Dating the Performance - Contact Strip of the Film　

 

There is no record of when this dance performance took place, and neither I nor the dancers remember clearly, but at the beginning of the film are shots taken on a trip to Neak Luong.

This town had fallen victim to a “minor bombing error” on August 6th 1973, when an off-target B-52 emptied its 20-ton load straight through the market, killing at least 137 people and injuring 268. (This ‘incident’ was portrayed in the film “The Killing Fields”)

I thought I had gone to Neak Luong 2-3 weeks afterwards. That would have dated the dance performance to around the end of August or beginning of September, 1973. Unfortunately, Joe Sedlacek, who is in one of the photos, did not arrive in Cambodia until 6th June , 1974 (verified by the date of entry stamp in his passport). That indicates a lapse in my memory of about a year! It also means that the dance performance was much later than I previously estimated, probably within eight months of the Khmer Rouge takeover.