Two Suffolk University alumni came together to direct and produce the documentary film “Mayor of Lowell,” which tells the story of Sokhary Chan Chau, the first Cambodian-American mayor elected in the United States. The film premiered at the Modern Theatre March 21.
“Mayor of Lowell” was directed by Kayla Dalton and produced by Hunter Berube, who both graduated from Suffolk in 2022. Centering art as a preservation of culture, the film follows Chau around the annual Lowell Folk Festival.
This year in particular is significant for the Cambodian community as it marks the 50 year anniversary of the Cambodian genocide, the event that caused many to seek refugee and flee to the U.S., including Chau. The Khmer Rouge was a communist movement that ruled over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for the Cambodian genocide that took the lives of at least three million people.
Chau fled Cambodia at eight years old and found refuge with many others in Lowell, a town that holds the second largest Cambodian population in the country. As an adult, Chau wanted to do something that would change the lives for refugees living in Lowell, so he ran for mayor. The mayor made it clear that the community of Cambodians in Lowell are the main story.
“This documentary is not about me, it’s about the community of us here in Lowell,” said Chau.
The premiere started with a short preview of the Cambodian exhibit in Amherst put together by Yanna Ok which will open at The State Building May 1, the first day of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Following the exhibit was a performance by traditional dancers from the organization Indra’s Artistic Creations. IAC President Kennis Yin-Mor worked closely with Berube and Dalton for the creation of the documentary.
The dance included five girls all dressed in traditional Cambodian costumes made by Yin-Mor specifically for each of the girls.
The documentary emphasised the art restoration of Cambodia. Under the Khmer Rouge art was an illegal offense punishable by death. Dancers were forced to practice in fields where nobody could see them and painters were thought to have had too much knowledge and were killed.
“Our organization is about preserving Cambodian art and building up a community…It is important to know that our art was almost completely gone,” said Yin-Mor.
The documentary discussed numerous art forms from Cambodians living in Lowell including Sid On, a tattoo artist, a dancing display at the Lowell folk festival and a painter Bernard Long, who said, “I treat art as an act of rebellion” in response to his family suffering from the Khmer Rouge even 50 years later.
After the showing of the film, dancers from IAC returned to the stage to perform another traditional Cambodian dance.
The premiere concluded with a Q&A panel including Dalton, Berube, Chau and Yin-Mor. The discussion was moderated by Lowell native and Suffolk alum, Carla Rojo.
Rojo started off by asking the mayor what his first response was to seeing this film. Chau said he was glad the film highlighted the whole Cambodian community of Lowell and not just him.
“I’m really happy to be a part of it, but it’s about Lowell and what makes it great like the diversity, culture and the people,” said Chau.
Dalton and Berube said they were inspired to create the film after learning more about Chau’s history at an event in Lowell.
“Sokhary was presenting and that’s when we found out he was the first ever Cambodian mayor… Sokhary was sitting there and I went ‘Sokhary do you want to do a documentary?’” said Berube.
Dalton said that while the initial idea for the film was to solely focus on Chau, the mayor’s connection to the arts led to the final product incorporating Cambodian artists.
“Sokhary said that the arts was a big part of him being mayor so we met with a lot of amazing Cambodian artists and we were like this is a bigger story… It really pieced itself together into this beautiful film,” said Dalton.
The documentary’s creators have raised $10,000 for translation costs, promotion of the film and to donate to the IAC and the Lowell community, with a goal of $20,000 in total.
