Role: Assistant Editor

Festivals: 2019 Mountainfilm, Environmental Film Festival at Yale, SFFILM, Green Film Network (Winner, Best Short), Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital

The small island-nation of Singapore has expanded its land area by 25 percent in the last two centuries. This is due to the process of “land reclamation,” mining sand and adding it to their shores. But where does all that sand come from?

In the quiet, coastal community of Koh Sralau, Cambodia, a woman named Phalla lives a life that is deeply intertwined with the environment around her. She gathers seafood from tidal rivers. She finds peace singing songs while walking amongst a web of mangrove roots.

However, in recent years, dozens of barges have been anchoring in nearby waters, dredging sand from the rivers. Islands that she grew up with are disappearing and so is a way of life that depends upon marine health for sustenance.

“Lost World” follows Phalla as she wrestles with the implications of seeing her home disappear and get shipped off to a country she has never been to. It is the latest documentary work of director Kalyanee Mam, whose feature-length documentary, A River Changes Course, won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Foreign Cinema.