Arts Emerson film screening of Cambodian documentary “Surviving Bokator” at MCC Lowell (Apr. 20, 2019)

Arts Emerson and Middlesex Community College are pleased to present a FREE screening of the award-winning Cambodian martial-arts documentary

Surviving Bokator

on Saturday April 20, 2019 at 6 pm at Middlesex College (Lowell Campus), 240 Central Street, Lowell, MA

followed by a Q+A with the filmmakers in person.
Please join us for this special event! 

Middlesex Community College will host a FREE screening of the award-winning Cambodian martial-arts documentary “Surviving Bokator” at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 20, in the Academic Arts Center Theatre, 240 Central St., on the Lowell campus.

The screening will be preceded by a reception at 5 p.m., and followed at 7:45 p.m. by a bokator demonstration by featured martial artist Tharoth Sam, and a Q&A with the film’s producers.

Surviving Bokator is a powerful and emotional story about reclaiming cultural identity and building bridges between generations. The film chronicles the mission of elder genocide survivor Sean Kim San to resurrect bokator, a traditional Cambodian martial art, and preserve it in the nation’s youth. The film gets at the very heart of the generational fracture happening in Cambodian communities around the world today.

Watch the trailer here.

In the lead-up to bokator receiving UNESCO cultural recognition in 2020, Surviving Bokator is garnering strong appeal from audiences because of its universal message: the importance of culture to community resilience and survival. An inspiring tool to heal, inspire, educate and advocate, Surviving Bokator offers a window into the migrant struggle to preserve tradition, the challenging of traditional gender roles, and the need for intergenerational healing from the collective trauma of war and genocide.