Inside the once majestic country of cambodia, after a decade of work, history witnessed the collapse of the regime. It was then one of the worst genocides the world had ever seen. This memorial helps to ensure that the world never forgets those who died during the years of the cambodia killing fields. Yet, there is more to the story. Ofre is the untold episode tens of thousands of survivors who sought refuge inside thailand. This is my father in a refugee camp in 1980. I knew that my father was a survivor of the killing fields but i was shocked to learn that he and many thousands of others faced a more terrifying atrocity. He massacre me to tells pushed him the story and i always said to him i dont want to. We lived it. He would say just tell me one time. That is how we get here to do a documentary. James taing, that is the opening to your documentary, gh mountai mountain. James this is the story of my father and the killing feels of cambodia. It is considered the second holocaust but if you go down to the youth, it really is not in memory. It is sort of the history they are taught. That is one thing we were trying to make up for. What we really focused on is the story that nobody has billy heard about. It has been lost and undocumented, it is has really heard about. It has been lost and undocumented. Things spiraled to really epic proportions. I father among really many other refugees found himself in a story that i think it is important that i think is important and everyone should hear. You said in that opening clip, your father would not talk about his past even though your pastor many times. Why did he finally agree . Ofes it took a lot persistence on my side. The reason i wanted to do the story was i was coming of age from haskell to college. I dealt with a large challenge in my life. I always knew that my father was we would watch the killing fields movie and he would make comments like i have been through worse than that. Or when i went to finish my do anything to eat that last bit of food. I really sought resilience in him. What exactlyk him happened to you . He did not want to tell the story. I had to really try. What i did was i took some of my favorite authors like eli was l elie wiesel. He told of his time in the holocaust. He told me that he would tell me a little bit. His idea was that he thought i would give up. He would share enough for me and it would whet my appetite and i would be good. That i found his story incredible. I became sort of obsessed with it. In oneht it was a one of survival that i had never heard ever. Susan walk me through that sequence from the conversation to wanting to do a documentary. Did that conversation happened and when did you decide to document this . Nature,eing of my susan when did that conversation happen susan when did that conversation happen and when did you decide to document this . Family photos,t balls, play with toys, they had movie theaters. There are things like that that i really wanted to record. It just went on and snowballed from there. I dont want to spoil it but at some point, there was later on in the film, there was somebody who he connects with. It is someone who is part of his story in cambodia where with that moment, we all collected and said we need to document this in a film. It is important that we do this now before time is lost and this sort of history is buried forever. Susan why do you think it is important for an audience in the United States to hear the story . Me, i wanted to tell the story because it is survival. It gave me so much inspiration to persevere and have resilience. For people today, i think this is something that you can put a high mark on where everyone is going through it at once. I would like to show the indomitable will of the him in spirit. I also wanted to give tribute to a lot of the Unsung Heroes back then. The volunteers who did so much, these are people both from the private and the public. Y state Department Workers this is a part of history that i think we should embrace in our american heritage. It is about our compassion, our empathy. This falls on the backdrop of the vietnam war where nobody wants to deal with that anymore. We still have individuals who are really daring. Susan had you ever made a film before . James this was my first time. Susan how did you go about it . This is an normas undertaking without any enormous undertaking without any experience. James i am from the Financial Services industry. That as this more important piece of the story where an individual who is connected to my fathers story comes into the picture, we had an opportunity to work with a coproducer who was brought in and also very interested in this. Beginningation at the was sit down and interview them in the sunroom and see what they had to say. We could tease out what that story was. We could see where it went. That snowballed into interviewing the next person in d. C. , the next person in north carolina. It sort of took on the left of its own. First was the this the first time you had ever been to cambodia . James third time fourth time i would say. Learn she did a prior about lyme disease. I learned from her about being behind the camera, editing and and there, directing people on the floor and sending out these sites, it has been a thrill. Susan how did you finance this project . James we had our executive producer who was involved since the beginning. There have been donors, many of them who were my fathers clients. My father was somebody who connected he has his cleaning business. Painting business. He pains a lot of houses in southern connecticut. Andmeet a lot of people they only ask where he is from. He says he is from cambodia and he is able to make these really delicate and unique and special relationships with people. We were fundraising and we sent it out. They were also very generous and kind to help us. Way, youong the created a nonprofit foundation, how does that mix into the production of the film . With his one is done as a nonprofit. We really wanted this for him be educational. We did not want to do anything in terms of making big bucks. I also had this longerterm goal of creating a museum out of this. It was not just primarily this the ultimate of that would be somewhere along where