How Long Is “A River Changes Course”?

Cambodian families are faced with profound changes to their ways of life in this documentary. While much of Cambodia has survived for centuries under an agrarian economy, growing industrialization has finally brought the nation into the global economy, but at a cost. As commercial fishing concerns replace small family operations, factories pollute the air and water, and clearing the forests changes the shape of the land, a growing number of families have been forced to abandon their traditional ways of life in order to provide for themselves. Filmmaker Kalyanee Mam, a Cambodian émigré, profiles three families who have been forced to give up farming and fishing for an uncertain future in the factories and textile shops of Phnom Penh in Kbang Tik Tonle (aka A River Changes Course). The film received its North American premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.