''Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll'' is a 2014

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

, directed by John Pirozzi, about Cambodian rock music in the 1960s and 1970s, before the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

regime and

Cambodian genocide The Cambodian genocide ( km, របបប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍នៅកម្ពុជា) was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea genera ...

Production

The idea for the film began when American filmmaker John Pirozzi was in Cambodia filming ''

City of Ghosts City of Ghosts may refer to: * City of Ghosts (2002 film), an American crime thriller film * City of Ghosts (2017 film), an Arabic-language American documentary film * City of Ghosts (TV series) ''City of Ghosts'' is a hybrid French-American an ...

''. He was given a copy of the album ''

Cambodian Rocks ''Cambodian Rocks'' is a compilation of 22 uncredited, untitled Cambodian psychedelic and garage rock songs from the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the tracks were recorded, musicians in the thriving music scene were combining Western rock and ...

'', a collection of untitled and uncredited music by artists presumed killed under the Khmer Rouge, and began researching the stories of the artists. Cambodian-born artist and sociology professor

Linda Saphan Linda Saphan (born 1975) is a Cambodian artist and social anthropologist. Born in Phnom Penh, she grew up in Canada and graduated in France. She has supported women artists from Cambodia, co-organizing the first Visual Arts Open festival celebratin ...

acted as associate producer and lead researcher for the film. The film includes profiles of influential performers like

Sinn Sisamouth Sinn Sisamouth; (c. 1932 – c. 1976) was a Cambodian singer-songwriter active from the 1950s to the 1970s. Widely considered the "King of Khmer Music", Sisamouth, along with Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Mao Sareth, and other Cambodian artist ...

Ros Serey Sothea Ros Serey Sothea ( km, រស់ សេរីសុទ្ធា/ ; c. 1948 – c. 1977) was a Cambodian singer. She was active during the final years of the First Kingdom of Cambodia and into the Khmer Republic period. She sang in a variety of ...

Pen Ran Pen Ran ( km, ប៉ែន រ៉ន, ), (c. 1944 – c. 1979) also commonly known as Pan Ron in some Romanization of Khmer, Romanized sources intended for English-speaking audiences, was a Cambodian singer and songwriter who was at the height of ...

Baksey Cham Krong Baksey Cham Krong (also spelled Baksey Chamkrong or Baksei Chamkrong, km, បក្សីចាំក្រុង) was a rock band active in pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. They are regarded as Cambodia's first guitar band or first soft rock band. Hi ...

Liev Tuk Liev Tuk (sometimes spelled Liv Tek, km, លីវ ទឹក) was a Cambodian rock and soul musician active before the Khmer Rouge. Musical style Tuk's music incorporates elements from a variety of American popular genres, such as rhythm and bl ...

, Huoy Meas,

Yol Aularong Yol Aularong ( km, យស អូឡារាំង ; also romanized as Yos Olarang) was a Cambodian garage rock musician, and a leading figure in that country's rock scene of the 1960s and 70s. He is presumed to have been killed during the Ca ...

Meas Samon Meas Samon ( km, មាស សាម៉ន) was a Cambodian singer and comedian, active in that country's psychedelic rock scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a young adult, Samon was in an army band and became known for singing humorous ...

, Pou Vannary, and several others (including Pen Ram,

's sister), most of whom perished during the

Khmer Rouge genocide The Cambodian genocide ( km, របបប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍នៅកម្ពុជា) was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party of Kampuchea genera ...

, plus interviews with surviving performers like Sieng Vanthy and members of Drakkar. The film takes its title from a song by Sinn Sisamouth.

Reception

''Don't Think I've Forgotten'' holds a rare 100% rating out of 22 reviews on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

with a 7.46/10 average critic rating. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

the film has a score of 79 out of 100 based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews." Film reviewer

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' mentions in short that, "Mr. Pirozzi’s film is an unsparing and meticulous reckoning of the effects of tyranny on ordinary Cambodians. It is also a rich and defiant effort at recovery, showing that even the most murderous totalitarianism cannot fully erase the human drive for pleasure and self-expression."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to ''Don't Think I've Forgotten'', featuring full versions of several songs that appeared as snippets in the film, was released on 12 May 2015. Personnel at

Dust-to-Digital Dust-to-Digital is a record company that specializes in documenting the history of American popular music, including historical recordings of blues, gospel, and country music. Their method combines rare recordings with historic images, photograp ...

helped locate original versions of the songs and remaster them for compact disc.John Pirozzi and LinDa Saphan, liner notes, ''Don't Think I've Forgotten'', soundtrack, 2015.

Track listing

Note: Blank entries below indicate unknown information. The song "There's Nothing to Be Ashamed Of" (track 8) by

is also known as "Love Like Honey" on other compilation albums. Additional songs may have slightly different English titles in other compilations due to the difficulties of translation from their original Khmer titles. The song "Dying Under the Woman's Sword" (track 14) is credited on this soundtrack to

and Va Savoy, but on the ''

'' compilation it is credited to Aularong and

References

External links

* * * {{IMDb title, tt2634200 Documentaries about music 2015 films 2014 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about Cambodia Documentary films about the Cambodian genocide Rockumentaries Cambodian music 2010s American films