Crossing cultures, one step at a time
Music can indeed bridge cultures, and rockumentary movies can be an eye (and ear) into those links. But what might strike you most about the forthcoming documentary "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong" is how vast the chasms often are. Director John Pirozzi's 75-minute film tracking a visit by the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever to Cambodia, the homeland of singer Ch'hom Nimol, reminds you to take nothing for granted, least of all the music that fills our everyday lives.
Dengue Fever, of course, is quite possibly the most original pop band in L.A., a sextet that fuses American surf and R&B music, Ethiopian jazz, Bollywood noodling and Cambodian pop into something distinct. The brainchild of brothers Ethan (keyboards) and Zac Holtzman (guitar), Dengue Fever -- with saxophonist David Ralicke, drummer Paul Smith and bassist Senon Williams -- found a gem in Nimol, who was living in Long Beach when she tried out for the band. Her siren vocals make you care not a whit that you don't understand a word of Khmer.
The film (which has been submitted to the South by Southwest Music & Film Festival) captures scenarios both stark and humorous -- for instance, the statuesque Williams sticks out like a skyscraper in Phnom Penh. Perhaps most telling, however, is the concert Dengue Fever gives with local music students on a stage erected in a shantytown.
"Between songs there was just dead silence," Williams told me after a private screening of "Sleepwalking" on Friday. "The people are so poor. ... This was something completely foreign to them."
And there was something else you don't see in Silver Lake, Williams said: "The security guards were armed with bullwhips."
||| Watch the video for Dengue Fever's "Sni Bong" (off 2005's "Escape From Dragon House").
Photo of Dengue Fever by Heather Cantrel
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these guys are HOT. great live show. completely refreshing sound. i'm looking forward to this film.
Posted by: wayne | January 10, 2007 at 06:29 PM
These folks are crazy and great. The editing in this doc is amazing. Awards Galore.
Posted by: Ryan Kirkpatrick | January 27, 2007 at 09:01 AM
This film is a culture shock for sure and again the editing is genius!Put down C&C Music factory and get some music culture!
Posted by: Brant Carr | January 27, 2007 at 08:56 PM
There is a documentary in the works concerning the music that inspires this band: "Don't Think I've Forgotten, Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll"
http://cambodianrock.com
Posted by: Est Nyboer | August 15, 2007 at 03:56 PM