along the border where this incident happened. There would be someday where i could go to a museum and show that i help tell the story physically in that location. It would honor and uphold that memory and ensure that it would not be lost. Susan you have graciously agreed to show the cspan audience the majority of your documentary. We will show it in large clips and give the back story along the way. When exactly did you make the trip to cambodia . Approximatelys 2016. Susan you have been working on this project for quite a few years now. James 2014, july. I have been working on this story since 2010, over 10 years. Susan when you travel to traveled to cambodia, how large was your entourage . James we had a crew of seven or eight people at a time. Susan when you went there, did you have very specific goals in filming . To let it build as you went along . James that is a great one. We knew where we were going, we outted out planned it precisely. We only had a limited time and budget. Areast straight for the where my father was. He had not been back in over 37 years according to the film. It is always uncertain. There inknow what is that mountain, we had no idea what we would capture. That was the sort of fun of the filmmaking that was sort of the fun of the film making process. It is your job as artist and creator to rearrange that. Susan with that background, lets let the story unroll. We will begin with the first 10 minutes of this documentary, Ghost Mountain. Lets watch. I never thought i would leave the country. Cambodia, you have a great time. You would play pingpong and soccer. I was the youngest of eight children. My family was very close. Was to have a piece of land, build my own house near a pond and raise my own animals. Kids. E lots of somethingmbodia in cambodia was good food. No one was starving before the war. Cambodia wasin good food, no one was starving before the war. It was a really modern city. Growing up in pulp pat, it was somewhat growing up in modern, it was a western life. At that time, to be returning turning from blackandwhite to color, rock n roll came in. I was exposed to the english language at a very early age. I grew up with mick jagger and the beatles. Thida that influenced the cambodian music scene. Then the war came in. Life ofreally stopped all means. In cooperation with the forts forces of south vietnam, we will be cleaning out major enemys actuaries on the cambodianvietnam border. This is not an invasion of cambodia. This began years of intensified bombing campaigns from 19701973, the u. S. Dropped bombs on cambodia then they dropped on japan during the second world war. Family went to the countryside near the thai border. American bombing caused great instability. This caused a small faction to gain power. Pat envisioned a revolution. He wanted to wipe out everything that was determined to be modern. Fell in 1975,ry the army purged of the city and committed atrocities on an unbelievable scale. Thida when we were forced out of the city, my father told me everything is going to be ok. That was the last time i remember my father. People were forced into labor camps. Bunseng they told us this is your place. You have to build your own house and you have to grow your own food to feed yourselves. When my father got sick and i was captured by the khmer rouge and tortured for 30 days. It is all mass killing. They take all of our food. No medical care. People were dying from all of that. Between 1975 and 1979, one third of cambodias population executed or tortured or starved to death. The genocide become known as the killing fields. Would become known as the killing fields. They were killing off all the people from the city and coming close to my village. They stopped. The reason was there was a cootie top. 1978, comedies the enemies nom penh. Vaded ph we had to make the escape because the chance of surviving in another communist regime was very low for all of us. I reunited with my father and my father told me we had to get out of the country because we dont know the situation of the country. We have to get out now. We made our own oxcart, our own wheels from scratch. We prepared this for a threemonth journey. As refugees began to amass on the board of talent, International Workers scrambled to help. We were disappointed there wasnt more public outcry. This was a major Human Rights Watch in. To get some trying attention on this, the thai press covered it if at all, barely. After this time, the Thai Government believed that many would penetrate their borders. They were reluctant to allow refugees across into thailand. Have a large refugee program. Mckellen thompson had been working with refugees macalle n thompson had been working with refugees in vietnam. There were these very large numbers of people coming in, illegal aliens. As many died on the way. Itby the time my father made to the border, the Thai Government agree to allow some survivors to be brought into makeshift border camps. Bunseng thousands of people poured into the border. I remember before they pointed pen, itt us in the would bring the truck to the border and help us get on the truck. This was the first time that we saw this. We were so happy. Threw ourough our hands up in the air, it is freedom. It is freedom. High, weirits were were hopeful. We were cut off from the world for four years. Bunseng we make it to the refugee camp. One of the best times i had with my family. We try to enjoy every moment at the refugee camp. Past and about the about the future. Susan were watching segment of the documentary, ghost moun tain. We are with its producer, james taing. There are 70 questions. We dont have lots of time. Let me ask you from a political standpoint, how have you and your father processed u. S. Policy during that time and its impact on cambodia . One of the portions of the story that we really have to policy the impact on war and Foreign Policy and the collateral damage. What happened in cambodia was an out spill of vietnam where nixon bombedly illegally vietnam cambodia. The country gets splintered from it and goes into a civil war revolution. Father, we canmy only speak of the mixed feelings where he did not know that the u. S. Was bombing. He only knew of pol pot and the regime. The effortsfelt