For proof of the universality of rock ’n’ roll, look no further than Cambodia in the 1960s and ’70s. Even there, young people picked up electric guitars and studied Mick Jagger’s moves, melding Eastern melodies with Western grooves in ways that are still strikingly fresh.

Yet in one of the 20th century’s most extreme examples of the effects of politics on popular culture, Cambodia’s pop scene — along with virtually every other manifestation of modern society there — was brutally stamped out with the 1975 arrival of the Khmer Rouge, whose nearly four-year reign led to the deaths of 1.7 million people.

Since then, pre-Khmer Rouge pop has survived in fragments, but the history behind it has remained frustratingly incomplete. Now, after a decade of research by an American filmmaker, John Pirozzi, that history has been told thoroughly in “Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll” (2014, 105 min).

Free Entrance.
English subs.