Screenplay

My dear friend, younger brother, and son Chath pier Sath and I are writing a screenplay based largely his own 1970's escape from Cambodia during the time of the Khmer Rouge, his youth and education in the US, and especially his experiences upon his return to Cambodia in 1994.

Why write screenplays, why make films? For me, it is to tell stories that inspire people to become their higher, nobler selves.

EXT. TRIBAL FIRE - NIGHT
The young are raptly listening to the stories of the elders.

INT. DARKENED ROOM WITH A FILM PLAYING - NIGHT
A family is watching a film, the elders are explaining the mysteries to their children.

Today, the primary form by which our stories are told is in cinema.

What is the difference between a mere story, and a story with a plot? A story can be a mere recounting of events. One's life can be told as a story. A people's history can be told as a story. But plot is the way of telling it that gives it meaning, that connects cause and effect. That ties together the signs of change, of development of character.

Mark Twain asked "Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense."

An unexamined life is a story, a series of events. An examined life has meaning, one can begin to discern, or even devise, a plot.

Good cinema can make us reflect on the meaning, the lessons, the plot of our own life, by pondering what we have experienced of another's.