that people made on these refugee camps, he knew they were from the International Committee and election errors. He has always had sort of electioners. Sort oflways had some admiration for the u. S. And what they did. I want to continue the story because it is an important story to tell. It is what are we doing overseas . What places are getting involved . How often do we do that . We have to know the stories of peoples lives that change from this. Need in the way information from the cambodian antigovernment to do your filming . Normalwe had to do our film licensing there. Every location, you had to ask the capital city like phnom penh. Or the locations of the refugee camps on the thai border, we had to work with the Border Forces there. We were goods, friends with some of the generals there. We were very fortunate with that. We were able they were able escort us in and get us they gave us footage that had never been taken in that area. Susan we surprised that they were welcoming of your telling of the story . James for some part. They themselves know some of the theirand they go through and they do morning patrols and when they find that people from the past are coming there and wanting to film, it sort of got them excited. Wow, this region can really become it can get more attention. It can get more people coming here. Where did you find all of that vintage footage that you used . Donated lot of it was by the red cross, International Red cross. Organizations had archives as well. There are some that ap give us the license for and reused. We were very fortunate. A lot of this time, people went there and there were documented journalistsere were that went there to document. When cambodia had instances there, there were many people who had cameras out. They use that and we use that to help tell the story in a dignified manner. Susan the last question before we notched watch the next segment, how did you find thida . Why did she agree to sit down in front of your camera . James she did a very important character. To had grown up in cambodia a wellknown diplomat. She was very educated and spoke english. When she came to the u. S. , she had someone write her book. I had read that book. It was mainly focused on the killing fields of him but he a, the genocide. Ofre was one chapter cambodia, the genocide. There was one chapter that goes through everything will detail my father talked about. Time when there was nothing i could find about it. I reached out to her on facebook. The world of social media. She said i have to tell the story, i am so thankful for it well. Anything i needed, she was willing to help with it. Susan lets return to the documentary and see the story unfold. There was a settlement going on. Even then, you are not sure if they would be processed, where they would go, what would become of them. For most of the people, they did not know if they would get resettled. They lived with constant anxiety over this. We also did not know. In fact, we were told that everybody would be pushed back to cambodia any day now. We were up there, constantly, trying to identify those closest to the u. S. And send them off to other camps away from the border. S inathers happy interlude the border camp were shortlived. Happy interlude in the border camp was shortlived. People arrived at the border camp and began calling him names. Calling out names. After committing the relief workers to get in just a few thousand refugees, to cut off the rescue and forced a desperate mob back into the camp. Bunseng the next day, those people were forced back to the border. After just one day, they came to us. The thai soldiers came with the bus and said we can go to a third country. They told us youre going to bangkok, a refugee camp in bangkok. There is this mixed feeling of fear and happiness, we dont know. Knew something was going on. All of these buses were carrying refugees away from the camps. He did not know where. Killed,that we would be we ran to the corner and cried and begged him not to send us. Said we wouldus not get on the bus matter what. They said that they would kill us. We grabbed the little babies and the children and threw them on. He bus get on the bus and they kicked us, they beat us up. We had no choice but to get on the bus. I saw some people, they put their hand up here. They are trying and trying to help us but there is no way to get to them. We were terrified inside the bus. We did not know where they were taking us. The bus drove us 14 hours that night. Until early in the morning. What happened was they had several tens of thousands of refugees scattered in various camps. Theyhai government said would push these people back to cambodia. They were tired of them, whatever. They gathered together 42,000 of them and took them to this temple on top of a mountain on the border. Then they pushed them down the cliff. Did you ever learn whether or not the Thai Military have to the loan or under orders from the government . After from what i heard the thaiviews is that kingship was very embarrassed. Werein the Thai Government somewhat remorseful about what happened until it seemed like this was an act that was done within the Thai Military. Maybe in the top echelon. That is more likely where it came from but it was not a good thing. It was not a good look for the kingship itself. This of see that remorse where refugees that have survived or gone there were excepted back in afterwards. This is a moment for you to talk about the International Aid workers and the role they play in situations. What did you come away from this project thinking about the jobs that these people do . Underappreciated. Interviews, se with theimpressed character of these people. Each one of them, they were risking their careers. If you go out to a town in cambodia, these individuals, many times, their lives were at peril. Itas a region that was had lots of different disasters happening. You can really sense that these people committed themselves to a higher cause. I think it is something that really impresses me day today as well. Cans because of them that i really sit here and speak with them as well. Now we can live to the in the United States. That was one of the big reasons for doing this. They believed the refugee