Every time you are getting ready to make a shot in a documentary film, you are asking yourself questions about your cinematographic approach. You are approaching the truth, but the image is never the truth itself.
Film is subjective, and we must be careful with that. The kinds of films I love are those that observe, and I give possibility for people to talk. No need for me to tell people what to think - even when I make a film like 'S-21.' It's only one point of view. It's still a film; it's not a tribunal.
The Khmer Rouge tried to delete everything. They tried to erase our past, our personality, our land, our sentiment. What we tried to do in 'The Missing Picture' was to reconstruct our identity, to bring it back to the people through cinema.
'The Missing Picture' came together slowly, after much provocation and by refusing different forms, until I finally found the right form.
I wasn't predestined to be a filmmaker; this wasn't an obvious choice to me.
Sometimes if you can tell one personal story with a lot of sincerity, it can become a universal story.
