Every Sunday we show a children’s movie at the community center. It’s supposed to begin at five o’clock, but in Cambodia, as Cambodia is, by 5:15 there are still only ten young children loitering about. So Shani and I decide to take our bikes and ride around the village in an attempt to recruit some more viewers.
On our way, we see one of the sixth graders coming towards us. “Movie! Community center! Now!”, we command, in an attempt to get our message across. For a few seconds he looks bewildered by the attack, but then comprehension takes over, and he says “five minutes”.
As I watch him walk away, I realize he’s actually walking towards: towards a group of boys huddled together under a house. I decide to investigate – what could possibly be more fascinating than our grand screening of “Happy Feet”?
I approach them apprehensively, not sure of what I’m about to find, or whether I’m trespassing. The sixth grader spots me and says: “playing cards”, his hand signaling towards the cluster of boys. “Playing cards!” I think to myself indignantly, “That’s what outstaged our movie?!”
As I come closer I see a few familiar faces – some third graders, which here means children anywhere between the ages of ten and fifteen. I summon my most daunting angry face and say: “movie, community center, come!”. The boys scatter about- running in all directions- all of which mysteriously lead back to the community center. Yet, a few of them linger back. When I move in closer to see what’s keeping them I realize they’re collecting bills, rolling them and stuffing them into their pockets. These boys aren’t playing for fun, they’re playing for money.
I round up the last of them, and walk back to the community center. There are a few more children present now. During the next 20 minutes or so the place will become so packed that we will have to stand, each of us giving up his seat to three children. Halfway through the movie, I turn around and see that some adults have joined us, not inside where all the children are crammed, but outside – seated on their motorbikes.
Most of the viewers will not understand the movie. They will not laugh at the same jokes as us, they will not sing the same songs. They watch it as if it’s their first time, and perhaps for some of them it actually is. It’s this contradiction that strikes me most- that the same children who regularly gamble on cards can watch a movie through unparalleled innocent eyes.
On our way, we see one of the sixth graders coming towards us. “Movie! Community center! Now!”, we command, in an attempt to get our message across. For a few seconds he looks bewildered by the attack, but then comprehension takes over, and he says “five minutes”.
As I watch him walk away, I realize he’s actually walking towards: towards a group of boys huddled together under a house. I decide to investigate – what could possibly be more fascinating than our grand screening of “Happy Feet”?
I approach them apprehensively, not sure of what I’m about to find, or whether I’m trespassing. The sixth grader spots me and says: “playing cards”, his hand signaling towards the cluster of boys. “Playing cards!” I think to myself indignantly, “That’s what outstaged our movie?!”
As I come closer I see a few familiar faces – some third graders, which here means children anywhere between the ages of ten and fifteen. I summon my most daunting angry face and say: “movie, community center, come!”. The boys scatter about- running in all directions- all of which mysteriously lead back to the community center. Yet, a few of them linger back. When I move in closer to see what’s keeping them I realize they’re collecting bills, rolling them and stuffing them into their pockets. These boys aren’t playing for fun, they’re playing for money.
I round up the last of them, and walk back to the community center. There are a few more children present now. During the next 20 minutes or so the place will become so packed that we will have to stand, each of us giving up his seat to three children. Halfway through the movie, I turn around and see that some adults have joined us, not inside where all the children are crammed, but outside – seated on their motorbikes.
Most of the viewers will not understand the movie. They will not laugh at the same jokes as us, they will not sing the same songs. They watch it as if it’s their first time, and perhaps for some of them it actually is. It’s this contradiction that strikes me most- that the same children who regularly gamble on cards can watch a movie through unparalleled innocent eyes.
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