Kalyanee Mam (born in

Battambang Battambang ( km, បាត់ដំបង, UNGEGN: ) is the capital of Battambang Province and the third largest city in Cambodia. Founded in the 11th century by the Khmer Empire, Battambang is the leading rice-producing province of the coun ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

) is a filmmaker whose film, ''

A River Changes Course ''A River Changes Course'' is a 2013 documentary by Kalyanee Mam. The film explores the damage rapid development has wrought in her native Cambodia on both a human and environmental level. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on ...

'', which she directed and produced, has won several awards, including the Grand Jury Award for World Cinema Documentary at the

2013 Sundance Film Festival The 2013 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 17, 2013, until January 27, 2013, in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. The festival had 1,830 volunteers. Films A r ...

and the Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival.

Early life

Mam was born in

during 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, to Vann Theth Mam and Sok Sann Mam. She is the fifth of seven children and the fourth of four girls. Mam's family was living in

Pailin Province Pailin ( km, ប៉ៃលិន, ) is a province in western Cambodia at the northern edge of the Cardamom Mountains near the border of Thailand. This province is surrounded by Battambang province, and was officially carved out of Battambang ...

when the Khmer Rouge came to power in April 1975. They were evacuated to Battambang Province and her family members immediately divided and forced to labor in separate work camps. Mam and her family attempted to escape the Khmer Rouge camps twelve times, each time failing until the Khmer Rouge fell from power in January 1979, when she and her family finally escaped through forests and landmines to Kao-I-Dang, a refugee camp at the Thai-Cambodian border. Through the passage of the

Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act The Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, passed on May 23, 1975, under President Gerald Ford, was a response to the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. Under this act, approximately 130,000 refugees from South Vietnam, Laos a ...

and with the assistance of the International Rescue Committee, Mam and her family resettled in Houston, TX in 1981 before finally relocating to

Stockton, CA Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after Ro ...

a city in northern

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven c ...

known for its large Cambodian population. In Stockton, Mam's father worked as a caseworker assisting South East Asian refugee youth within the juvenile justice system. Mam's mother continued to support her family as a homemaker, raising seven children. Mam received a full scholarship to attend

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. Inspired by her family's history and motivated to learn more about her Cambodian identity, Mam volunteered at the Yale Cambodian Genocide Program with Professor

Ben Kiernan Benedict F. "Ben" Kiernan (born 1953) is an Australian-born American academic and historian who is the Whitney Griswold Professor Emeritus of History, Professor of International and Area Studies and Director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yal ...

, who became her senior thesis advisor. In summer 1998, Mam returned to Cambodia for the first time since she and her family fled the country seventeen years earlier. Mam spent the summer as a research intern at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, led by Executive Director Youk Chhang, and interviewed subjects throughout Cambodia for her senior thesis on "The Endurance of the Cambodian Family Under the Khmer Rouge Regime." The paper was published in an anthology Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda: New Perspectives. After graduating from Yale, Mam received a Charles P. Howland Fellowship to conduct research on "Crimes Committed Against Women During the Khmer Rouge Regime". Interviews gathered from her research are currently being used in the Cambodian Tribunal to try the most responsible leaders of the Khmer Rouge.Legal career Mam went on to study law at

UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...

, with a special focus on immigration and refugee law. During law school, Mam worked with

International Bridges to Justice International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization's stated mission is "to protect the basic legal rights of ordinary citizens in developing countries by guaranteeing all citizens ...

at the National Legal Aid Center in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, China, the Refugee Law Clinic at the University of Witswatersand in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and the

Asian Pacific American Legal Center Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) formerly known as Asian Americans Advancing Justice - LA (Advancing Justice - LA), is a non-profit legal aid and civil rights organization dedicated to advocacy, providing legal ...

, where she assisted immigrant victims of domestic violence file for permanent residence status in the United States under the Violence Against Women Act. After graduating from law school, she worked for two years with a legal consulting firm in

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the Capital city, capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a popul ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

and then spent six months working with

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

and the

Ministry of Justice (Iraq) Established in 1920, the Ministry of Justice of Iraq (MoJ) is the federal government ministry concerned with judicial and prosecutorial training, publishing the Official Gazette, notaries public, deeds and records, and since 5 June 2004, prison ...

