Festival de la Francophonie • Film Screening: Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot (Meeting with Pol Pot)

The Alliance is honored to partner with Asian Pop-Up Cinema and the National Cambodian Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial on a screening of Franco-Cambodian director Rithy Panh’s 2024 film Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot (Meeting with Pol Pot). Join us for a post-screening discussion with Laura Ouk and Sophoan Khoeun, President and Vice President, rescpectively, of the National Cambodian Heritage Museum & Killing Fields Memorial.

Doors at 6:00 p.m. for refreshments generously provided by Khmai Cambodian Fine Dining. Program at 6:30. Please enter via 54 W Chicago Ave.

This is Panh’s fourth submission to the Oscars, including a nomination in 2013 for The Missing Picture. The film is inspired by journalist Elizabeth Becker’s book When The War Was Over and follows three French people: two journalists and an academic. They accept the Pol Pot’s regime’s invitation to travel to Democratic Kampuchea in 1978, embarking on a dangerous journey to the heart of the brutal government.

The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024 and screened in competition at Mediterrane festival. The cast includes Grégoire Colin, Irene Jacob, and Cyril Gueï.

About the Panelists

Laura Ouk

Laura Ouk is a Cambodian educator based in Chicago. She was born in Paris, France after her family fled from the Khmer Rouge. Her family resettled in Chicago in the mid-1990s, where Laura grew up to be the first in her family to go through the American public education system. 

Laura has over a decade of experience in various educational settings, from elementary to high school to school administration. As a Pre-K-12 classroom educator, she gained hands-on experience of developing and implementing curriculum, allowing her to create and deliver effective instructional materials catered to the diverse needs of her students. Now, in her administrative capacity, Laura draws upon the extensive classroom experience to inform and influence the broader educational policies and strategies that she helps shape. 

She represented the Cambodian Association of Illinois on the steering committee led by Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago that advocated for the TEAACH Act in 2021, making Illinois the first state in the US to require the teaching of Asian American history in Illinois public schools. Laura has since been actively involved with its implementation through developing curricular resources and facilitating professional development workshops. 

Her involvement with Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago gives Laura many opportunities to support fellow educators across the country as they work to incorporate AANHPI history, experiences and contributions to their curricula. Laura intentionally strives to uplift the Cambodian community in the realm of education. She looks forward to serving the Cambodian community in Chicago and beyond through the boards of the Cambodian Association of Illinois and the National Cambodian Heritage Museum, promoting ongoing community celebrations.

Sophoan Khoeun

Born during the tail-end of the Khmer Rouge regime in Battambang Cambodia, Sophoan Khoeun and his family left their war-torn homeland in 1979, found refuge in Chicago, IL in 1984 and has been a proud member of the Cambodian-American community ever since. Mr. Khoeun received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He lived and worked for an NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2001-2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was part of the Capital Campaign that culminated in the grand-opening of the current National Cambodian Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial. After joining the private sector, he served on the advisory committee that launched the Museum’s first exhibit. He is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to an organization and a space that fosters community connections, opportunities for dialogue, growth and healing. Like other communities that have been afflicted by generational trauma, healing is the key for moving from surviving to thriving. To that end, Mr. Khoeun is passionate about art and music as a powerful tool for finding common-ground, and for the diaspora’s coping and story-telling. He co-founded KEILA (Khmers Embracing & Inspiring Life with Adventure). He, his wife and two children live in the Chicagoland area. Other than spending time with their puppy, you can find him creating art, training and racing in endurance sports, or planning for the next amazing adventure in the great outdoors.

About the Director

Rithy Panh

Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Rithy Panh was born in Cambodia and arrived in Paris after the Khmer Rouge fall in 1979. He has dedicated much of his career to investigating the campaign of genocide and memorializing its victims. His first documentary Site 2 won several international awards in 1989. His first feature film The Rice People was presented in Competition at the Festival de Cannes in 1994. He came back Out of Competition with S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine presented in 2003, and The Burnt Theatre in 2005. Other film credit include The Sea Wall (2008).

He also directed The Missing Picture which won the Un Certain Regard Prize in 2013 and was the first Cambodian film nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film. His last films Exile (2016) and Graves Without a Name (2018) explored again the lasting effects of the Cambodian genocide.

Get Here

The Alliance Franaise de Chicago is one block from the CTA Red line stop at Chicago Avenue. Best bus routes are the 22 on Clark and the 66 on Chicago Avenue.

Parking Information

The easiest: $12 for 12 hours at InterPark at 100 W Chestnut St. Ask for validation at reception.