Cambodia's `AIDS and tears' on film

Documentary shown at St. Mary details nation's struggle with HIV.

By Greg Mellen, Staff writer

LONG BEACH - The room of doctors and staffers at St. Mary Medical Center was hushed as the images of despair flickered on the screen.
There was the stick-thin woman so ravaged by her disease that she couldn't remember when she contracted it.

And the factory girl, applying make-up before heading out into the Phnom Penh night to work at her second job - prostitution.

The two women from the countryside both buried husbands who left them penniless and HIV-positive.

"All I have in my life is AIDS and tears," one said.

These were among the scenes seen Wednesday by health workers from the Comprehensive AIDS Resource Education, or CARE, at a screening of a documentary on HIV/AIDS in Cambodia by an Emmy-award winning Cambodian-American producer.

Peter Chhun, a producer and editor for NBC Network News, spent three months in his homeland listening to the tales of people suffering from the deadly virus to create "Life Under Red Light."

Chhun is trying to arrange showings for the film in Long Beach, possibly at the Mark Twain Library or Cal State Long Beach.

His stark, hour-long show consists of question and answer sessions with infected and at-risk Cambodians accompanied by a haunting backdrop of tragic Cambodian songs. The film is in Khmer with English subtitles.
The subjects range from young seemingly carefree girls in the prostitution trade who are in denial about the dangers they face, to haggard women in the end stages of the disease.

"I was almost ashamed to be holding the camera," Chhun said as he introduced the film. "It can be unsettling - the scavenger effect - even knowing you are there to help."

However, Chhun didn't make the film so much to shed light on his homeland's well-documented struggles with the disease, but to provide a cautionary tale for the Cambodian-American community.

Long Beach, which has the largest Cambodian population in the United States, also has the second highest overall rate of HIV infection in the state. There is fear the disease is taking hold in the Asian community.

"I thought this would be a good way to communicate with the people in Long Beach," Chhun said. "Because the (Cambodian) community here is so reserved, I thought maybe it's not a bad idea to have their brothers and sisters tell their stories."

Cambodia, despite impressive gains in recent years, still has an alarmingly high HIV infection rate. And, as the film shows, despite a supposed 100 percent condom use program by the government, protection in the sex trade is clearly optional.

Originally, Chhun said he had hoped to do a story on HIV in the Long Beach area, but was unable to make any inroads.

"The stigma of HIV-AIDS provides an extraordinary obstacle," Chhun said.

Filming in Cambodia was the next best thing, because Chhun reasoned Cambodian-Americans might be "willing to learn from their own people rather than a health professional who seems like a stranger."

Marcia Alcouloumre, the medical director of CARE, found the film touching and unique in its perspective.

"It's eye opening to see how HIV affects another culture," Alcouloumre said.

But she also noted that regardless of the culture, the emotional devastation of AIDS is the same.

Ron Yolo, a research nurse, found it depressing to see the lack of care available in Cambodia.

Chhun is a veteran producer and editor at NBC News who broke into the business as a cameraman in 1970 during the Cambodian civil war between the U.S.-backed Lon Nol government and the Communist guerrilla Khmer Rouge.

Chhun worked in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam before leaving the country just weeks before the Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge.

When he left the country in 1975, Chhun said he believed it was only to be temporary.

"I said, `Goodbye' to my mom. I said `I'll see you in two weeks.' That was the last thing I said to her."

In 1984, Chhun's search for his mother in the Thai refugee camps became the subject of a documentary called "Endless War."

Chhun later learned his mother died in 1981. It is estimated that about 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge's bloody reign between 1975 and 1979.

Since moving to the United States, Chhun, 59, has earned a master's degree in communication from UCLA. He won Emmys for coverage of the Olympic Games in Australia and another for breaking news with "Dateline" in 1997. Chhun also produced possibly the first live television show from the Angkor Wat temple complex in 2002 with a "Where in the World is Matt Lauer" segment on the "Today" show.

However, Chhun says he is always looking to give back to his community. Chhun is the president of Hearts Without Boundaries, a nonprofit group that will be sending 20 doctors to Cambodia in October to offer health care at a children's hospital in Siem Reap. Although he lives in Burbank, Chhun is something of an honorary Long Beach resident having worked with a number of local organizations. He also helped with free HIV/AIDS screenings that were conducted in MacArthur Park earlier this year by the Cambodian Civilization Association in conjunction with the annual Cambodian New Year's Parade.

Although NBC gave Chhun use of its equipment for the project, the filmmaker said he had to use vacation time and his own money to stay abroad.

MSNBC has shown interest in airing the film, although no dates have been set. Chhun was prescreening the movie at St. Mary to get feedback from health care professionals before he makes the show available to the general public.

Greg Mellen can be reached at greg.mellen@presstelegram.com or (562) 499-1291.