“A Cambodian Spring,” a documentary that chronicles the lives of three activists as they fight evictions and rights abuses in the run-up to the 2013 national election, was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the Brooklyn Film Festival on Sunday.
The two-hour documentary, which took Irish filmmaker Chris Kelly nine years to make, won the prestigious award alongside Indian film “An Insignificant Man” at a ceremony in New York.
“It’s a great feeling to see the film being…recognized after all of these years of work,” Mr. Kelly said.
“I hope that it gives the film a long life.”
The documentary follows the lives of land activists Tep Vanny and Toul Srey Pov as they fight evictions in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood, and Luon Sovath, an activist monk, as he supports farmers in Siem Reap province locked in a violent land dispute with authorities.
Last month, Mr. Kelly also picked up the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs, an international documentary festival in Toronto.
Due to the sensitive nature of the film, there are yet to be any announcements of screenings in Cambodia.