. While working in Iraq, Mam secretly conducted interviews of her Iraqi colleagues in her bedroom and documented their life stories under the

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

regime, the Sanctions against Iraq.

Film career

Inspired by her work in Iraq and the plight of her Iraqi colleagues who were seeking refugee status abroad, Mam partnered with David Mendez to produce a documentary short about the dreams and struggles of three young

Iraqi refugee Refugees of Iraq are Iraqi nationals who have fled Iraq due to war or persecution. Throughout the past 30 years, there have been a growing number of refugees fleeing Iraq and settling throughout the world, peaking recently with the latest Iraq ...

artists living in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. The documentary won Best Directing-Short Documentary at the Los Angeles International Film Festival and a prize for Artistic Merit at the Montana CINE International Film Festival, and was an official selection at the St. Louis International Film Festival. However, Kalyanee Mam is best known for directing and producing award-winning documentary ''

'', which explores the damage rapid development has wrought in her native Cambodia on both a human and environmental level. Mam was first inspired to make the film when traveling to Cambodia in October 2008, exactly ten years after her first trip to Cambodia. She noticed a dramatic change in the country's landscape – many of the forests she had traveled to before had been cut down and replaced with rubber plantations, huge lakes in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

were dredged and filled with sand to accommodate condominiums and business infrastructure projects, and hundreds of garment factories sprouted outside the city where once were rice fields and towering palm trees. On this trip, Mam also first met Sari Math, who recounted the story of his family and their struggle to survive in a fishing village on the Tonle Sap. During this first meeting, Mam knew she wanted to tell Sari's story and the story of other Cambodians impacted by development. ''

'' premiered at the

on January 21, 2013. The film is currently screening at top festivals including The San Francisco International Film Festival,

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema. The festival is a program of the Center for Documentary Studies, a non-profit, 501(c)(3) at Duke University. ...

l, Seattle International Film Festival, The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital, Environmental Film Festival at Yale,

RiverRun International Film Festival The RiverRun International Film Festival is an annual Oscar-qualifying film festival held each spring in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The festival is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and presents a variety of feature-length and short films fro ...

, Atlanta Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Green Film Festival in Seoul, Docville International Documentary Film Festival, Lincoln Film Society - Season Of Cambodia,

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the ...

ContlmporAsian Film Program, Sydney Film Festival, Biografilm Festival, Jerusalem Film Festival, DocFest Munich, and many more prior to theatrical release in October 2013 and broadcasts worldwide. Mam is also known for her work with director Charles Ferguson as Cinematographer, Associate Producer, and Researcher for 2011 Academy Award-winning documentary '' Inside Job'', a Sony Pictures Classics release about the global financial crisis, hailed as a "masterpiece of investigative non-fiction moviemaking" and which premiered at the

2010 Cannes Film Festival The 63rd Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 23 May 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films scr ...

Filmography

* ''

'' (2013) 83 minutes * '' Inside Job'' (2010) 105 minutes * ''Between Earth & Sky'' (2009) 30 minutes

Film Awards

'' * Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary -

* Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary Feature - 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival * Two Special Jury Prizes for Best Director and Best Cinematography - 2013

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific Amer ...

* Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award - 2013

* Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature - 2013 Atlanta Film Festival * Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature - 2013 Environmental Film Festival at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

* Human Rights Award - 2013 River Run Film Festival * Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature - 2013 Green Film Festival in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

* Grand Jury Conscience Award - 2013 Docville International Documentary Film Festival ''Between Earth & Sky'' * Best Directing-Short Documentary at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. * Prize for Artistic Merit at the Montana CINE International Film Festival.

Refer to

External links.

* * Latest film A River Changes Course: http://ariverchangescourse.com and https://www.facebook.com/ARiverChangesCourse and https://twitter.com/ariverchanges {{DEFAULTSORT:Mam, Kalyanee Living people American documentary film directors People from Battambang province Cambodian emigrants to the United States American women documentary filmmakers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women