenage Da, having had to leave her son behind in Phnom Penh. Together, they go to the beach, window shop, and watch American Idol. Apart, they navigate two very different experiences of America that chip away at their relationship until news from home regarding Ma’s health brings them back together. While mailing photos to her dying mother at the postal office, Danet, coincidentally or serendipitously, runs into Sam. 20 years later, for one more night, the two rekindle theiruntimely relationship.