Cambodia: Living With Landmines Documentary

“Landmines are perfect soldiers: they never sleep and never die. However, they also don’t know which side they’re on, or when the war is over” – Touj Soeurly, Chief of Veal Thom, landmine survivor

Veal Thom is an isolated village in Cambodia, established in 2000 by landmine survivors, others victimized by war, and their families. There are more than 1000 people living in Veal Thom, representing 227 families. Nearly 200 of these community members have disabilities—most resulting from landmines. This is their story.

Cambodia: Living with Landmines follows the community over the course of a year and documents how these survivors are rejecting a life of begging and poverty and have, instead, banded together to form a community that ensures the best possible life for their families. See how the people of Veal Thom refuse to let themselves be defined by their disabilities and how their courage and persistence in the face of overwhelming barriers has enabled them to collectively improve their lives in ways that they could not have done on their own. This film documents the tremendous strides made by Veal Thom as they develop into a cohesive community, in spite of the scarcity of basic resources. Most of all, Living with Landmines reveals the human cost of mines, the training process created for these amputees, and their courage and determination to build new lives for themselves against incredible odds.

The McMahan Center-Abilities Activists and the World Rehabilitation Fund recognized the enormous resiliency demonstrated by the people of Veal Thom at the onset of their work together and responded by designing the Poverty Alleviation through Community Empowerment (PACE) Program, a unique peer-to-peer training program with the community that brings vocational training to the villagers, who in turn train their neighbors. The training has so far enabled 150 people to participate in trainings, enter new jobs, or start up new micro-enterprises.

The film includes interviews with various experts such as: Stephen Goose, Human Rights Watch ; H. E. Sam Sotha, Cambodia Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority; Khieu Kola, International Labour Organisation; Dr. James Gollogly, Rose Clinic; Ruth Bottomley, author of “Crossing the Divide: Landmines, Villagers and Organizations ; Yvette Marrin, McMahan Center-Abilities Activists, and Chhêm Sip, Allyson Brown, and Heather Burns Knierim, World Rehabilitation Fund. Most importantly, you will meet the landmine survivors of the village of Veal Thom, Cambodia.

See the film trailer at:  http://www.livingwithlandmines.com

For Information about the program in general or the screening, contact:

Jack Victor - wrfnewyork@msn.com

To order a press screener (please specify VHS PAL or NTSC or DVD), contact:

Alison McMahan - alisonmcmahan@aol.com