21° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
Out of Competition

Classrooms

Classrooms
by Ho Yuhang
Country: Malaysia
Year: 2002
Duration: 6


The S-21is a building in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is also known as Tuol Sleng. Under the harsh Khmer Rouge Communist regime in the mid-seventies, at least sixteen thousand Cambodians died in this torture chamber that rivals the Nazi Death Camps. The short-lived regime (1975-1979) started an agrarian revolution that repatriated its people to the countryside. Millions perished. Till this day it's difficult to explain the nature and scale of the genocide. The S-21 is one of the many so-called "killing fields" during that time of darkness. "After the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, Tuol Sleng became a museum. Till this day, the floors of the tortured rooms still look red, red from having spilled too much blood. The place has become an atrocity exhibition site where portraits of the victims are displayed. What's the need of documentation then? While they were busy destroying they were also preserving them at the same time" (Ho Yuhang).

Biography

film director

Yuhang Ho

Ho Yuhang studied engineering, but then decided to become a director and screenwriter. He began working in commercial TV and in 2000 directed, in collaboration with Bernard Chauly, the documentary Semangat Insan -Masters of Traditions, which won prizes at various festivals. He has worked as production assistant and director's assistant, and between 2001 and 2002 participated at numerous festivals with his two experimental short films, Good Friday at the Zoo and Not Far From Here. In 2003, Min, his first full-length fiction film, was awarded a prize at the Singapore International Film Festival.

FILMOGRAFIA

Fragments (cm, 1996), Subway (cm,1997), Cemera Degree Zero (cm, 1999), Semangat Insan - Masters of Traditions (doc., 2000, co-regia Bernard Chauly), Good Friday at the Zoo (cm, doc., 2001), Not Far From Here (mm, doc., 2002), Min (2003), Classrooms (2003).

Cast

& Credits

Regia, soggetto, sceneggiatura/Director, story, screenplay: Ho Yuhang
Montaggio/Film editor: Tony Pietra
Contatti/Film contacts: Ho Yuhang
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